Anyone with a wheezing child? Feeling lost.

[hms14]

Hi all,

I have a little three year old dd. She has had viral induced wheeze since she was about 5 months. Shes been in hospital everything single time she had the flu or cough.

I have started to take her swimming (not consistent) hoping in the long term to increase her lung capacity and I'm currently thinking of other interventions i could out in place to help her lungs.

My question actually is, is there anyone out there that has a child that suffers from viral induced wheeze?

What things have you changed that helped or did not help?
Has your child grown out of it?
Has it gotten worse or better over time?
Any triggers?

I'm kinda desperate because its breaking me each time i see her in the hospital. She gets admitted every month and a half.

Please help, doctors just sort the problem but are not guiding me to help the situation.

Much appreciated

Morning. I feel your pain, my DS had viral wheezing and from the ages of about 9 months to 3 he was in hospital with every cold. It was awful, so scary, but I kind of got used to it!
The last time he was in was about 18 months ago and was the worst, they kept him in for 2 days as they couldn't control the wheeze.
He hasn't had to be admitted since and his growing body copes a lot better with it. He has a blue and brown inhaler that we now only use at the first sign of a cold.
Does your DD have any asthmatic symptoms when not ill? Like breathlessness when running etc? My boy didn't so it was literally just when he was ill. And I'm happy to say that, touch wood, he has grown out of it.

I’m with you here with my three year old DS2. Weirdly his best friend is the same and we have bumped into them many times at the local a&e. Ours started off as always croup and needing to go to hospital every time he had a cold and have steroids but in the last year has now gone into a viral wheeze. It seems he constantly has coughs and colds and right now has a bad cold and an ear infection. It feels like every morning he is coughing up gunk. We have a blue inhaler that we use when he’s asleep as at the moment he won’t tolerate it.

We live in a leafy looking part of London but it does worry me that apparently the pollution levels are high although you can’t see them.

I don’t have a solution at the moment! I think it’s just wait and see if he grows out of it or if he will have asthma. It’s worrying though and no one gets much sleep.

DS had this from a couple of months old - he had 2 bouts of bronchitis before the age of 5 months. I remember one peadiactric doctor telling me he was 'just a wheezy baby'. We started to get proper help when I changed doctors to the one who said 'babies should not wheeze at all and we need to fix this for him'

We used to give him a daily medicine that came in powder form which helped. We were in Dubai when he was born, which has one of the worst air qualities in the planet (toxic fumes, heat and dust).

When he was a year old we moved to London and he immediately started to improve. Within a year we stopped the daily medicine and by 2 years of moving we stopped needing the inhaler except when he had colds.

He's now 7 and no longer has any asthma/wheezing at all. His last inhaler expired 3 years ago and we didn't replace it.

I think a combination of improving his environment and his lungs getting stronger as he grew are the reasons he got better. We've now left London for the Herts countryside - I don't think the air is healthy in the city and it did worry me.

Thank you guys.

My dd hasn't been told she has asthma. She doesn't seem to be breathless when shes active. Its only when shes down with the flu.

I have started giving her vitamins A, C and D. Hoping this will help in some way.

I'm going to get her a flute to exercise her breathing. I know i sound crazy but i cannot sit and watch.

Does any know any good lung specialists?

I'm open to any suggestion.

Hi there my DS 5 was diagnosed with viral induced wheeze after having severe breathing problems one night, he was admitted to hospital and given steroids, he was allergy test and we now know he has hay-fever and is allergic to various other things

My DS does not have an asthma diagnosis but we treat his hay-fever Feb - Sept and he often uses his inhaler if he has a cold, he gets this dry sounding cough which we know will worsen so we start the inhaler regime from the hospital and he is ok. His symptoms have massively improved, this was 3 years ago so,yes I do think they can grow out of it.

Do you treat the hay fever with over the counter anti histamines?

My dd is already on the brown inhaler twice a day and the blue is she needs it. The brown inhaler has helped reduce the severity of the wheezing but its still there.

I want to eventually reduce her brown inhaler.

Anyone take their little ones swimming or encourage them to play the flute or something to increase lung capacity?

Hi, my DS is prescribed anti histamine by the GP along with eye drops, how long is your DD supposed to take the brown inhaler? Is that a steroid one?? My DS was only given the blue one as prevention during colds and hay fever. I thought the steroid inhaler was only for diagnosed lung conditions or short periods, I many of course be wrong though.

