Constant chest infections

[mummyl2013]

Born dec 2022. Problems Started off with bronchiolitis when my son was about a month old. Since then when ever he gets a cold it goes to his chest. His most recent episode at the moment isn't a chest infection but it's a viral induced wheeze. Has been to a&e short of breath. They gave an inhaler. I'm starting to worry something is going on. Why does it keep happening? He can't just get a cold and fight it off. My first son wasn't like this. He's also had reflux in the past and pneumonia as a baby :-( he's 20
Months now

Which inhaler has he been given? Just a reliever (probably blue) or a preventer (probably brown)

My dd was like this-so much so that I had a spare antibiotic pack for emergency. I gave her echinacea drops in water I can't remember who advised it but it was a healthcare person. It really 100 worked to ease severity. To this day we all use it at the first sign of a sniffle - I could
tell she was getting ill by her pear drops smell. It's been a constant in our lives now for 25 years. I buy the Vogel one.
someone did say that they are not recommended for kids anymore but they must do a kids version. She grew out of rhem when she started school about 5 but did have an inhaler for a few years after that. I remeber the few nights I spent in an and e as well. And the nebuliser at home!

my ds couldn't have been more different! I guess we do the same thing and get different results - that's life!

Just the blue one. It worked pretty much straight away in a&e yesterday I was amazed. It's never worked in the past but think that's because it was an infection in those episodes

My DD was like this. Hospital trip after hospital trip. They finally xrayed her and turns out she had an ongoing chest infection which never cleared to start with. A long course of stronger antibiotics was needed to clear it, and these days she can fight off a cold without it turning into an ambulance trip.

We had a similar thing with DS.
In and out of hospitals/constant chest issues etc.
We had blue pumps/brown pumps

Finally (after 4/5y!!!) got in front of a consultant

1. Celinl brown pump 1-2 puffs a day This has entirely changed our lives.

We absolutely don't want him to be on medication and the very stern consultant said 'you don't even want to consider how bad the alternative could be'

We also had him allergy tested (DH has chronic hayfever)

As he's getting older he does lots of sport and displays fewer issue.
Wish you luck as I know how stressful this is xx

*to add

We have a DD (3) has absolutely none of these issues!! (Phew!)

Like another poster has said, a low dose steroid inhaler can be life changing. For some kids it will be a temporary thing, others will need it long term. And medics will want to minimise exposure to steroids, so will advise to try and reduce once there has been a stable period. Went through similar to what you have described with our son when he was 2, in hospital a lot with viral wheeze. He also has a dust mite allergy, so needs antihistamine prescribed (makes him very congested so symptoms overlap). Hopefully it will improve soon and you won't need anything more than the blue inhaler, but if not, it is very common and usually easily managed.

Salbutamol can be ineffective in younger toddlers as they don’t have the receptors it binds to that m saw mes it effective. It’s great that it works now and will hopefully relieve the shortness of breath and duration of episodes in future.

My twins have similar issues with viral induced wheeze and were eventually diagnosed as presumed asthma. They now take Montelukast tablets with really good results and have far fewer episodes of wheeze. When they do get unwell they’re prescribed inhalers on top of the tablets and it’s stopped hospital visits.

Hi - similar to other PPs, my daughter had on and off chest infections from 9m old (December 2022 onwards) and after loads of tests is on the brown inhaler prophylactically during flu season and the blue inhaler up to 4x a day when she has an active infection, and it’s really brought it all under control. She’s 2.5 now and it’s much much better than it was, fingers crossed

Hi thanks for your reply. How did you find out about his dust mite allergy do they test for that? X

Good to know I'm not alone. I guess some kids just suffer with these things more than others. My older son didn't as a toddler but he has recently also been on inhalers age 9/10 for chronic cough x

Yes, they can do a single blood test for a range of allergies!

My son had skin prick testing as part of investigations into snoring/?sleep apnoea and that revealed his house dust mite allergy (along with grass, car and dog!)