Asthma Preventative Brown Inhaler - Any Known Links to IBS in DCs ??

[rockinhippy]

bBit of background?
D
D has been on these (now Beclometasone Dipopionate) since she had Pneumonia at 5 & since going through an awful time in hospital with really harsh Anti Bs etc etc, she has also had ongoing stomach problems - eventually diagnosed as IBS

During her stay in hospital diahorrea (sp) was out of control & we put it down to the fact the medicines contained a lot of additives that we know she is intolerant to -

we've learnt over the years to manage it with diet etc, but it can still flare up & cause her a lot of problems during any stress etc etc - so it is IBS as such & during the course of a normal week she will always have some problems, but mostly copes as its become normal for her IYSWIM.

Her Asthma isn't bad, not the life threatening sort & we were told she may grow out of it with luck - couple of other chest infections over the years have knocked that back a bit :( but with the brown inhaler its well controlled & I can't remember the last time she need to use the blue one

Anyway - we were away on holiday - hot dry desert climate - & she wanted to not use her inhaler - she hates it :( - I know its a better climate for her, so thought, okay lets see how it goes & keep an eye on her - she was fine - her IBS was fine too

Coming home as far as I knew shes been using her brown inhaler - I've been ill & struggling, so trusted she was being sensible & leaving it to DH to deal with too -

On my puzzling as to what has changed, as no IBS at all for weeks now - even when she accidentally drank the wrong milk - which would have been guaranteed runs & stomach cramps - she was fine - she's just owned up to not taking any since our holiday

Has anyone come across any links with IBS & these inhalers before ??

TIA

Sorry, re read that & it's not that clear

DD not using her inhaler & there suddenly being a vast improvement in her ongoing & very regular IBS problems, has left us wondering if her problems are actually related to the inhaler

Has anyone come across this before ??

TIA

Anyone ? :(

You said she is intolerant to additives maybe there is an additive in the inhaler she can't tolerate? Hope someone else can offer more help!

Ellie thank you :)

I feel pretty dumb now, because for all the years we've been dealing with her intolerances, & lots of problems with other medicines, that hadn't occurred to me because its a pump

I can't see it with it being inhaled very little would get into the digestive system.

I've never come across a link - it seems kind of unlikely as there are very few excipients in the inhalers and they are generally very low dose as they go straight to the lungs rather than having to be absorbed in the gut etc. like other forms of medication.

i take the same inhaler (Qvar?) myself and have taken some kind of preventative corticosteroid since i was 7.

was your diet any different while you were away? was there any expectation that she would grow out of the stomach problems too?

i have no real idea, your thread just caught my eye! will have to Google what's in my inhaler now to see if I'm talking rubbish..

None of the obvious ones I recognise, but just looked up the "other ingredients" & this is what I've found

Glycerol ?

Rectally, glycerol is used as a laxative.

How does it work?
Glycerol attracts water into the gut, softening stools and relieving constipation.

nothing relevant on the other 2 ingredients

& Sirzy I would have thought that too, once upon a time, but DD is ridiculously sensitive to some additives, even washing hands with the wrong soap can cause flare ups of the skin reacting one - but behind her knee, groin, anywhere but on her actual hands wheres she's touched the tiny amount of chemical & theres been times when we've wondered if the sodium benzoate in a shampoo had caused both diarreah & skin flare up, but we couldn't be sure

So as much as I can't know, its certainly food for thought

Think I need a trip back to the GP,

Also she's a cold coming so I had her use the inhaler again on getting up this morning, as I always get nervous of her chest & she was complaining of stomach pain, nothing bad, but she was grumbling - which is the first time since before our holiday

have checked, the only other substances are the propellant norfluorane and ethanol, which i would guess the drug is dissolved in. as only micrograms of the drug are delivered, the amount of the excipient would be pretty small too.

x post, must be a different brand of inhaler with glycerine, although again it would be a tiny amount as most is delivered direct to the lungs.

Thanks Jaggy

her stomach diagnosis is IBS - which she won't grow out of - she'll still have it if she eats much of the things we know to be her triggers, but we do too often tear our hair out not knowing what has set it off, seen Gastro too many times & no further answers & Nutritionalist tells me I was doing all the right things anyway & agreed with all her triggers - so its become something she just has to get on with & she is a little star the way she copes.

Holiday diet wasn't brilliant, but not massively far from what we normally eat & drink, DD is very much a healthy eater & not at all fussy, probably ate more junk than normal due to lack of choice, but not massively so & its been back to her normal health diet since then - the only difference has been the inhalor, which as odd as it seems for such a tiny amount, is now looking like a possible culprit

@ Jaggy

sorry X - post

you say yours has no glycerol in it??, do you mind me asking what brand etc your is - DDs is labelled Clenil Modulite 50

TIA

mine is qvar 50 and i just Googled your dd's, it is the same as mine but with glycerol too.

oh I'm mning on my phone with a permanently attached 5 week old this morning so i can't go and look at the patient leaflet which would have been easier!

