Been in hospital 4 times in 12 weeks…help, asthma?

[Emxjane]

Hi everyone, looking for some advice and hoping there are people out there who have had similar experiences and advise maybe what I need to do now.

My daughter is 1 and 10 months old. The past 12 weeks we have been to a&e/been admitted to hospital due to difficulty breathing, wheezing with coughs either chesty or dry. it seems to be every-time she picks up a virus (she goes to nursery) we end up in a&e on nebulisers, steroids (prednisone) and sometimes antibiotics.

Within this time period she has been prescribed a blue reliever inhaler, a steroid inhaler that she has twice a day and Montelukast of a night time.

I feel like I am at breaking point with hospital visits, taking time off work and as we all know looking after a poorly little one is difficult enough.

We have an outpatients appointment early December and I’m wondering if there are things I should be asking/pushing for the hospital to do?

We are also in a position to go private if we need too.

Thank you in advance for any help.

do you have pets?
carpets?
old walls with horse hair in plaster?
mould?
live near a busy road?
have a wood burner/open fire in the house?
feather/down bedding?

you get where I'm getting at: allergies & pollution.

and yes, it's shit when dc are ill

hope you get treatment that works soon.

Hello,
You are doing all you can. I do agree there is a possibility of asthma. I have heard doctors in the U.K. hesitate to diagnose asthma under age 2. However, they still treat the symptoms with asthma medication so getting a formal diagnosis is nothing to really worry about at this stage. The Montelukast can take up to two months to really help, so keep going with that if no bad side effects. The steroid inhalers come in different strengths, so might be possible to go up on that.

In the meantime, in case it is asthma, would keep a log on when she has episodes to see if there is an environmental cause. Yes, viruses often trigger asthma, but many asthmatics have multiple triggers. For example, if the nursery uses a cleaning or air freshener spray that could be causing a reaction. Or do you have a pet where she seems to wheeze after exposure to pet or pet dander/fur? Or does she have attacks at night when in bed- possibly could be dust mites on bedding or toys?

Ah bless her, and you- it's stressful isn't it.

That's good that they have prescribed the preventers- the steroid inhaler can take a fair few weeks to get to work. There isn't much more for her age really aside from a different inhaler if the one you have doesn't seem to help, invariably have to give it time though. Some children do get this and the triggers are viruses which are hard to avoid; many grow out of it even though some do have asthma.

At the appointment I'd ask at what point to give the salbutamol and how many puffs- some will advise to go straight for 10 puffs to keep the airway nice and open whereas others will recommend not doing that.

hi, I don't have much advice but am in a similar situation. my son is the exact same age as your daughter and has been admitted to hospital 4 times since July with respiratory distress - the last time it was just 2 weeks apart.
two of the times the doctors were certain it was bronchiolitis. the last time also seemed like bronchiolitis given the symptoms/timeline. it is always triggered by a virus - the first time they ran a viral panel and it was a rhinovirus, another time he tested positive for covid. but I don't understand why he keeps getting it so severely, and what we could do to prevent it. he's absolutely fine in himself at other times and doesn't have any other asthma symptoms (i.e. getting out of breath, night coughing, etc).

we were first given salbutamol reliever inhalers but he doesn't respond to it much, at home or in hospital, which also makes me hesitant about whether it is asthma related or not. this past time we've been discharged with the steroid reliever inhaler as well, as well as a different reliever inhaler medicine (atrovent). he's been taking the steroid inhaler for over 2 weeks now. no idea whether it is making any difference.

he seems to be picking up another virus atm (it's that time of year) and I'm just constantly on the lookout of whether we will need to go to a&e at the drop of a hat.

like you say, it's really really hard with taking time off work. I've just gone back to working full time and it's been a nightmare with constant hospital visits and constant anxiety. I worry about sending him to nursery but we don't have any family nearby or anyone that could help out. I've thought about a nanny to keep him away from viruses a bit more, but they're so expensive I might as well quit my job.

so no help but just absolute sympathy. one doctor told me he'll just "grow out of it" but I mean, when?! they say children grow out of bronchiolitis by age 2 but he's almost 2 and seems to be growing into it instead.