Recurrent viral wheeze, only started at age 3. Any experience?

[brainonastick]

Hello - I was wondering if anyone had experience of viral wheeze suddenly developing in a 3 year old?

I have a dd1 with viral wheeze later diagnosed as asthma, so am quite familiar with viral wheeze/asthma treatments, prognosis etc.

But dd2, who has no other allergies (dd1 has food allergies also) and has never had a wheeze before, has had a wheeze with every cold in the last 3 months (about 6 or so). They are getting worse each time, and she was in a&e at the weekend with nebuliser and released on pred/salbutamol. Not too bad (this time), but I am confused as to whether this is just viral wheeze, or whether I should be pushing for some preventer medication for her as possible asthmatic/or just anyway to prevent the next episode. She is 3, and I understood that viral wheeze was something that younger children got and then grew out of by 3 .

I know I can ask the GP, but they are truly useless with asthma in children. With both children I have been in there saying that I think the child has asthma, or needs some extra help, only to be fobbed off and to end up in hospital within a few days.

I would push for some sort of preventative medicine, even if just for over winter

Thanks, I think you're right - I will get an appointment, probably after Christmas to give the hospital notes a chance to reach the GPs. I suspect the GPs will refuse to prescribe anything though (the only way DD1 reached stability was after being put under hospital consultant care after a really bad attack, and started on preventative meds via them).

Interested to hear anybody else's experiences though - the more food for thought or questions for the GP the better.

DS2 has this. He's almost 6 and it's still gets it with every cold. I think that as he has no symptoms when he doesn't have a cold it doesn't get classed as asthma, iyswim.

Does your dd2 have salbutamol at home normally? Ds2 has an inhaler that we give him when he has a cold which seems to keep all the symptoms under control but if you have that already and it makes no difference then I would definitely be pushing for a preventer as well.

Well, we didn't have salbutamol for DD2 at home until now, but I have been (naughtily) using DD1's meds on her up until this latest episode. Maybe I need to be less afraid of giving her bigger doses to keep it under control (it makes my DDs totally wired and shaky, which is not great at 3am when they need sleep to get over the virus!), but it doesn't seem to make a huge amount of difference to how serious it becomes eventually.

I get very confused on the difference between viral wheeze and asthma. DD1 only has problems with a cold, but has been diagnosed as asthmatic even so (maybe because she has food allergies etc as well?).

no inhaler helped prevent post viral wheezing and coughing for DD2 until she was, probably into KS2.

She did have to use her blue inhaler am and pm from the first sign of a cold and for a week after.

However, she was never as ill as your DD so I would ask to talk to the dr. or asthma nurse.

LadyDamerel - can I ask, when did your DS2 start with this? Part of what I am confised about is that this has suddenly started at 3, when all the text I've read describes it as starting in infancy and tailing off by 3.

Generally speaking they don't like to diagnose asthma in under 5s so asthma like symptoms which are only present when ill are labelled
"viral wheeze". If the symptoms continue as they get older then there is a form of asthma which is triggered by illness only.

He was about 3 as well, iirc. No signs up until then, but he has had chronic eczema since he was 6mo.

I think, from what the doc said to me, was that they won't diagnose under the age of 5 or 6 so it just gets lumped under 'viral wheeze', even though the odds are that it is asthma.

I know when I've had asthma attacks that if it's going to happen then no amount of reliever or preventer will stop it happening, only the press and nebuliser does that (for me, personally). I think they are meant to try to keep it under control on a day to day basis, and there's a 5 step protocol that dictates what meds you get and when according to how under control your symptoms are.

It does sound as though your dd needs to move up a step, at least over the winter if she's being hospitalised as a result of it, regardless of whether the GPs will formally label it as asthma.

Ok, thanks everyone. Glad to hear that it starting at 3 isnt unheard of LadyD (although not glad your ds suffers iyswim).

Sounds like I'm going to have to try the gp again then, will see if they have someone who specialises in asthma.