Those of you whose dcs have asthma how did you first notice? And how old?

[whelk]

This is probably a silly question. DD1 as bad eczema and an egg allergy among others and is therefore a likely candidate for asthma. She is permanently snuffly and has frequent coughs. What should I look out for in terms of possible asthma?

DD had this wheezy cough that was really really scary, so took her to A & E. This was after being prescribed antibiotics by GP, and I thought pneumonia

The A & E Consultant diagnosed asthma, but only when ill (asymptomatic, I think). She's improved drastically since being on inhalers.

Has never had any other allergies (knocks on wood)

Dd2 got a bad cold when she was 6. She woke up in the night complaining that she couldn't breathe properly. I took her into bed with me, rubbed vicks on her chest and told her to stop moaning - it was just a cold. She was awake for a long time.

Turned out she couldn;t really breathe properly as we had to go to the doctor's next day an d asthma was diagnosed.

Yes, I felt awful.

dd2 had bad skin/eczema from birth/5 weeks.

DS had eczema from birth (which has now resolved), he then was hospitalized at 7 months with bronchiolitis. Up until the age of 3 he had 2 other hospital admissions due to respiratory problems. It was after the last admission that he was eventually diagnosed with asthma and started on regular inhalers.
he's now 7 and very well controlled. He does get very wheezy after a virus and during extreme weather changes but is otherwise doing well.

both diagnosed in hospital before the age of 2

(I put the age in not as a boast but to explain why they were in hospital IYSWIM)

I noticed when DD was 5. Her teacher called me into the classroom, and told me that DD had seemed unusually short of breath during a PE lesson, and hadn't wanted to join in. I assumed she just had a cold, but a week later, it was no better, and I noticed her coughing in the night, and saw that the physical action of having to hold her breath while she took a drink of milk was making her wheezy/breathless. I took her to GP, who was concerned after she had a coughing fit in the surgery, and have her a nebulizer.

DD1 was diagnosed at 19 months old. She was in hospital after recurring chest infections, wheezy chest needing nebulizer. She is 3 now and has been on a preventer inhaler since diagosis. Was well controlled until this summer when she had 2 attacks in a few weeks.

She has eczema and egg allergy and we are awaiting results of further allergy tests.

When DD was rushed to hospital in the middle of the night completely unable to breath and needing emergency treatment at the age of two we took that as a pretty clear symptom

She had excema before but the near death experience was our first episode .

We now know what to look for with her so rarely end up in hospital now

I didn't, he said he felt poorly so i made an appointment at the docs for after school.

Off we trotted and the doc did a few checks then phoned the hospital who told us to take him up, they wanted to send an ambulance but the doc was happy not to as he'd been at school all day.

Got to the hospital and he was kept in for 3 days, hey presto my son has asthma and mum feels very very guilty.