Children with asthma and covid

[Teafirst]

Hello, well, the inevitable has happened and my eldest DS-7 has tested positive. He's running a slight temperature and very tired but otherwise well. Obviously we'll isolate, confirm with a PCR etc.

But he has fairly serious asthma, ironically it's been much better these last 21 months because fewer germs and chest infections, but unsurprisingly I'm worried. Does anyone with a younger child with asthma have any advice, any idea of their experience, anything it might be useful to know.

He's on Salbutamol, Clenil and montelukast already.

Not a child, but I have bad asthma. Usually any respiratory viruses go straight to my chest.

I had covid in the summer and it didn't affect my breathing at all. Make sure to keep on top of his medicines, and keep an eye on his breathing, but try not to be too worried. Covid is strange.

The asthma society says that asthma drugs appear to lessen the severity of symptoms. Not sure with a child. Check their website

Hi there, my son has severe asthma too. He was exposed to Covid twice, once when I had it in January last year and recently when his father caught it (we don’t live together). He had a day of headache and feeling off food then was absolutely fine. No cough at all. I was told that his regular steroid inhaler perhaps helped his lungs. I did increase his brown inhaler whilst he had covid at the doctors suggestion. I was so scared of him catching it, he usually gets ill with any bug but he was fine and no lasting issues. We had a finger oximeter which helped to keep an eye on things and that never dipped below 98 % which is really good for him.
I hope he recovers very quickly x

Dd (13) had it and it's caused an asthma flare up subsequently, she's had to go up a level on her inhaler and we're booked into see a consultant. But it wasn't controlled brilliantly before, in fact it had just got better for a few weeks before covid

Boris has so much to answer for

No experience but it would be good to keep an eye on his oxygen saturation levels. If you don't have an oximeter at home, contact GP surgery as sometimes they lend them.

I have asthma, I take similar meds to your son, and I had covid in summer. My main symptoms were headache and sore throat rather than breathing problems. Then I developed a cough towards the end of the isolation period, and my asthma was fairly bad for the next few weeks. I saw the doctor who upped my meds and it calmed down a few weeks later.

My DD is 6 and asthmatic and tested + on Saturday so watching with interest. Currently it's not affecting her breathing/chest - she does have a bit of a cough but it's a tickly throat cough. Her main symptom is tiredness.

My 6 year old tested positive on Monday. So far snotty, upset stomach and a fever overnight only but no respiratory problems. As soon as it was clear there was an outbreak in her class I upped the clenil dose to the top of her prescription and started a regular salbutamol dose over the weekend on advice of the asthma nurse. Her asthma is well controlled with her clenil though and she doesn't require montelukast. I've since stopped regular salbutamol (still top dose clenil) but have 3 dotted around the house just in case!