help - advice on athsma (?) needed

[midden]

relatively new to mumsnet, trying to search for threads but page going blank like i've asked too much at once or something

dd (18 mths) diagnosed by gp this morning and we were given becotide (2 x daily) and salbutamol plus mask thingy. She has been pretty snotty since birth with lots of chesty coughs (quite loose sounding) but I just feel like this is very hasty - my instincts are to wait and see/ treat alternatively/not to give her drugs but am I being irresponsible?

I don't think there's any real evidence to suggest that young children get over-reliant on inhalers, but there's lots of evidence that untreated asthma, even when it appears to be mild, can cause long term damage to the lungs. The vast majority of children outgrow asthma as they get older, so your dd may well only have to use her inhalers briefly. I would just try, at least for while. I know it's hard to accept, I have been there, but there's too much at stake to ignore it IMHO.

Should add whehn ds was 4 he was given inhaler although only needed it as a preventer/

thanks hercules - I went mad yesterday cleaning room throwing out rugs washing all bedding and toys at 60 degrees so busy cleaning I forgot to make the tea. what age did ds outgrow ?

Very hard to tell as he only had symptoms at night never through exercise or day time. I f he didnt have his puff after a few days he would develop phlegmy coughs. We stopped giving the inhaler about 2 months ago and he's been fine. He was always too young to be tested but we were told when seeing a specialist about his nose - suspected polyps) that the amount he was having wouldnt cause any damage so better to have it on the offchance.

We washed the bedding every week at 60 but tbh thought the best thing to do with the soft toys was chuck them. You can also freeze them. Vacuum clean the bed as well as carpet everyday should help too.
We got rid of our dog which also made a huge difference and I carried on breastfeeding until he was 4 - no idea if it made a difference but have lots of allergies in our family.

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Midden -- may I just ask where you live? Roughly?

Edinburgh

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midden, I'm in Edinburgh too, and there are lovely asthma nurses based at Sick Kids who come round to lots of GP practices to do regular clinics. Maybe you could ask to speak to one of them?

thanks everyone - starting her on inhalors tomorrow. Can you beieve one of my so called friend lit up a ciggarette in the same room as dd minutes after I told her about dd's athsma? She has just split from dp but even so, I was really upset.

My friend used to smoke every time i went to see her so i stopped taking ds there as i couldnt really tell her not to in her own house. Then she gave me a rollocking for not coming to see her so often!