Exercise Induced Asthma

[TinyAphrodite]

Took my 12 year old to GP as he is having pain and tightness in his throat when doing cross country running.
No other symptoms any other time, only when he runs for prolonged time.

He did a test and he got a score of 8 which GP said was fine and shows no inflammation.

He prescribed two inhalers, one to be taken every day and the other before exercise. GP said steroid can stunt growth, my son is smallest in class/year and hates it so now refusing to take the daily steroid inhaler.

GP said not allowed to take just the one inhaler, new ruling. Unsure what to do for best. I have private cover so could seek second opinion but just wondering if anyone else has any experience they could share.

You need to get them to take the meds. Ffs.

as someone who has been on inhaled steroids since the age of 3 and a half - I looked into this at one point.

I believe the research shows that long term high dose inhaled steroids might stunt growth, especially when used in children under the age of 2. The average difference in actual height vs. Expected adult height was something like 3 centimetres by the time an individual had stopped growing. So based on the research there is a chance that with long term use, your DS might end up less than an inch shorter than he would otherwise be.

But, that would need to be weighed up against the fact that uncontrolled asthma also stunts growth.

And, having asthma attacks is really dangerous business. When I was a teenager and being stupid about not taking my medication properly, my no-nonsense old school asthma nurse told me that it was fine to not properly look after my asthma if I didn’t mind getting seriously ill or even not living through an attack. That sharpened my mind rather.

My neighbours daughter died of an asthma attack last November, she was 15. It really isn't something I would ignore a Drs advice on.

I'm a bit puzzled by the doctor's advice. If your DS only gets asthma when he does cross country, would it not be better for him simply to use ventolin beforehand? I do that before exercising in the summer as my asthma is triggered by pollen and in summer I exercise outside. But I never use the brown steroid inhaler. It's also worth checking whether he has hayfever-triggered asthma as it could be the pollen on the cross-country route that causes it.

Check out induced oesophageal obstruction. I was misdiagnosed as asthmatic at 14. 30 years later I finally got rediagnosed with this after saying every year that I wasn't wheezy. I now picture my throat as an open tube as I run/cycle and the obstruction is totally under control. I can run 5k.

I believe the NICE recommendations for treatment are based on how occasional the symptoms are. You could ask the GP what the threshold for just prescribing the reliever would be - it might be that your DS only needs the preventative inhaler during the cross country season, for example.

Have you got a review booked in with the GP / asthma nurse?