Beclometasone...may be a confusing post

[hennipenni]

so please bare with me. Has anybody ever been or know of anybody who has been prescribed this for "asthmatic tendencies" with out first going down the reliever route?

Friends DD had been coughing for fortnight before seeing doc, doc saw, listened to chest and prescribed steroid inhaler saying didn't want to say she is asthmatic but may have tendencies towards it. Now I remember from my nursing days that a reliever is usually prescribed first followed by preventer if symptoms return/not controlled by reliever. Just wanted to check as it doesn't sound right to me to prescribe the preventer before trying the reliever.

Sounds odd to me too. Mine were only given preventers after they had a confirmed diagnosis of asthma. When I suspected ds2 had asthma he was given just a reliever to start with to see if it had any effect on the coughing.

IS that the brown preventer?

HAve never heard of anyone being proscribed preventer before reliever before, but maybe theory is if coughing but not actually having attacks preventer would stop the irritation.

If it is result of mild virus or cold then preventer may be better than antibiotics at getting rid of it, and better side-effects wise.

Takes a couple of weeks to build up and have an effect though iirc.

About the 'asthmatic tendancies' thing, I think mild asthma can be hard to diagnose for definate. Also some children may have it mildly when brought on by a cold or virus, but may grow out of it early - so never really know for definate. I wouldn't worry too much about that bit.

I would say it was unusual, but I would personally trust gp on this one.

DOn't have medical training, but have some experience of asthma (I am and have been since childhood, dp ahs it reasonably severely and ds is showing tendancies).

Yes Armadillo it is. DD is asthmatic and went down the reliever then the preventer route so I have a little knowledge plus whats left from my nursing. It just doesn't sit right for a 3 yr old to me. Anyway her mum has spoken to practise nurse and has an appointment to see her tonight.

She has also been on it for a couple of weeks with no noticable difference to her cough.

hope her mum gets reassured or medicine changed.

It would take at least a couple of weeks of being on it before they started noticing any difference (iirc).