Does my 5 year old need to see a Dr ASAP?

[Dabrat21]

Hi all,

I need some advice please on what I should do with my DD. Who has ‘difficulty’ breathing ‘episodes’.

my DD is 5. She had been in nursery since she was about 17 months old. Since starting nursery she had cough after cough, illness after illness. She has had really bad chest infections and also had bronchitis when she was about 3, which she had an X-ray for but did not have to be admitted to hospital. I was very worried at the time.

our GP then suggested she have an inhaler - a blue one, and if her coughs got really bad to try a few pumps to see if this helped. We use the blue inhaler for about 10 months but honestly I didn’t feel it made a difference. When she would have coughs sometimes it would be with a temperature, sometimes it wouldn’t. Coughing was worse at night and she would vomit from coughing so much.

since starting school, her coughs have got so much better. The first year she only had about 6-8 coughs/infections. Compared to previously a cough every few weeks. Then towards the end of term, she started doing this thing where she takes a deep breath, and look like she’s catching her breathe, but not necessarily after exercise. This could happen when she was just sitting down watching tv. I filmed her doing this and showed the dr, who prescribed a brown inhaler to be taken once in the morning and once at night ongoing. At this time my DD was 4 and the Dr said that she was too young for an asthma test to confirm. I read up about asthma (as no one in my family has it) and I decided to cut out nuts, she would often eat these whole as a snack. Since cutting them out, the breathing ‘episodes’ stopped. So we cut out using the brown inhaler and I had hoped she had grown out of it.

However this past week, the last three days she has complained to her teacher that she is finding it difficult to breathe but doesn’t look like she is struggling, no signs of wheezing or going red etc. but the teacher has of course given her the blue inhaler. I’ve contacted the doctor for an appointment but could only get one on the 20th March.

tonight the same thing has happened. Whilst she was going up for her bath, she wasn’t running or anything like that. She said her chest hurts and feels like ‘someone is stabbing her heart’ and that it feels tight. I gave her the inhaler and I believe it helped but only after administering it twice.

she hasn’t had any nuts and there’s nothing I can think that might have caused this to flare up.

she is otherwise well but has a dairy intolerance. Her chest bone does ‘indent’ a bit, I would say a little more than ‘normal’ but many doctors have seen this and never said it look abnormal.

what I’m asking here, is if I should get her to a doctor/a&e or a walk in centre over the weekend? I’m worried it’s getting worse and could lead to a full on asthma attack.

Does anyone have children with asthma? Does this sound like that? Any advice would be great appreciated.

thanks

Ignore me I have now read all your posts.
Hope it settles.

what is the pollen count like near you? My asthma is triggered by pollen really quickly

This! I don't even have an in-date blue inhaler but I use my preventer morning and night. Advice now is that if your asthma is well managed you won't ever need your reliever.

I have 2 with asthma (3 but one grew out) and this does sound like it. Personally I'd ask for an appointment at urgent care...I've done it in the past and they used a nebuliser to stabilise their breathing. Every child may react differently (mine were treated with different medications).
A paediatrician once told me that if they grow out it tends to be at 7,14, or 21 don't know if it was statistical fact or something odd he noticed (so don't quote me 👍)

All the Best

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With the time of year it could be hayfever triggering her asthma.

I could have written this word for word, only difference my DC had pneumonia at the end of 2023 and never had bronchiolitis.
For the past month they have been taking this large intake of breath - at rest. Around 2 times a minute.

The Dr said it was psychosomatic- basically behavioural!

They will say things like 'my breathing is all funny'

Another asthma sufferer here, and parent to an asthmatic child.

It does come in waves and has triggers like someone said upthread. I’m also guilty of being a bit lax over taking my preventer, being absolutely fine for months and then I get a cold and I’m hit really badly. Experience has taught me though that it’s best to take it daily.

Definitely get a GP/asthma nurse appointment for your DD next week. As for whether she needs immediate medical care - trust yourself on that. I would absolutely give the blue inhaler again and keep giving it regularly and if no improvement get her seen. The brown one won’t help immediately now, but it will help the overall recovery.

Montelucast tablets seem to have helped my DS. I don’t think he’s had any serious asthma episodes this past year since he started them, although that could be coincidental. And we also have had various trials of different preventers and doses increased and decreased. Identifying triggers does help, but you need the preventer about 2 weeks earlier, so it’s not a perfect system. Although our doc recommended taking a higher preventer dose over winter and spring due to nursery bugs and pollen!

Hi, medic here...could be asthma...sounds like you need to see your GP and possibly get her referred for testing. I absolutely wouldn't cut out nuts...if she was tolerating them fine before its very unlikely she is allergic, and a nut allergy wouldn't cause breathing problems unless full blown anaphylaxis. Plus you have said these episodes are still occurring despite avoiding nuts.
A period of avoiding nuts when not allergic is more likely to make her allergic to them in the future (its called sensitisation).

I hope you’re right & definitely wondered the same thing.

How do you know she has asthma?

That's a load of rubbish. We've regularly trialed our DC off brown inhalers, advised to with eldest and with our younger 2 just updated asthma nurses at their annual checks as to what dose we settled on or if theyd been ok off it. One now no longer takes it and the other 2 are on lower doses from trialling reductions.

