affects of being on prednisolene long term

[JackJacksmummy]

Hi all

4 weeks ago my 6 year old was admitted to high dependency for 2 weeks due to severe asthma attacks. Of whch he had NEVER suffered with before so it was a nasty shock.

It was so bad we nearly lost him - i could write the story but last time i tried it took 2 hours to get it all down and then i forgot bits anyway.

So, the long and short of it is we was let out 2 weeks ago with him on an 8 week course of prednisolene, 2 puffs of becotide twice a day and up to 10 puffs of ventolin 4 hourly (but we are reducing this now his peakflow is back up to what they recommend for his age and height - worst PFR was 50 and he should be at 250)

So anyway, From what i understand, his body will have stopped making his own natural steroid and his immune system will be very low so is susceptible to other stuff too but I dont really know what other side affects to expect.

He says he has a headache, his legs are sore and he is a lot more "emotional" than he usually is.

We have an appointment with the respiratory specialist on Tuesday and then a consultant appointment in 4 weeks time.

I just want to try and gather enough information before heading into a meeting with his headteacher before he goes back to school next week.

Increased appetite is something you may notice.
You could have a look here for a list of common side effects.

How much prednisiolone is he taking? The dose will influence the effect on your DS's immune system.

Irritability is another side effect.

DS1 was on a mega intensive Prednisolone treatment plan for 18 months altogether (from the age of 6 months). He was on 15mg for 6 months of that, reducing to 10mg for a further 8 months and then weaned off for the remaining 4 months. He was taking it for a serious birthmark growth - the obvious side effects for us were - increased appetite, bloating (enlarged face particularly), irritability, sleeplessness and ulceration of his stomach. A totally different regimen, reason and age compared to your son I know, but many of those side effects were obvious within the first week. He does have some long-term growth side effects as a result too, but the most obvious were the irritability and sleeplessness in our (baby) DS1.

hiya

His dosage was 8 tabs (40mg) a day for 10 day, 7 the next week, currently on 6 for a week and then dropping down by 1 tab every week til they have gone.

We have noticed joint pains, irritability, very emotional....and just today have noticed his face look a bit chubbier but not "fat" He can also be very hyper during the day and not sleep til about 11 at night!

Steroids are definitely not nice things and the list of side effects is very long and quite horrific. Fortunately most children are on relatively short treatment schedules, and on a tapering dose, as the artificial steroids are detected by the body as its own and suppresses its own production of steroids, hence never ever stop abruptly as having no steroids circulating in your body can be catastrophic.
Having said that they are very powerful and fabulous used carefully.

How scary for you, I can understand how you feel, as this happened to DS2 who is now 4 once in August last year and again in January. Althought he was in for three nights, which was the worst as his oxygen levels were so low, despite constant masks of oxygen and brown inhaler; it was petrifying.

No previous hystory of anything, he just had cold symptoms with a clear ruuny nose and 7 hours later we were in a&e because he could hardly breath. On our second visit to a&e and then the childrens ward we saw an peadeatric respitory specialist, who put us on a nightly tablet called Singulair. This was in Jan and fingers crosssed so far so good. He's has two colds with no breathing issues and we are seeing the consultant again in August as when we saw him in Feb he'd had no colds and he wanted him to have had at least a handful of colds to see how new medication is working. He is going to be monitored for at least a year.

The side effects have been non existant, worst ones could have been nighmares and agressive behavior, but no nightmares and DS is fairly robust anyway! So the positives outweighed the negatives, especially after seeing him hardly able to breath for hours on end.

I am not sure if this treatment is appropriate for you son, but have a look at it and mention it at your next appt.

Good luck and I want to say well done on getting through what must have been scary as hell.

Ask me any questions you want.

Details here

www.singulair.com/montelukast_sodium/consumer/asthma/asthma-medication/index.jsp

Also we were on prednisolone for 2 weeks after his first episode