Humidifier or dehumidifier for Asthmatic child?!

[PumpkinSoup21]

DS is nearly 6 and has had diagnosed asthma for a year but ‘viral wheeze’ (which was actually asthma) on and off all his life. This winter has been brutal. He has a little brother now and the bugs coming through the house have been non stop. Every one seems to go to DS’s chest and it feels like he’s had a cough for months. He’s not getting good sleep and sometimes we have to keep him off school because he’s so exhausted. Sometimes he coughs until he vomits.

He has brown and blue inhalers which we use religiously. We took him to the GP for an asthma review and she said she thought it was well controlled with the inhalers he has and that it was just a bad run of viruses.

So I have to come up with some other things to try to improve matters. We do have some areas of damp in the house and have workmen in sorting those out right now. DS’s room does get a little cold so we are going to find ways to warm it up and suck up the higher heating bill somehow.

I would not say his room is damp at all. Would we be better advised to try a humidifier or a dehumidifier as I’ve seen recommendations for both for asthma? I’m leaning towards a humidifier as I don’t think there’s any damp issue in his room. Does anyone have any recommendations?

He sleeps propped up and we’re going to try cutting back on dairy as I’ve read that might help.

Thank you!

What about an air purifier, this will clear the air of bacteria, mould spores etc? Apart from that, I think a dehumidifier is useful because it makes it less likely for mould spores to grow. I have asthma and no visible damp in the house but the dehumidifier still helped.

Get an air purifier, not a dehumidifier or humidifier.

What kinds of works are you getting done? Plaster and paint are nightmares for most asthmatics. Second the air purifier. Also, do you have an asthma nurse at your practice, often they are much better than gps. Asthma UK are amazing if you have any concerns.

Does his wheezing and coughing improve or worsen if he goes somewhere warm and steamy, like a bathroom or swimming pool? This might indicate if extra humidity might help.
I would get advice from the asthma nurse though as these things are very individual - for example, warm rooms exacerbate my asthma and I do much better in cold air, which is the opposite of normal advice for asthma.

I've tried EVERYTHING to help my little one's viral wheezes and find a humidifier AND a heater in their room works best.

From exprrience with damo houses triggering ssthma, i would say f the rest of the house has damp issues then assume his room is more humid than it appears and would go dehumidifier on that basis. He can have hot showers and steam bowls to get some humidity into his lungs in a way you know doesn't contain mold spores. Also if he's still coughing loads overnight that doesn't sound like we'll controlled asthma - are you able to monitor with peak flow? Can hw see an asthma nurse or just the gp?

Sorry that was full of typing errors, hopefully it makes sense!

Thank you for the quick responses. Cold is definitely a trigger for him as he is worse when we are outside on cold days.

I hadn’t thought about an air purifier as I thought they only worked in really small areas unless you have a very expensive or industrial grade one. So I didn’t think it would do much unless it was in bed right next to him. Maybe they are better than that?

I haven’t noticed much effect from humidity either way but he hates a bath (just because he generally likes to stay mucky!) so he doesn’t spend much time in there. I’ll see if I can work out if a steamy bathroom is actually helping or not.

We’ve kept the work pretty contained as it’s two rooms that we’ve moved all the stuff out of and that are shut off to the kids now. Only one room is really bad. It is a rear extension room put on before we moved in and it needs a new roof. We’re working on getting to that point.

I’ll investigate asthma nurse and asthma uk. We have a peak flow monitor and we’ll start doing that again to see where things are at.

If you're not aware of it being either particularly damp or particularly dry in the room, get a hygrometer to work out what the humidity level actually is before getting either a humidifier or a dehumidifier.

The humidity in his room will change depending on the weather outside/ heating/ moisture producing activities within the home anyway. If the humidity level is a problem for him you may be able to observe a link with his symptoms and see whether he does better on damper/dryer days. I have a cheap digital one (bought from Amazon years ago) which also shows the temperature and max/min temperatures since it was last reset which I also find useful for checking how cold it gets in my bedroom overnight, in case that also may be worsening his symptoms.

Has he had any allergy testing? Whilst there is both allergic and non-allergic asthma, it's worth trying to get allergy testing to make sure there's nothing he's allergic to which is exacerbating his symptoms.

Those fleece neck warmer snood things are pretty good if he finds cold weather out of the house to be a trigger. They tend to sit up proud enough to warm up the air before they breathe it in. This type:

Childrens Kids Boys Girls Warm Winter Reversible Soft Fleece Snood Neckwarmer Scarf amzn.eu/d/9unJY1x

Thank you. He has had some allergy testing and had an egg allergy that he’s slowly growing out of (can eat everything now except very lightly cooked or raw egg). He also has a very slight reaction to peanuts but nothing significant and his allergy doc actually thinks it was a false result.

I’m so desperate for him to feel better.

Do you already have anti allergy bedding and mattress cover? It annoys me that the NHS don't test for allergies any more but I think dust mite allergies are common. I wouldn't go with a humidifier because if you get mould then that will be worse for his asthma. A small heater might be good if his room gets cold. Plus ventilate it well in the daytime.