Since July my son (almost 2) has had 4 A&E visits and 3 admissions to hospital with respiratory distress caused by viral infection. The last 2 admissions were 2 weeks apart which was pretty horrible for him and us. He now has a brown preventative inhaler, Clenil Modulite, which we give 2 puffs, 2xday, through a spacer.
He's been on the preventative inhaler for 2 weeks now. The past week, his sleep has really deteriorated - he wakes often, screaming for me - and he's been very irritable. He also seems to be bruising easier. We have a GP appointment this afternoon to review this (particularly the bruising). It only dawned on me now that this is in line with side effects of steroid inhalers - but I took it that this was at particularly high doses (and I understand he's on the standard starting dose), and also after taking it for a while..
From people's experience of preventative inhalers, have anyone's children had these side effects on "normal" doses like this? Is it possible that it is the inhaler or should we be looking for other causes? What did you do? Is there anything we can do to stop this, or any alternative medicines we can request?
Obviously preventing respiratory distress is the number one priority as it's so dangerous, but equally I am just in tears seeing my happy little boy seem increasingly irritable and unhappy and anxious. And the lack of sleep is taking a toll on all of us.