Childhood asthma Diagnosis when and how?

[babalon]

My DS who's 2.5 yrs has always been a noisy breather quite often sounding congested/ chesty with no sign of a cold.

Neither of my other 2 children had this. Little ds has been hospitalised twice with croup and has had it a couple more times.

Anyway, I've got a subutamol inhaler and it does make the recent morning whease go away. This has made me think that it could well be asthma.

What age will GP's diagnos asthma and how? If Ds does have it will he be monitored or medicated with anything other than subutamol?

My dd was 2 when she was diagnosed, although it is very mild. If it asthma he may have a steroid inhalor to use some of the time as well as subtamol. DD rarely needs either but I bring them with us when we go on hols. She has check-ups with the nurse about twice a year . hth

Hi babalon,
My DS was around the same age as yours when we suspected asthma, he was extremely wheasy when he had a cold and his colds seemed to last for ages.

We took him to the GP and because me and DH both have asthma the GP said it was very likely DS would also have it. GP prescribed Ventolin to help with the whease and just told us to use it when his breathing was bad to see if it helped. It did help and now DS is 3yrs and still using his Ventolin and also has Beclometasone which is a preventer which we give him morning and night.

Both of mine are asthmatic, theyw ere both diagnosed by the age of 2 but I think they tend to not give a formal asthma diagnosis until 5 now, they cakll it asthmatic tendencies instead.

Both of mine needed steroid inhalers for years but in more recent times DS has been able to use just his blue inhaler as he needs it because asthma is now very mild. Steroid inhalers take a while (4-6 weeks) to build up in the system and take effect. They also both use a blue reliever inhaler. DD has several inhalers that help her in different ways.

DD also uses a tablet called Singulair which has been a life saver for her, Ds also tried it when he was younger but it did nothing for him at all.

They both have regular reviews with our GP practice's asthma nurse and were under the hospital where we had 6 weekly appointemts when they were little (they are both late teens now).

Thats great thanks for your replies, I think I'll be off to the GP's with him this week.
Have been using the subutamol a couple of times a day over the weekend.

Thanks again