Who is in charge of your dd's care? My DS was under the paediatric respiratory nurse for a year and then discharged to the GP care after that.

Do you have an action plan for your DD? We do,this was compiled by the hospital so that anyone who cares for him including school know what to do if he has problems.

I suggest you request allergy testing to identify your dd's triggers, I feel lucky reading your post as my son has had periods of wheezing and difficulty breathing but we have managed them without problem at home.

I think the medical profession believe children can grow out of this, my son has improved although he has problems sometimes, it's never related to exercise and like your DD he does not have an asthma diagnosis.

My child was like this and outgrew it at 4 - I never thought she would as she was really bad
You have my sympathy - the worst bits are the admissions and the 4 hourly through the night inhalers
Does she already have montekulast or similar?
I don’t think viral induced wheeze has anything to do with lung capacity - you can have massive lungs and the small bits still wheeze

My son was really bad when he was younger, constantly wheezing,in and out of hospital, he was diagnosed with asthma too. He's grown out of it before he turned 4 and hasn't had a single problem since.

If you're ending up in hospital with every virus then the underlying condition is not being well controlled. They are often reluctant to call it asthma in under-5s, but if you have both brown and blue inhalers it's already being treated as such in practice. You may need to increase the dose of the brown one for a while. Are you having regular respiratory appointments? If not ask for a review of meds. It's about managing symptoms while she has a chance to grow and get stronger, and that means a proper respiratory care plan.

Viral induced wheeze and lung capacity are separate - DS has a good lung capacity (can breathe underwater when swimming for at least 30 seconds) but had viral wheeze. (as an aside my 9 year old struggles with the arm length for a flute)

To be honest I would start pushing to see if she is asthmatic or allergic viral induced wheeze should not inhaler every day. I would start with a GP appointment to discuss it all

Rupert the brown inhaler is the preventer and should be used morning and night.* The blue inhaler is NOT a preventer, it is used when you’re actually having an asthma attack to relieve the symptoms. In most patients regular use of the brown preventer greatly reduces the need to use the blue reliever.*

Not sure why it changed to bold!

DS is 18 months and has trouble breathing every time he gets a cold or similar. We have had a lot of trips to A&E where generally he's been given an inhaler, observed and then sent home. (Apart from a couple of admissions for more serious things e.g. Bronchiolitis)

We've seen a paediatrician who said he has brocho hyperreactivity as a result of being 6 weeks prem and has prescribed:

• Atravent inhaler
• Salbutamol (blue) inhaler
• Montelukast

All to be used as required. They've helped a lot.

We've been told DS may be asthmatic as it runs in my husband's family but won't know for sure until he's older.

Can you ask for a referral to a specialist? Or organise it yourself if you have medical insurance?

Sorry yes I meant reliever I know that based on how how the salbutamol is used, my DS was told to use this at the start of a cold and Increase the puffs depending on his symptoms.

My son does not require his inhaler morning and night it's variable depending on symptoms he has a care plan that explains how many puffs and how often to give them but, as I said my DS has viral induced wheeze and allergies so may be different, he does not have the steroid inhaler.

Both my sons had viral
Induced wheeze and we’re in hospital each time they had a bad cold but grew out of it by aged 6. I never did anything else apart from using the inhalers when necessary. They’re grown up now and haven’t visited a Gp since then for anything.

Hi Hms14, sorry to get in touch so long after you sent this message. I’m just wondering how your DD is getting on. I’m at the end of my tether, my DD, who is 2.5, has been admitted to hospital 16 times with viral induced wheeze. She’s on a very strong preventer inhaler, reliever inhaler, montelukast and in the last week has been prescribed an antibiotic 3 days a week. Do you have any advice? Not sure where to turn. Thanks

Hi SpLT,

I am sorry this is so so late. Are you still in a similar situation?

I fought with my doctors when I was in your position when my dd was three to get her on the brown inhaler and register her as an outpatient. This really helped. She was on the minimal dose of brown inhaler which reduced the onset of wheezing eventually. The outpatient was a peace of a mind for me as she was being been every 6 months.

I also make sure she is always covers and warm. Never feels a breeze. No cold food or drinks. Avoid dusting around her and on healthy diet.