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

I can give up to 10 puffs of her blue inhaler (salamol) every four hours before we need to go to A&E. I generally start with 4-6 puffs, but the threshold for going up to 10 is quite low – there's very little 'wait and see' because once it gets going, it's much, much harder to get back on top of.

It worked within a few weeks, initially on 2 puffs twice a day (he's now been on 3 twice a day for a few years). We were asked to reduce it after a few mths and he ended up in hospital again within a few weeks. My son is adopted and his asthma may have been caused by smoking in pregnancy, passive smoking in his first year, or genetics, or a combination.

It was a gradual thing. I used to give him his brown inhaler twice a day, morning and night, and regularly check his peak flow rate with the blowy thing they gave us. Over time, I noticed his peak flow rate rose because his lungs were growing and also the asthma attacks were fewer and less severe. I was able to drop the inhaler down to two puffs at night only which worked better for us with mornings always being a rush. Much later, maybe late primary school age, I was able to drop the inhaler altogether during the summer months and just one puff per evening the rest of the year without ill effect.
The peak of the hospital admissions was the autumn & winter below the age of 3 and it got better after that so I hope that can give you some hope.

Both of mine.
1st several hospital admissions under the age of 3, he's now 7 and doesn't need an inhaler.
2nd has just turned 2 and we've have 3 admissions in the last 6 month. Currently have spacer and blue inhaler. I'm hoping she grows out of it too.

dad has asthma.

Our younger one. She’s 3.5 and has been to A&E so many times with viral wheeze (and pneumonia). The brown inhaler was an absolute game changer for us - this winter just gone was our first winter without A&E. She also didn’t have any asthma attacks from pollen in the summer.

She does also have anaphylaxis so we tend to be very cautious around inflammation in her airways, but honestly, the brown inhaler has massively taken the stress out of coughs and colds for her - it’s taken me a while to get used to not having to do her wheeze plan and worry about having the A&E bag ready every time she got a cold. So I’d say it’s been a massive, massive benefit for us.

She’s got a review in a couple of weeks and I’m very nervous they’re going to try to take her off it!

ETA: neither I nor her daddy have asthma, and her big sister doesn’t either!

My son is almost 8 and has had many episides of either chest infection or viral wheeze since he was a toddler. We kept being told he was too young to test for asthma but were given a blue inhaler for when he does get wheezy. We saw the asthma nurse at our surgery in September after trialling the brown preventer inhaler for 6 weeks. As we’d spent the summer camping and outdoors he had been fine so I told her it wasn’t really an accurate assessment as he’s not been at school or indoors mixing with people. We agreed to keep him on it over the winter to see how he goes and so far he’s not had any wheezing or chest infections and not needed the blue inhaler. He’s also had less coughs & colds. We need to see her again for another review once he turns 8. She did spirometry testing but it came back inconclusive.

There’s no asthma on either side of the family and we both think it is more viral than asthma. Maybe it’s coincidence that he’s not had any wheezing this winter and he’s grown gout of it but it could also be due to the brown inhaler.

This is really common sadly. My eldest is now four, he had multiple episodes of croup which turned into viral wheeze from age one to age three. We were given the brown/blue inhalers and were assessed as pre asthmatic. Sometimes we stayed in hospital for over a week and he really was very poorly. I'm pleased to say the summer after turning three he seemed to outgrow it and we've had no real issues since. He had the croup cough the other night but we managed to him and he was absolutely fine the next morning.

I have an 18-month-old who sadly got RSV as a baby, we were in hospital for 10 days. He is also susceptible to these nasty chest viruses. I've just been discharged from A&e having taken him in with viral wheezing. I'm lucky that my children are quite chunky and resilient; they've never been concerned about them being dehydrated or anything like that but I know that can be a real worry for some people.

I've been told by many specialists that the majority of children will outgrow these problems. Some Will Go on to be diagnosed as asthmatic. I've always had exceptional care at A&e. I wish they offered the RSV vaccine when I was pregnant...

So sorry you're going through this, I'm sure you're little one will be fine.

My niece was hospitalised a few times with this when she was 2-4ish. She's completely outgrown it now (teens) and doesn't even use an inhaler. My daughter had a mild version as a toddler and was prescribed an inhaler, but was never hospitalised and it vanished completely in less than a year.