DDs cough variant asthma has got worse. Anyone else have experience of this?

[ThatDirection]

She's 14. I'm wondering if lockdown could be a trigger. She's been doing school work in the living room the past 2 weeks and ends up sitting on the floor on the only rug we have downstairs, and cuddles the dog, lying on the same rug. Usually she's spend one or two hours in that room - during a normal week where she's at school - but now I'm wondering if it could be her close and extended proximity to the rug.

Or could cardio exercise have been helping her asthma? She usually plays netball twice per week plus PE and sport at school. Exercise is not a trigger for her. Now she's not doing any cardio.

Or is it just a bad hay fever season?

Sorry for the rambling post. Any experiences welcome. I feel a bit in the dark about asthma as its only the past 2 years she was formally diagnosed and it took us a few years to realise her coughing is asthma. We know she has some allergies which make her cough but didn't know to join up the dots to asthma and preventative medicine.

She's just been prescribed a 5 day course of oral steroid, rather than increase her preventative inhaler dose, but she's on day 5 and still coughing more than usual.

Obviously difficult to know but the rug could be a factor. My DS is 4 and has cough variant asthma. It's usually well controlled but always, always gets worse when we stay at MIL's house, where he sleeps on the floor (on a camping mattress- not literally on the floor!) on carpet.

Of course, hay fever could also be a factor- I presume you've eliminated the dog as a possible cause?

The damp air? Since it's been raining more my sons has definitely worsened. Hay fever is also one of his triggers.

We've had the dog 7 years and Dd was allergy tested prior to that and had allergies for cats and dust mites. Could she develop other allergies over time? Should she be testedxagain? Hay fever did not show up as an allergy but she definitely suffers more Oct-Nov when the leaves fall and I assume, mould spores form. Preservatives in drinks set her off too.

I don't have a steam cleaner - sometimes corrie my mums when she stays. Is it a good idea to have one? Does anyone use an air filter or dehumidifier?

Funny giraffe, does you ds cough most days. If its completely under control should dd not cough at all, except when especially triggered?

It’s likely to be an allergy that’s setting it off and just because hay fever hasn’t been an issue in the past doesn’t mean it never will be. Also my ds needed his meds altering quite a lot as he progressed through teenage years which apparently is very common. It may be that she needs a different inhaler and/or something else in addition to the inhaler.

Her nurse mentioned a tablet to take every night if this 5 day steroid course failed to work. I'll contact him again next week.

I have this type of asthma.

So, along with my steroid inhaler that I take daily, I’ve swapped all flooring in the house to wooden floor instead of carpet and we have no rugs (I love rugs but they hold onto so much animal hair!) and I take an antihistamine daily from March to September (it takes a couple of weeks of constant use to get maximise benefit and minimises the seasonal impact of my hay fever)- those two changes have meant I can’t remember the last time I needed to use my blue inhaler or reached for hay fever eye drops.

I would definitely go back to the surgery if no improvement. My allergies flared in my teen years and settled again in my mid-20s. Do you have a peak flow monitor at home. I found that it really useful to have a “quantitive” measure of what changes have most benefitted me - for instance going to someone else’s house overnight always reduces my “peak flow“ and colds do too - so a few days before we have a planned trip away or at the first sign of a cold, I up my brown inhaler usage and keep my blue inhaler closer to hand and it’s made such a difference. I sleep better too as lying in bed and my breathing relaxing as I started to doze off used to start me off coughing and made it so hard to fall asleep. I discussed it all at the doctor’s surgery as part of my annual asthma review and it’s all on my “Personalised asthma management plan”. Different things work for different people and this has made such a difference for me and let’s me cuddle the cats without too much impact too!

Good luck with it all. As previous pp posted asthma can need more monitoring and treatment adjustment in teen years.

Thank you zogtastic. We have a peak flow monitor and know what level is deemed the level we should go to A & E. Her preventative inhaler is flutiform which is a combination inhaler. She takes a daily Antihistamine during allergy seasons and always if we visit a house with cats.

We took the rug outside today and hung it up and beat it! All other floors downstairs are wood. I've moved the dog so she's not near the rug and Dd can't lie on the floor and pet her. I'm going to get a steam cleaner.

It's good to know her symptoms might lessen as she gets older. So few people recognise her coughing as asthma and allergy induced.

ThatDirection DS doesn't cough at all when well controlled and his consultant kept changing his management plan until we got him cough free on a day to day basis. Basically he doesn't cough unless he's triggered (the major trigger for him is viruses).

Was it Montelukast that the nurse suggested for your daughter? It works brilliantly for some asthmatics, and not at all for others (DS is unfortunately one of the latter). Consultant says she can never predict who it works for!

ThatDirection DS doesn't cough at all when well controlled and his consultant kept changing his management plan until we got him cough free on a day to day basis. Basically he doesn't cough unless he's triggered (the major trigger for him is viruses).

Was it Montelukast that the nurse suggested for your daughter? It works brilliantly for some asthmatics, and not at all for others (DS is unfortunately one of the latter). Consultant says she can never predict who it works for!

Apologies for double post- app kept telling me it hadn't worked!

Like Zog, we up DS's steroid preventer at the first sniff of cold: if we have to wipe his nose basically! Otherwise his night time coughing really disturbs his sleep (and mine!)

@FurryGiraffe

ThatDirection DS doesn't cough at all when well controlled and his consultant kept changing his management plan until we got him cough free on a day to day basis. Basically he doesn't cough unless he's triggered (the major trigger for him is viruses).

Was it Montelukast that the nurse suggested for your daughter? It works brilliantly for some asthmatics, and not at all for others (DS is unfortunately one of the latter). Consultant says she can never predict who it works for!

Montelukast is the one my ds takes and it’s been fantastic for him, such a difference. We hadn’t realised quite how bad it had been until he started taking them.

My DCs all have this. They took montekulast every day plus a preventer inhaler and rescue inhaler. It is a really good steroid free medication, I highly recommend it as long term steroid use can cause things like premature osteoporosis in girls. I hate to say this, but it might be the dog. Mine did not test as allergic to pets but later when we got a puppy, their asthma went out of control and we had to rehome the puppy. We then tried guinea pigs, but again, same issue.
Exercise does increase lung function and capacity so it can obscure asthma. Many olpympic athletes have asthma. So you are right to think that lack of cardio could have made her more sensitive.