Anyone else hold their breath when asthmatic child starts coughing?

[Nemowith3and1tobe]

dd1 has really bad cough again and I know it because we have all had colds so automatically increased her ventolin etc to try and add back up but as per usual it is taking its toll and dont think will be long before we are on a hospital trip again. I just wondered does it ever stop? She is 3 next month and from 3wks old has been wheezing etc and it just seems like we will never find anything to help her. I feel sorry for her as she asks for her puffer often and is quite aware when she needs the hospital. I know its stupid but it just gets me down that ds and dd2 will get a cold and my immediate reaction is oh god how long till dd1 has it and we are at hospital again.

Sorry your DD suffer so badly. To a lesser extent I know how you feel: my 2 yo DS has a tendency to bronchiolitus/chest infections - and so whenever he gest a cold we brace ourselves for it going to his chest/to a wheeze (which 9/10 times it does). Cue missing nursery and us juggling work and looking after him (which is harder now I'm 6 months pregnant).

We've had 10 days good health after 4 weeks illness, and on Saturday he started coughing again. It really made me fed up.

We try to manage it with an inhaler, which means that for the last year we haven't ended up in hospital. You'd think that I'd have got used to what happens, and wouldn't be so neurotic such that I don't take him out on cold damp days/let him mix with children with colds/let him go to nursery when he has a cold. But after a couple of dreadful episodes when he ended up in hospital, I get very down and anxious.

Do you have access to a good respiratory nurse/consultant? What do they say?

We do that too nemo. My wheezer is the youngest, only just 2, and whenever bigger ones get a snotty nose that feeling of dread starts.
Just a suggestion but I always understood that the salbutamol was only a releiver so you cant build up protection as it were. Does your little one have a brown inhaler too, cos they do prevent wheezy attacks...allegedly . so sorry if I am trying to teach you to suck eggs.
DS has a virus brewing, getty spotty, snotty and miserable which inevitably leads to chest problems for him, but he is due his tonsils and adenoids out next week, so arghhh, definately feeling your pain.

I know just what you mean...your title just transported me back 18 yrs. Only comfort I can offer you is that once they learnt to use inhalers properly, hospitalisations became MUCH rarer...until they became teenagers and stopped being careful.
Sorry can't bemore helpful, you have my sympathies.

thanks all

lubby she is on a preventer and also on montelukast but hospital consultant told me once the others in the house get a cold etc then state giving dd1 4hrly inhaler as it is inevitable she will get it due to them all being so close in age.

wow, never heard that. Mine too is on preventer and montelukast, infact just moved from sprinkle to tablet today. Mine are all close in age too, 5,4 and 2. Thankfully only one one is a wheezer though. I guess you are like me in hoping this might just be the winter he grows out of it.
Does your little one get a flu jab? Meant to ask doc today at resp clinic but forgot again.

she was supposed to be getting it this year but as yet she hasnt been wheeze free/unsnotty long enough to get it

oh no, thats that out the window then if they need to be well to get it .

lubbly, my youngest is 2 next week, and just had her flu jab (she has laryngomalacia, hard to tell if she's asthmatic or not as well due to age and noisy breathing generally) in spite of moderate cough/cold.

The week before they wouldn't give it because she was really low with a huge cold/cough, very snotty, but moderate snot seemed to be ok

And I can relate to lots of this, both my girls are prone to mild asthma when they get colds, have inhalers and preventers, and dd2 nearly died of RSV at 4 weeks and sounds like Darth Vader right now as she sleeps....I loathe cold season, and fantasize about moving somewhere warm and un-viral

Wishing all the LOs a restful, un-coughy night.

Absolutely know where you're coming from. DD1 (3 in 2 weeks) has been diagnosed with a viral wheeze and has a blue inhaler. She ended up in hospital a month ago for 2 nights and then developed a cough and wheeze again this weekend. I was on the verge of taking her into hospital again (Saturday night A&E wouldn't have been fun) but having 6 puffs of inhaler every hour seemed to help.
The docs say they can't diagnbose asthma yet as she doesn't wheeze in between coughs and colds, but her episodes of wheeze are getting so regular now that I really want her to take a mild preventer. I've heard Montelukast is good too, especially for the allergic child like DD1, but docs at our hosp are not keen if she hasn't got asthma. I am taking DD1 to the GP on Weds to get a referral to a paed chest physician as we can be doing with all this anxiety every time she gets a cold, and it's not fair on her to suffer and have difficulty breathing.
She has had a tendency to cough from birth and is very allergic so is likely to get asthma too. DD2 is completely different and wheeze-free so we can see the comparison.