4 month old baby with possible asthma - help for worried mum needed.

[Flip]

Ds2 is four months old and has been having a lot of problems with breathing since he was born. He's been admitted to hospital three times now the last time being Wednesday. They say that they can't be sure it is asthma because of how young he is but have given me an inhaler and spacer to use anyway. While he was in hospital after numerous tests they concluded that he had bronchialitis. He coughs all the time and often goes blue and wheezes. When he cries he ends up wheezing.

I'm worried that I won't know what to look for if he needs help. I'm confident about administering his inhaler but how long do I let him cry for and wheeze before seeking help? Is there some sort of guidance or is it a case of trust my own judgement? Any advise welcome. He's such a wonderful bubbly little boy who will smile for anyone and it makes me so sad to see him obviously frightened by not being able to breathe.

If they are saying that he has asthma then it would be very useful for you to see an asthma nurse. Do they have an asthma clinic at your surgery ??
If so, they would be a great help to you, and you cold ask all the questions you need.
It is quite unusual for a doctor to diagnose asthma in a 4 mth old, but i for one think that it is more than possible.
My dd2 had problems with coughs from birth. She would cough and cough all night long and alot during the day. She would cough until she was sick, and bring up lots of phlegm.
I battled to get the doc to diagnose her with anything. I knew it wasn't normal, but no one seemed to know what was wrong.
We made countless trips to our g.p's and local hospital, but chest x-rays always came backclear and we were sent home.
I begged my g.p to do something about it but he admitted he didn't know what was wrong with her. She also wouldn't sleep and the g.p refered her to a psychiatrist.
I even considered videoing her just to prove that i wasn't going mad.
Eventually we took her to a larger hospitals A&E department where she was diagnosed as asthmatic and given an inhaler.
It did work too, she started to sleep better and most of the coughing stopped. Unfortunatly she then developed pneumonia at 22 mths and now needs the brown inhaler too as the her right side of her lungs are a bit weak.
Uncommonly (i think) her asthma has got worse as she's got older, but we now know how to deal with it better.
It seems that my Ds may also be asthmatic as he too has been admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties twice. They won't say for certain yet that he is asthmatic but i am fairly certain. He was given an Atrovent inhaler first but that didn't work so now he has a Salbutamol one.
Thankfully he doesn't seem as bad as dd, so i'm hoping he may grow out of it.

As far as guidence goes, i would say, give him his required amount of inhaler as often as told. If they have told you to give him more during an attack then thats fine too. We were told that we could give dd up to 10 puffs but that we should then also seek medical advice/assistance.
If his breathing seems very quick and /or he is pulling his tummy in then i would seek medical assistance then too.

If you have any other questions or ever want to talk, please feel free to contact me.
Sorry if i've waffled. Hope you get things sorted soon.

Thank you nutcracker. All the symptoms you listed of your dd are the same as my ds2 and his chest x-rays are also clear. He's been given the atrovent and it seems to take a long time for the wheezing to settle. Also the GP only said that I should give him two puffs three times a day. He didn't say anything about what to do if he had an attack. So at the moment I don't give him the inhaler at spaced intervals I just give it him when he's been crying and started to wheeze. Maybe he wouldn't start to wheeze if I knew better what to do.

I had asthma as a child and grew out of it but I remember all to well how horrible it would feel to not be able to catch your breathe. I really feel for him. I think I will speak to the surgery and see if they have an asthma nurse. It's quite a large practise so I think they will have.

Flip.....sorry to hear that things are no better. Did you go back to the hospital and do you have a follow-up appointment at the consultants clinic? If not why don't you ring his secretary and get one made. You definitely need more help with this especially as they've already said his tubes are small. The bronchilitis can take a bit of shifting anyway and with the added possibilty of asthma I'm not surprised he's struggling. My dd has a heart defect which affected her breathing/feeding when she was small and I really do appreciate what a worry it is for you. DD appears to have grown out of her asthma (I'm not convinced she ever had it) and I so hope its the same for your ds2.

Just read your other thread too and I agree about it maybe being thrush. Hugs

flip, i know how worried you must be. Ds was diagnosed with asthma when he was 5 months old. He never wheezed but when he had a cold it would all flare up. We were told to look out for very fast breathing, tummy pulling in and general distressed behaviour. Medics do say that its hard to diagnose when they are that small and that they usually give the inhalers anyway. Has your ds been given a brown or orange inhaler aswell? They are preventers and build up over a number of weeks. i havent heard of Atrovent, ds had ventolin (salbutomol) since diagnosed. We were told to wash the spacer device every week in soapy water, then just to let it dry and NOT to rinse it out and the soap coats the sides and prevents the medicine "sticking" to them. Another doctor also remarked that 2am and around always seemed to be the worst time, and it was certainly true in ds case. If your ds starts to wheeze i would give him the prescribed amount immediatly, it should work within about 10 minutes. If not, and he seems to be getting worse i would see an emergency doctor. There are times though when they have made us wait hours, if that happens, go to your nearest a & e or call an ambulance as your ds may need to go in for a nebuliser. That does sound scary i know but hopefully it wont be necessary in your case as asthma can be managed successfully a lot of the time. If its any consolation, my ds spent a LOT of time in hospital with it at first but (touch wood) he hasnt had a bad attack for two years now (he is 6). Im sorry youre having a bad time of it but i hope this helps a bit xxx

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Sounds v like my DS too! Our hospital has a peadiatric respiratory nurse who is very helpful - you could see if you can get access to one as they know more about asthma in kids than some of the surgery asthma clinics. We have had to play around with dose and timing of inhalers a lot to get resonable control, we also have steroids for emergency use at home. My DS was 3 this weekend, he is on a very high dose of his brown inhaler and we've been told he is growing into rather than out of his asthma - that said he hasn't been in hospital for nearly a year and as he has got older it has got much easier to get him to co-operate with taking his medication. Hope you find someone locally who can answer your specific questions. X