Bronchiolitis Advice

[MichelleeG]

Hi! I was wondering if anybody had advice on dealing with Bronchiolitis? I’ve seen lots of threads on here and it seems like a common thing.

My issue at the moment is that my little boy sleeps in the day and won’t sleep at night. Me and my husband are having to take it in turns to look after him as he is literally up every hour in the night. We both have had the flu for a while and are not recovering because we’re not getting any sleep.

Did anybodies babies sleeping pattern change whilst having the infection?

Thanks in advance!

Have they given you a ventolin inhaler&spacer kit yet? That was the only thing that started making a difference for us.

We’ve been to the doctors twice, out of ours GP and hospital twice but they keep discharging without prescribing anything.

The reason why we went to hospital was because our GP was concerned with his breathing and felt that his right lung didn’t sound right. And when he was born (5 months ago) he was in ICU with a lung infection so we’re always cautious with anything to do with his lungs.

But whenever we’ve gone to the hospital they disagree and think his stats are fine and we are sent home with no advice. Such a crazy thing to deal with.

Ask your GP for ventolin to see if it makes a difference.

When bronchiolitis gets severe enough for A&E to get worried their first line of treatment is high doses of ventolin anyway so it's a sensible home-treatment to find out if more modest doses settle him enough to not need anything else.

If your little boy seems lethargic or has a tinge of blue around the lips? Then call an ambulance. Otherwise call 111 and ask for an assessment. At the very least, take him to see GP this morning or to A&E if no GP appointments. Bronchiolitis could cause severe wheeze (smiliar to asthma attack, asthma is not diagnosed in young children). I had a similar story with my 11 month old. Slept in the day, kept waking me up at night (when wheeze tends to get worse). I had a cold myself, very sleep deprived. Took him to a GP, was advised to give Calpol. Thankfully, my friend turned up the following day, told me to call an ambulance. My son was given oxygen and salbutamol at our address before being transferred to hospital where he stayed for 2 nights. It tuned out that his wheeze was so bad at that point his lungs had practically collapsed ("silent lung"). I don't know why GP didn't check my son's oxygen levels. Bronchilotis could be very dangerous in young children, I urge you to look further medical advice.

Ahh thank you, I will definitely ask for this as we’ve always been told there is nothing that can help which is frustrating when he is struggling.

Further to my earlier message - I did speak to a senior GP about my son's wheeze not being picked up earlier- I was told about "silent lung" or wheeze deteriorating over the next 24 hours.

I wouldn’t say so. Main symptoms have been constant vomiting up feeds so drinking less milk, occasional struggling to breathe and now not sleeping in the night.

We’ve been to the doctors, out of ours GP and hospital twice following calling 111 and we keep getting discharged. The hospital keep saying it’s fine because Bronchilolits is such a common thing that happens this time of year and there is no treatment. And apparently his stats are fine which is strange as our GP said he was concerned with his breathing and right lung.

I’m so sorry you had to go through that, what an awful experience. I think I will keep seeking medical advice until I’m taken seriously.

I should probably add that we’ve been to the doctors twice, out of ours GP and hospital twice but they keep discharging him without prescribing anything.

The reason why we went to hospital was because our GP was concerned with his breathing and felt that his right lung didn’t sound right. And when he was born (5 months ago) he was in ICU with a lung infection so we’re always cautious with anything to do with his lungs.

But whenever we’ve gone to the hospital they disagree and think his stats are fine and we are sent home with no advice. We are always told everything is fine and normal because Bronchiolitis is a common thing to deal with at this time of year.

Main symptoms are vomiting up feeds so taking less milk, occasionally struggling with breathing and now not sleeping at night. I do feel like we’re not been taken seriously when seeking medical advice.