son's oxygen Levels

[lady17luck28]

Hi, My son's oxygen Levels are 91% and his heart rate is 88 should I be worried?
Thanks

[seaoflove]

How old?
Is he ill?
Is there a reason you have a sats monitor?

[FishWithABicycle]

Oxygen levels should be higher than that. Does he have asthma/wheeze/inhalers prescribed?

Assuming you have a blue (salbutamol) inhaler - which I would expect you do if you have a sats monitor - I'd give 10 puffs of that and see whether he improved. If no improvement, or slight improvement followed by deterioration in less than 4 hours, I would seek medical attention.

I assume given that this was last night he's either better or you've already sought medical advice. For future reference it's ok to post on AIBU/Chat where most MNers hang out if you hae an urgent situation like this in the middle of the night. You didn't get replies when you really needed it because there aren't usually many people checking out childrens health at that time.

I hope your son is OK now.

[TheSingingMonkey]

How do you know this? How old is he?

91% is low yes. Anything below 94% and we would start to think about oxygen. Below 92% then definitely.

[mintycake]

Yes that is low. When my son's gets as low as that he is given oxygen I would contact a healthcare provider or phone nhs 24 for advice

[lady17luck28]

Hi all, thanks, rang nhs direct And sent him an ambulanc. Was checked out and was happy to send him home as his levels were 94 while awake. Sent us with an inhaler. He still.drops to about 88 while asleep but hospital are happy said anything 86 or below while sleeping take him in.

[FishWithABicycle]

Might he have sleep apnoea? Can happen if he has enlarged adenoids - if when he's relaxed and sleeping his air passageways don't open fully. That might explain why his levels are so low. We had much fewer respiration problems with our DC after having adenoids removed but it's an invasive procedure and requires general anaesthetic so is not to be done lightly.

[lady17luck28]

No one has ever mentioned that before, he only seems to dip when he gets a cough, there has been mention of asthma but said can't diagnose it yet as he is only 4

[Shellyxx]

Hi, I appreciate it’s been quite a few years since this post but how did things go?
im trying to find similar stories to my daughters which is proving difficult.

she had adinovirus and chest infection 11 weeks ago, in hosp on oxygen for a week, dropping at night.

now she’s got a cough again, her lungs are clear but her stats are dropping at night again.

so confused. She has a blue pump. But we don’t know if it’s asthma. They mentioned hayfever but that doesn’t drop oxygen?!

[TurnOffTheHeating]

@Shellyxx how old is your DD?
I'm guessing they're thinking hayfever triggering wheeze/asthma, when they say that. Any other signs of hayfever (watery eyes, sneezing, etc.?)? Had she ever been low on oxygen before the adenovirus? My understanding is that it's sometimes difficult to diagnose asthma when it's generally been in response to a bug, because sometimes bugs cause wheeze and low oxygen in kids who don't have asthma, so it can take time to sort out what was going on.

Sounds stressful, in any case - sorry to hear it.