If your DC had repeated chest infections when little, are they ok now they’re older?

[BearHuntAgain]

I’m in hospital with DC2 again. Another chest infection. Our third admission in four months. She’s 16mo. Anytime she gets a bad cold it goes to her chest and she requires oxygen.

Has anyone else been through this? Did your DC grow out of it/are they ok now?

Hi OP. My son was constantly ill in his first year. Had antibiotics nearly every month. Hospitalised a couple of times with bronchitis although didn't need oxygen.

He is 8 now and hardly ever unwell. So yes he's h def grew out of it. I would say he was always more ill than other kids until around 5. But now absolutely fine and hasn't had a day off school in years!! Hope your lo is better soon.

One is one isn’t. They both have asthma but one rarely needs an inhaler, no brown one etc. The other has daily brown (steroid) inhaler and needs blue one winter time when exercising in the cold and gets more viruses than the average kid (he’s 12 now). But he also has ongoing ENT issues which exacerbate things. Neither had any hospital admissions after age 4.

This was me as a child and in a smaller way through adulthood but I am much better now finally in my forties.

What I have learnt is that air pollution makes my chest much worse. If you burn anything in your home (cigarettes, wood burner, coal fire, gas fire, gas oven gas hob are the worst) it will be contributing.

For me air pollution isn't an obvious trigger, as in I don't start coughing on exposure, it just damages my chest at a low level and means when I was exposed to it all the time if I got a cold I used to have horrible chest issues, despite quite high doses of asthma medication.

My youngest (now almost 10) had recurrent bronchiolitis with 17 hospital admissions between the ages of 6 months and 2 years and I’m not sure he’s never had a day of school! He’s extremely robust now. He catches the odd cold, never had a sick bug…really healthy. It feels like it will be this way forever but there’s light at the end of the tunnel I promise x

Mine is now late teens, still medicated for asthma, somewhat allergic to cats and rabbits. Nothing like the constant steroids and oxygen and overnight hospital stays of his preschool years.

I was in and out of hospital as a baby with asthma and chest infections. Over time they became less severe so I could be at home safely when I was ill and in my teens gradually tapered off. Now I'm barely affected at all and my asthma and chest issues don't stop me doing anything.

Thanks everyone. Hoping we can go home today as she’s been off oxygen overnight.

My eldest was in and out of hospital on steroids and oxygen between ages of about 2 and 4 until we finally got it under control with brown and blue inhalers. She was discharged from asthma care about 10 years later but in lead up to discharge hadn't been on brown inhaler for a 2 or 3 years and hadn't used her blue one for longer. Still quite allergic (to pets) but no other issues.

It's awful when they're little. Exhausting and terrifying.

my son - now 8 - had a bad case of bronchiolitis as a baby and was in and out of hospital with chest infections over the next two years. He was never quite right in between - lots of runny noses and very pale. I always could hear when it was turning into a hospitalisation before the GP could hear anything in his chest. I was told I worried too much and ‘young kids get a lot of colds’. After about two years I took him into A&E before he needed emergency care and explained the full history saying I didn’t want to wait until he couldn’t breathe to bring him in, please could they help. I am still so grateful to the doctor that night who listened to the whole history and said it could the the case that he’d never properly cleared his first infection - apparently it can live deep in the lungs so they look and sound clear but actually the immune system is fighting it all along and gets overcome when other viruses hit. She said the only way to know was sticking him on a very long course of antibiotics until he was entirely clear and then continuing another two weeks. Did that and he was a different child from then on. No more hospitalisations, colds came and went normally. Looking back at pictures from those two years now, it’s clear he was a different colour and looks ill all the time - I feel really bad I didn’t know how to push for more help for him sooner. Have no idea if this has any relevance to your situation, but your post sounded so familiar I wanted to let you know our experience. Good luck - I know how scary what you’re going through feels and there are happy endings to similar situations.

@HJBeans thank you. That’s really helpful. We’ve actually been readmitted 10 days after we went home with “another” chest infection. I will discuss with the consultant tomorrow about longer course of antibiotics. I assume they were oral and your DC didn’t require them intravenously for that period?

My son had bronchiolitis, bronchitis at least 20 times, pneumonia four or five times, croup at least 3 times a year, diagnosed with asthma. We often had to call an ambulance because he couldn’t breathe and sometimes he had to have adrenaline. At age 6 after a growth spurt all symptoms are gone.

@BearHuntAgain yes, just oral antibiotics but a very long course. Maybe six weeks in total. Thinking back, they usually said his chest X-ray was clear, too, but the improvement after the long course was visible on X-ray as well. He’d just never been properly well after the first bout of bronchiolitis. One if the key clues that led the A&E doctor to do this was that he’d not had an entirely cough-free week in all that time.

I’m so sorry you’re back in hospital and hope they find a solution for your child soon.