Ds unwell again

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Ds has been having some breathing difficulties recently, which has resulted in 5 hospital admissions since September. Each time he needs steroids, nebulisers, and IV therapy to open his airways. It is so traumatic for him. He is autistic and really struggles with the masks, taking medicine, being out of his routine, and away from home.

He is now under consultant care and being reviewed regularly. His medication has been increased, and new ones have been added in the hope of keeping him out of the hospital. He now has a cold, which is affecting his breathing. The gp has prescribed an oral steroid for him today, which seems to be helping. He is settled and sleeping for now, and I will be watching him all night. I have a bag packed in case we need to go to the hospital.

It's so draining, and I feel useless. I just wish we were at the point where it was under control, and he didn't need to go through this so often. He's only 3.

Don't know what I hope to gain from writing this. Could I ask how long it took to control your DC asthma?

My daughter has asthma. The only thing that's really helped it, is time. As she's gotten older, she's started to grow out of it. (6) she can still get quite sick but nowhere near as bad when she was little. My sympathies OP. It's horrible when your child is unwell.

DS grew out of it by around 7/8. Up until that point every cold he caught was a nightmare worrying about his breathing even with inhalers and steroids, but hospital visits did ease off. He seemed to have a permanent cough in the winter for years.

Hi sorry to hear your DS is unwell again. I hope the steroids keep him out of hospital.

Just a kind of unrelated question, at what age did your DS get diagnosed with autism and who diagnosed it?

Have a situation with my DC but a diagnosis seems to be a lengthy process

Is he on a preventer inhaler?

I recently took a training course and we had to come up with a personal goal. I put "how can I help DS with his health" he has an array of issues all causing distress. The idea is you write 20 things that might help and it's not necessarily the first things you come up with. My answers 1-19 were all things I had done, impractical or rather lame. The last one, "just love him" made me feel like I had had an epiphany. Sometimes there is nothing you can do over the everything you are doing. So that's my possibly pointless advice. Just love him. Have hope, have faith and don't give in to the despair. You are doing an incredible thing in just loving him.

That's so lovely

It sounds promising that they can grow out of it with age. My big worry is though that H's side of the family all have breathing difficulties. COPD, bronchitis etc.

@user432900976 He is nearly 4. I raised my concers with the health visitor about autism before he was 2. She referred us straight away. He has only just recently been diagnosed. There wasn't really any question (in my mond) whether he would be diagnosed though. He didn't walk until after his second birthday, very sensory, no eye contact, non verbal etc.

He has been on a preventer inhaler since his second admission. 400mg of Clenil Modulite daily, since November. They didn't want to start montelukast because of the possible side effects and the fact he is autistic. But we may not have a choice.
@SummerHouse thank you for that.

He has remained well overnight and out of hospital, thankfully.

Thanks for replying OP.

My dc has the same things that you describe. I'm autistic myself. But the referral took ages and the neurologist said she wasn't able to diagnose autism and referred us for occupational therapy. 🙄 She also said she doubts she has autism as she's able to socialise. All this despite most of her behaviour diagnosed as that of an 18 month old (developmental delay)

Sorry to detail it slightly.

I'm so happy he's remained stable. Hopefully that remains and his routine can stay the same.