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Original poster

How are all the asthmatic children doing at the moment?

54 replies

foxinsocks · 04/01/2007 17:12

Dd appears ok having finally got over the chesty cough that feels like it was with us for months! We've gone back down to her normal steroid dose and fingers crossed (because she's back at school this week and bound to pick up something horrible!), we'll be able to stay at a lower dose for a while.

I feel a bit uneasy tbh - maybe it's something to do with the weather but normally by now, because of the cold air, she'd be coughing quite a bit. I'm just hoping it's not the calm before the storm iyswim.

How are all the other asthmatic ones at the moment?

OP posts:
welshboris · 05/01/2007 19:13

I'm not on here Greeny, just on this thread

I hope it is a just a case of bad luck the last few weeks.

Hope all the lovely ones on this thread have a healthy winter x

emkana · 05/01/2007 19:24

Singulair is a drug that is supposed to help with wheezing and to reduce inflammation, I think. Doesn't seem to have done much for ds so far, but apparently it helps brilliantly in 50 % of cases.
In small children they give it as granules (to mix with food), or for older ones they can chew it. (cherry flavour)

foxinsocks, since we saw the lung specialist late November not a lot has happened. He suggested several tests, but I haven't had any appointments through. Will have to chase it up by the looks of it.

Original poster
foxinsocks · 05/01/2007 19:27

oh dear emkana, but not a surprise that you'll have to chase stuff up AGAIN.

Think singulair is also supposed to help with asthma triggered by allergies because it helps block some chemical that triggers the asthma/allergic response.

Hope she continues to improve welshy.

OP posts:
pointydog · 05/01/2007 19:37

dd2 not too great, thanks for asking!

She's had a fulsome meaty cough for weeks now, back on becotide since the autumn and I think being indoors a lot at relatives' over-heated houses recently has made things much worse. 20 ventolin puffs at grandma's last night - we were a bit worried!

Let's hope they all feel better soon.

WeWishUAMerryXmasNANappyNewYr · 05/01/2007 19:40

ds is on 8 puffs on ventolin and 8 puffs of atrovent a day. he used to be on becotide but that was replaced by the atrovent. still incredibly wheezy. once he has had his inhaler and it kicks in it is ok but then after about 3 hours he starts getting wheezy again. he hates his mask aswell screams when i even get it out of the cupboard

Original poster
foxinsocks · 05/01/2007 19:49

I don't think the heating helps either pointy.

how old is your ds wewishu? I found mine got far better with the masks from about age 4 onwards. Toddler age was the worst age really.

OP posts:
welshboris · 05/01/2007 19:52

Why doesnt the heating help?

I know bugger all about asthma

Original poster
foxinsocks · 05/01/2007 20:00

well 2 fold with us really

firstly, the overheating rather than heating per se - so you go into a shop that has the hot air belting out. Then you step back into the cold and it means dd gets a sort of 'cold air shock' because the drop in temperature is so extreme (that often triggers off a big cough).

Also, having the heating on dries out the air and dry air has always been problematic for us.

OP posts:
Overrun · 05/01/2007 20:01

its awful having to give them all this medication, and even worse that they are wheezy and unwell. Good for me to know that there are others out there, because although I know statiscally childhood rates of Asthma are high, we are lucky enough to not know many other families with Asthma iyswim
Emanka, Serevent is a green inhaler that is a slow releasing form of ventolin, it releases over 12 hours, we found it particularly useful to give at night to alleviate bed time coughing. It is not supposed to be given to under fours and ds1 has been on it since he turned three
Ds1 didn't respond well to Singulair and neither did I, it must work for some people though.
I think myself and ds1 and dt1 are most affected by viruses, hence being worse in winter.

welshboris · 05/01/2007 20:17

My house is cold though, if I leave my heating on in the night is there anything I can do to counter this?

Off to google it now, but some "real" advice would be gratefully recieved

ThisTime · 05/01/2007 20:25

Please can I ask any of you with dc under 2y. My DS had bronchiolitis at 8 weeks and was in an oxygen (clear box) over his head for 8 nights with and IV in each foot. He is now 14 months and has had several 1/2 nights stay in hospital, and been sent home with a happy wheezer. I have a salbutamol (blue) inhaler and been told to use as and when chesty as they cannot diagnose asthma in a child under two years of age.

Has anyone heard that this can't be diagnosed at this early age?

pointydog · 05/01/2007 20:57

sorry to hear about your dd welshboris.

I don't know exactly what it is with central heating but I think it partly made dd2's eczema worse when she was little and it now affects her asthma. Dustmites breed more rapidly in hot humid atmospheres and I feel this has contributed to her problems. But there are so many different triggers.

