3yo Asthma!!!!

[fedup877]

DD has just turned 3 and been diagnosed with asthma.

It just seems uncontrollable!!! She's always had a bad chest, she was born prematurely (36w) and needed resuscitation. By the time she was 6 months old she'd been admitted to hospital a handful of times with bronchiolitis, once for a week as she was so poorly!

She gets chest infections all the time, at least 1-2 times a month and they usually require antibiotics.

She coughs more nights than she doesn't, sometimes it wakes her and sometimes it doesn't, but she likes her sleep so if it wakes her she can't cope! Sometimes she coughs to the point she is sick.

She's on clenil (brown inhaler), ventolin (blue inhaler) and montelukast 4mg tablets once at night.

She also has hayfever so is medicated for that, and her hayfever can trigger her asthma.

Has anyone got any tips on how to help her? She struggles so much at night! I'm asthmatic too so I can understand it bless her.

That sounds so stressful op, I bet you are mentally drained. I don't have any suggestions other than things you have probably already tried so for the cough humidifier in her room and a raised top of bed (maybe even an extra pillow at an angle since she's old enough). My ds doesn't have asthma but always suffers from upper respitory infections (at least 1 a month, more through winter), we use a humidifier, piriton to dry up post nasal drip even though he doesn't have allergies, vapour plug ins, vapour rub on his chest and raised head. Sometimes nothing works, sometimes one thing eases him certain nights it's hit and miss but always worth a shot. Another thing to look into because she does have allergies is anti allergy bedding (duvet, pillow).

What dose of clenil is she on?

By 3 we had established that wasn’t enough for ds so had moved onto stronger inhalers which helped a lot eventually

On coughing at night, I have always slept on a mountain of pillows, which helps. Can you raise her up a bit?

Keep going to the doctors and speaking to the asthma nurses. There's more that they can do but you need to be annoying engage.

Agree, keep going back to the nurses until they get her preventative medication right as sounds like it’s not enough for her right now

Would also get her tested for food intolerances or just try cutting them out yourself as believe me it will help. Read up on it online. Or take her to an experienced nutritional therapist. The usual culprits are gluten and dairy. My 4 yr old son has allergies and used to only need his inhaler in the winter months when he had colds. He'd be coughing most of the night, lots of stuff on his chest. Lately, due to the high pollen, he's been much more wheezy and needing 'puffs' every day. He's dairy free as also has an issue with eczema, as has my daughter so we all went dairy free. Lately though I've taken him off gluten and what a difference it has made to him overall. Wheezing non-existent, more energy, poo consistency much improved, it was always mucousy and mushy. Medication helps relieve the symptoms yes, but addressing nutritional imbalances within the body will alleviate the symptoms so the medication will eventually not be required. Unfortunately docs aren't trained to do this, not in the drug companies benefits to make people better, they need to keep you on their drugs to keep them making their gazillions. Its all wrong basically. See Leo Galland, SuperImmunity for kids - online. Have to boost their immune systems first and foremost. Sorry for rant, hope this helps!