Mums of children with viral induced wheeze

[Babydust250888]

Hi there. I guess I'm looking for some reassurance here as this is our 3rd admission for a little cold turning into wheezing and continuous coughing, low oxygen etc. No history of asthma in the family. My daughter is 3.5 yrs old.
Did you children grow out of this? We have been told to use the brown preventer inhaler now and im really putting my hope into it.
Positive stories please, I'm.an anxious mess.
Thankyou

Both of my children spend their first couple of years in and out of hospital with breathing difficulties and wheezes. They had brown and blue inhalers and were on Montelucast powders (they help widen the airways).
Both are now absolutely fine - aged 7 and 9. We have a blue inhalers which we have for the 7 year old to use if we see he’s really full of cold to fight it before it becomes a wheeze - the doctors basically said we could recognise it in him before they would.
have faith that as her body grows, so do her organs and hopefully she’ll do as ours have and grow out of it. Sending hugs because it is worrying.

My eldest son had the same problem up to last year (when he turned 9). As he was having to go to hospital every few months, our GP advised him to take an orange inhaler once a day. Since then, it has been much better (hope that continues!). We also have the blue inhaler to use if needed. My brother also used to have bad asthma but grew out of it.

I have had asthma all my life but I manage it now without even thinking about it. Viral induced wheeze was my main symptom as a child. Lots of drama. It will get better and there are lots of drug options if the first thing you try doesn't work.

The brown (steroid) inhaler does work. It will get easier to manage. The other thing that helps is making sure the lungs are not being inflamed day to day by anything that irritates them. When I was a child, asthma was thought of very much as an allergic thing - sniff pollen/dust, immediately become asthmatic. This is certainly part of the picture but we also know that long term exposure to air pollution makes breathing worse. I don't get sudden attacks from breathing smoke or vehicle fumes but when I next get a cold, the asthma will get much much worse. I have learned over the years that open gas fires (even a hob - can't believe how much better my chest has been since getting induction hob), wood smoke and coal smoke make me slowly more susceptible to post-viral wheeze, so minimise exposure if you can.

The other thing to check is whether you've got any mold growing on windows in the cold winter - that's often a trigger for asthmatics too.

@Babydust250888 nothing useful to say but solidarity! My 2y8m has been hospitalised 3x for VIW then full blown pneumonia and my 5m old has been admitted 5x for Bronchiolitis.

Both my children had this. The eldest grew out of it, my youngest still uses inhalers. However, he swims, runs, cycles and goes to the gym.

How old are they

20s

The brown inhaler was a game changer for my son. He was on frequent admissions for 6 mths before then, ages 1.5 onwards. 7 years on and unfortunately he does have asthma and is still on the inhaler, but it is well controlled and he rarely needs the blue one. Your DC may only need it temporarily, as I've known children who have grown out of it.

My DS was the same. Was admitted to hospital two or three times below the age of 5. As he got older the asthma became less severe and could be managed at home with his inhalers. He’s now 15 and although he still gets a viral wheeze, he hasn’t needed any medical intervention for at least a decade.

Ages 1 (where I suspect she caught RSV) to about 2.5 absolutely hellish so many admissions to A&E, every cold would turn to an admission, eventually we got seen by a respiratory consultant at Bham Children’s - we booked him privately initially then got put on his NHS list as coincidentally he was working when DD was admitted. He put her on the orange inhaler Flixotide. She was on it til 7, from the age of 5 only in winter months. It was an absolute game changer no more admissions, no more wheezing. I feel for you massively as it was so so traumatic seeing her struggle the way she did, she was incubated at birth for respiratory distress too so all in all a stressful time for us.

Wow that's positive. I hope it's a game changer for us too, when did you notice the change using it? Do you or your partner have asthma?

Wow that's positive. How did it stop happening, was it gradual or did you just notice he stopped struggling as much? Was it after medical intervention?

My daughter was diagnosed with viral induced wheeze at 3. It became an asthma diagnosis at 6. Aged 6-9 was quite difficult with fairly frequent ‘attacks’, but at around 9 we managed to get it under control.
She’s 12 now and takes Symbicort morning and night, and Montelukast once a day. She hasn’t had to use her reliever inhaler for a long time.

Thanks for replying. Does asthma run in your family?

My now 5 year old had multiple hospital visits from 1 until he was 4, was put on a preventer quite young - I’d say 18 months old as he had been on steroids more than 3 times then a bout of Covid which scared the bejesus out of us meaning he had to go on a much stronger dose. The preventer helped a lot, also having a robust wheeze plan - we were able to nip a lot of things in the bud before it escalated to a hospital trip. In the last 18 months we’ve only had one episode of wheezing and he’s been off the preventer for a year now. My youngest was slightly different as his was triggered more by hayfever and enlarged adenoids - grommets were fitted and adenoids were reduced 3 months ago and we’ve not had to visit the GP once which I think is a record!

No, no asthma in our families that I am aware of.

If you've had the admissions close together, I think that in itself makes it worse – they don't really fully recover in between, and then the next one sends you right back. DD2 had three admissions in about two months last winter, lost weight, etc. (aged 2.5). This winter, we've hit things early and hard with the blue inhaler as per her wheeze plan, and we've managed to stay at home. At home with my alarm set every four hours, perhaps, but at home.

Both mine had viral wheeze, had inhalers with the spacer, admitted to hospital several times as babies/young children. Now age 7 and 9 and haven't used their inhalers for years, definitely grown out of it

I could cry reading this. I hope this is true for us. When did it stop for you, was it gradual

Really helpful thread.
My 2 year old get a viral wheeze eveytime he gets a heavy cold. We were lucky that we were give blue inhaler when it's first happened at 8 weeks and GP had reluctantly prescribed it again when we have needed, but GP also gave impression that there wast really a need. He haven't needed to go to hospital but it's been an 'almost' situation several times. I've been wondering about ashma and if the brown inhaler would be better next time but I guess we would only get that if dc was seen I'm hospital rather than via GP.
It's very reassuring to hear of a good recovery and no lasting ill affects from other posters.

It is super helpful to know others experience of this. I don't know anyone in my own life with a child who suffers with VIW, yet it's so common affecting 1/3 kids.

Hi thanks for replying. May I ask what her wheeze plan is

My DS had a viral wheeze as a small child and many hospital admissions. We used the brown inhaler along with montelukast alongside his blue one which helped a lot. He stopped getting it around 5 if I remember rightly and it hasn’t bothered him ever since. I do still worry when he has a cold (he’s 15 now!) but he’s fine and tells me off for being an overprotective mother!

Yes couple of admissions with viral wheeze at similar age. About 4-5 years old diagnosed asthma based on symptoms. After this he got better (more cooperative) with inhaler and just got a cough for few weeks with each virus. Only had antibiotics once in his life.
Now age 14 still has an inhaler but “perfect” asthma control past years, plays sport, out in all weathers, no problems.

Grew out of it caught covid a few times now classed as asthmatic with a brown inhaler as well as his blue rescue inhaler