Overrun · 05/01/2007 22:44

Welsh boris, I have also heard that having their bedroom window open a crack, makes the air less moist.
If any of her problems are asthma/allergy related, and they might not be as you know, she could just be having a bad run of it virus wise.
If allergy related, then air her bed. If you have time or want to try it, hoover mattress every day, I don't manange this myself. I try and do it weekly.
What is easy to do is to take the duvet off the bed during the day and air it.

brimfull · 05/01/2007 22:52

ds has been so much better since being on singulair.He has stayed out of hospital and hasn't needed nebs or prednisilonesince starting.....

Hope all the poorly lo's get well soon.

WeWishUAMerryXmasNANappyNewYr · 06/01/2007 02:09

this time - i was told they can't diagnose under 12 months, 6 months if it is really noticeable. ds too had bronchioloitus (sp??) and has had loads of chest infections and is constantly wheezy. on 2 diff inhalers 4 times a day. they said even though they couldn't diagnose the asthma he basically was and they gave it some other name which for the life of me i can't remember.

chlochlo · 06/01/2007 08:11

DS has just finished a course of antibiotics and steriods as well he's been on singular granuals for nearly a year and not sure if they make much difference as he seems constantly chesty.
He was diagnosed with astma at the hospital when he was under a year after having various tests done, chest exray's a water soluable meal and blood's at one point before diagnosed a&e said he was a happy wheezer.

Original poster
foxinsocks · 06/01/2007 09:51

it's difficult thistime - my ds was hospitalised with bronchiolitis when he was a baby as well and had ventolin inhalers on and off for (I think) the first 3 years but since then, has no breathing problems at all (he's 5 now) and I can't believe (unless we get a sudden deterioration in his health) that he will be asthmatic.

His sister had obvious hayfever from when she was 2 and exercise induced asthma at that point and although they would never say she had asthma, they thought (given the family history and her allergies) that it was likely. She's now 6 and is permanently on inhaled steroids.

welshy, you may well have to visit your asthma nurse (once dd is a bit better!) - normally they are full of good info. Otherwise, asthma UK are a font of knowledge.

OP posts:
Original poster
foxinsocks · 06/01/2007 09:54

poor ds chlochlo - sounds like you've been through the mill with him

OP posts:
chlochlo · 06/01/2007 12:41

He's a happy laid back child and takes his inhalors pretty well (most of the time)

singersgirl · 06/01/2007 13:05

Just caught up with this again.

DS2 (now 5) was another bronchiolitis baby (5 days hospitalisation at 9 weeks) and was a 'happy wheezer' till 13 months when he turned into a most unhappy, gasping-for-breath and major recession under the ribs wheezer. He was diagnosed asthmatic after several further hospitalisations/bad attacks between 1 and 2. He has been much better since he turned 3, but is still on Serevent, Singulair and Flixotide, though we stop the Flxotide in the summer now. He is still wheezy with every cold but he has not had a day off school for asthma for over a year. He also is a cold weather cougher.

DS1 (8) is less asthmatic, and since I changed his diet dramatically when he was 5 he has had only 2 attacks - both within days of Halloween a year apart. I don't know what the specific trigger is, or whether it is just the combined overload of colours, flavourings, sulphites in glucose syrup and cold smoky weather (also firework time).

DH was severely asthmatic as a child but rarely needs a puffer now.

Sorry to hear that some of you are having such a rough winter and hope things improve.

ThisTime · 06/01/2007 19:03

Thanks all - I thought I was getting 'fobbed off' being a first time mum and all that! I was also told an old wives tale that November babies are wheezy babies

It just seems like a permanent cough - one minute its croup the next its not!

Hope you all your LO's get better soon.

nappyaddict · 06/01/2007 19:38

if your lo is over one i would push for a asthma test as they will do them at this age .. at least that's what my hospital told me.

swedishmum · 07/01/2007 00:17

My tiny dd was a bronchiolitis baby the week she should have been born - at just 3 weeks. She'd already had a twin die and had London's last baby ventilator on hold for her - they really weren't sure she'd make it. She's now 11 and is the only one of my 3 older children without wheezes/asthma/allergies. After spending her first Christmas in hospital she's proof that some children outgrow it.

nappyaddict · 07/01/2007 00:27

ds1 was 4 weeks when he was first hospitalised with rapid breathing. its heart wrenching.

misdee · 07/01/2007 00:30

just thought id; let you know that i dropped dd1 down to 6 puffs of becotide today, if she is ok on weds then will go back to our usual 4 puffs. she has only used her salbutamol inhaler once extra today mid afternoon.

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