LOL - I remember THOSE days well :)

& thanks, great to know theres an alternative without the possible stomach irritant - she's fine without the inhaler, but after nearly losing her to pneumonia, I get VERY nervous with any chest infections & I'm like a hawk with chesty coughs

Oh My Goodness! Never considered this before, but 6 yo DS has IBS (undiagnosed) and only has it in the months he needs to use his Clenil...

i certainly wouldn't be immediately convinced to blame the minuscule amount of glycerol. as a laxative preparation it will be used in amounts of >1g, whereas each puff of inhaler will contain barely a few mg of which most will go directly to the lungs.

could very easily just be a coincidence!

You say she hates taking her brown inhaler. Could it be the stress she feels of having to take it that causes the IBS to flare up?

Very interesting Dog - I'd never considered it before either & mine is 9 & has been dealing with this since she was 5 :( - is your DS sensitive to other things such as food additives ??

Like many of you say, because its an inhaler, goes to the lungs & such tiny amounts, you just don't think it possible

BUT as DD has now had the first bout of Diarreah & stomach cramps last night, thats the first since before our holiday 6 weeks or so a go - & she's using the inhaler again, I'm more & more convinced this IS the culprit

Not sure whos best to see about it, Ashma nurse, GP, or her gastro specialist, but I'm going to follow it up with her medics

thanks again for your input & DOG I hope this does turn out to be the answer to your DSs problems too & a change of inhaler will mean he doesn't have to cope with the problems my poor DD has

thanks again to YOU ALL - typo gremlins deleting text

P.S. @ Milly

No I really don't think so, shes not stressed by taking it at all, just doesn't like it, - she doesn't like that she still needs it - she was told she'd grow out of it as its reactive asthma due to injury to her lungs from pneumonia, rather than true asthma - they were going to take her off it & another chest infection put pay to that & its since then she's hated taking it, she's always just got on with it before & never complained - but STILL had the stomach problems

Could it be that the flare-up of a cold itself has triggered the stomach pain, rather than the inhaler? So the link isn't the inhaler, but the underlying cause?

DD has endless stomach ache symptoms (and a different inhaler) but the stomach aches preceded the inhaler as far as I remember. She always has stomach pain with any illness at all

If it were just the Stomach pain then you might well be right lance, there are apparently lymph glands in the stomach & it's not uncommon for these to be painful for DCs when they are fighting a bug, hence why they get tummy ache at the onset of any illness.

DD DOES tend to get that too & with her its usually a warning somethings brewing IYSWIM - but she tells me its a different type of pain & it also doesn't come with the diarreah, cramps & gurgling which is typical of the IBS flare ups

Just to update

I've just got back from a very interesting chat with our local chemist - she's always been a great source of info, very thorough & also has IBS, but was away on holiday until today.

She tells me that she thinks its more likely the actual steroid, than the actual Glycerol, which is in tiny amounts, but she also thinks as DD is very sensitive to chemical additives that its quite likely a combination of both - but she DEFINITELY agrees, the inhaler is a likely culprit - not the cause of her IBS, but is aggravating it

It also turns out that another member of staff there also suffers is on inhalers for asthma & she joined in the conversation, telling me that her dose is sometimes doubled & when it is, she is doubled up with stomach pain & gets diarreah as a result - the Chemist reckons that even though DD isn't on a particularly high dose, as she is a DC, it is for her still a high dose - steroids apparently thin the stomach lining, which could in theory mean that the glycerol is also a problem as a result

She went onto tell me that in the USA they never use steroid based inhalers for DCs, OR ones with the other ingredients (the glycerol is to stop it clumping together) they only ever use a drug called MONTELUKAST for DCs, one which our IBS suffering Chemist also uses for her own Asthma - she tells me is all down to cost of course, but Montelukast IS available on prescription in the UK IF you insist on it & carries none of the risks of our usual inhalers

So looks like after all these years of tearing my hair out with a frequently very ill DD, & no clue as to whats causing it, we have an answer - seeing our GP next week to check if DD still needs inhaler & if so to get it changed

Sorry to dissapoint you but montelukast has many more side effects than clenil inhalers. Ds is 2.5 and takes very high dose clenil (highest an under 16 is allowed) and montelukast and the side effects of the montelukast worry me much more!

I've not looked into it properly yet Sirzy, just took our Chemists word for it as she has always been brilliant & as an IBS sufferer herself, is one of the few I've come across who fully understands DDs intolerance to chemical additives - I'm hoping our GP agrees DD can stay off the inhalers, as she is coping fine without them, but going to look into it further just in case