Trialling them off the brown inhaler when there's been no issues is common practice to avoid them unnecessarily taking it, if they then require the blue inhaler more then the brown one is restarted. It's absolutely not a social services issue trialling a child off a low dose preventative inhaler which they were on. Very doubtful of your claim to be a doctor after that comment 😂

Op when you get through this bit you may find it helpful to call the Asthma+Lung UK helpline - they have respiratory nurses who can help through this. Bw.

I have both the preventative inhaler ( brown in your DD case-l ), & the blue ( emergency) inhaler.
I rarely get an asthma attack/ episode but that’s because I take my preventative inhaler twice, every day without fail. If I don’t I get the same stabbing pains that your DD described and find I can’t take a full breath without sucking the air in to my lungs .
It sounds like she needs to start using her brown inhaler regularly but I think you need your GP or asthma nurse to check her out asap .

My Granny always said it goes in seven year cycles, it's been true of mine through life!

Yes she does. Trust your gut. Doctors are awful switch asthma well that's my experience anyway. I had to fight like mad to get my dc asthma under control and even a diagnosis. Even worse with myself. Dc was hospitalised 4 times before they would truly do somethings out it. If I get a cold it turns into a serious chest infectio snd then pneumonia that's cos iv gone so long without help and now I have copd. Not trying to scare you but doctors wouldn't give me or my dc the right support until we we were seriously unwell

The "brown inhaler" you are all referring to . Is that Flixotide or Seretide? ( not in UK. There are other preventers like Breo. Definitely get in to a specialist and get a proper assessment. I don't want to scare you OP but asthma has to be well managed. Recently my 56yo friend died of an asthma attack. Even had a nebuliser in her car. Pulled into a shop to get power for it but was dead before they could put it on her. That's hugely unlikely so don't panic, but she never got hers properly sorted , just lived on ventolin and was not truthful with her GP so didn't have all the tests. Get an asthma management plan ( presuming it is asthma) and follow it to the letter, always have Ventolin with you or at school office if she is there. I don't go anywhere without mine.

Agree with this. DC have suspected asthma a but the support we’ve had from doctors and GPs over the years was basically non existent until we finally saw one paediatrician in A&E who confirmed DS needs to be under their care. Until then we had nothing and it was all very much blue inhaler when they have an episode and here’s a brown inhaler too. Despite repeated trips to A&E every time he had a bad episode (one during which the doctor was clearly annoyed I saw a consultant privately completely ignoring that I had to do that because I had no clue what was going on), they just left us to get on with it and we had no idea what the right approach was.

In my child’s case, their brown inhaler was neither of those. It was a Clenil one, the active ingredient of which is beclometasone. That’s a fairly standard first step preventer inhaler for children to my knowledge.

As an aside blue reliever inhalers/ventolin should never be in a school office, they should be wherever the child is - classroom, sports hall or wherever. The office might be unmanned or locked or several minutes away from where the child is and they don’t necessarily have time to wait for keys to be found or someone to run the length of the site to get it. Ditto epi pens.

I suppose that @MammTorr could be a doctor. They come in all shapes and forms. I’m glad my GP is kind and empathetic and doesn’t patronise me, threaten me or rebuke me when I’m feeling frightened.

Thank you to all for the advice.

Just to update. I took my DD to A&E and her stats were all fine. Oxygen was 99% we then waited and had a chest assessment which was completely clear. She is totally fine now and was just so tired from sitting in a&E for 5 hours. I am going to phone my GP first thing and bring forward my appointment, insist on seeing a specialist asthma nurse and will make sure we have a set plan in place.

what I left out of my original post as I was in a hurry and terrified, was that my DD has already seen a Paediatrician after my constant pushing for answers and being so worried. We saw an asthma ‘specialist’ who categorically told me my daughter does not have asthma. We were given the brown inhaler as I was so pushy and the doctor said for me to use it ‘if I want’ and the blue one ‘as and when’. I was never given any plan or guidelines to follow as such. I have just always kept a close eye on her and got her medical attention when I thought she needed it. She used the brown inhaler for a matter of days/ maybe 10 days then we just continued to use the blue one when we needed it which was hardly ever over the last year.

all he inhalers are up to date - I ensure we have them and she has some at school and her after school clubs too.

I told the doctors at the hospital her history and I was not referred to social services or the like.

The ‘doctor’ on put this advice’ should think twice about putting parents off seeking medical attention. I don’t think I’ll be posting on mumsnet again for advice as I was so mentally scared and fragile I fear comments like this will send me over the edge. Thank god my DD is fine and she is my priority.

Does she have anxiety?

Pleased to hear all is well OP.

Try not to let the nasty posts on here get to you. I had a similar experience a couple years ago where I wasn’t sure whether to take my child to A&E. Most of my thread was about how I’m a terrible mother and will be reported to social services. As it happened, all that followed was a courtesy phone call from the health visitor and that was it. Posters don’t appreciate that there is a worried parent behind the screen and enjoy joining the pile on to kick you when you’re down, so don’t take it personally.

@Dabrat21 did they give any indication of what it could be?
I'm mindful that the responses of this thread have made me feel like I should have done something differently when I took my DC to the Dr for the same thing!

No anxiety - not that I believe. She has not been through any trauma and lives in a stable loving home. But I will mention to my GP.