My mum suspects my DD has asthma (she's nearly 9 months) - how do they diagnose it?

[crokky]

My DD is almost 9 months old and my mum has suggested that she might be asthmatic.

My brother has asthma and my mum sat up for countless nights with him breathing badly and she thinks my DD is the same.

What should I do? My DD currently has a chest infection (caught from my toddler who picked it up as a nasty cough/cold from a softplay). The chest infection is improving as she has been on antibiotics for a week. I haven't mentioned it to the doctor as my mum has only just suggested it, but the doctor did prescribe some salbutamol and a mask thing for me to put over DD's face as she was struggling to breathe with this chest infection. [In the end, I did not have to use it, but I still have it and will keep it in case she starts struggling to breathe].

How do I know if it was just the chest infection or if she has asthma? Can they do tests? I am not really sure what to do. Is she even old enough to get a diagnosis?

My dd is 4 and suffers from bouts of bronchiolitis which she has done since tiny - dr wont diagnose athsma as this would mean prescribing steroids which is not a route he said he wishes to go down as she may become reliant on them rather than just outgrowing the problem.

Sorry I'm not a medical professional but thought my experience may help. Hopefully someone more qualified will come along shortly.

generally they don't diagnose at that age, though if serious enough they will treat. But as sb said it's a route most docs dont want to take unless absolutely necessary. My dd2 was diagnosed with "queried asthma" when she was 6 months, this means they give her inhalers when she has a cold and is really wheezey but they won't fully diagnose untill she is 4ish and is old enough to do peak flow test.

hth.

whats's the difference or symptoms of broncholiotis v asthma sb6699? my dd coughed every night all night from age 1-3. Was told she was asthmatic, and prescribed an inhaler.

The night coughs died down, but she really suffers if there is a cold/cough bug going round. She's ill today.

I think that when they are older they can do the puff test, top check lung output.

There was suggestions of my DS having asthma when he was about your DD's age. He was and still is at 4 1/2 a very noisy sleeper, often seemingly gasping for air during the night. He had a chest infection at about a year old and this made the breathing much worse so we took him to the emergency doctor who gave him a mask type inhaler. The doctor explained it is extremely difficult to diagnose asthma in under 2's however and if the problems continued I was to take him to my GP when he was a little older.
The night time gasping and snoring didn't improve so our GP refered him to the hospital who thought it may be enlarged adanoids. They did a special test to check oxygen levels and everything came back absolutely fine. They said he will most likely grow out of it.

Bronchiolitis makes them wheezy just like asthsma - usually occurs following a cold/chest infection.

There are loads of threads about it on here if you want to search - you can compare symptoms and get some advice.

DD was given an inhaler to "treat" the symptoms rather than steroids which "prevent" symptoms occuring.

I have been told that a frim diagnosis of Asthma is not ususally given until a child is 2 or 3. They can then use the peak flow meter as instructed and should have grown out of any childhood broncholitus (sp).

What you need to rememebr is that LO's airways are tiny and they have not yet developed the ability to "cough up" any mucus that might be blocking them.

My DS1 has a chest condition a nd I am often told that it is just asthma by mums at toddler groups etc

Also most wheazes are viral based this time of year and do not respond to antibiotics.

Thanks for all your help. I will try and do a search on here. I did google it, but it made me feel really guilty as loads of things came up (eg baby having antibiotics increases chances of asthma - she's just taken a course for this chest infection which the doc said was bacterial...giving paracetamol increases chances...well she has had calpol a handful of times etc). I've always done my absolute best for her and feel terrible that I could have caused her to have asthma by doing something "wrong".