Asthma, steroids and heart defects

[mumofeight]

Sorry this might be long !

My almost three year old dd has Congenital Heart Defects and has also been diagnosed with asthma, we had a return visit to the GP today as she is still very wheezy at night, and breathless on exertion. By the time we got in to see the GP DD was very breathless and blue. The GP was quite shocked at her colour, I was rather pleased in an odd way as she always seems to do a 'Barbiegirl' impression the minute we walk in the door and makes me look like a paranoid parent hehe ! Least she showed the GP what she can be like ! We know from her last cardiac appointment that the blueness is not related to her heart defects and is down to the asthma .

We discussed her meds, at the moment she is on two puffs of Ventolin four times a day . The GP said she is loath to put her on the brown inhaler as its steroid and the GP's view is that ' she is too small as it is' ( she is perfect thanks !!) and one side effect of the steroids is stunted growth.

She has been prescribed a non steroidal inhaler called Salmeterol Xinafoate ( with the instruction ' make sure you don't lose it, they are £29 each )

Have any other children here been prescribed this, did it work ?

Also does anyone know if there are gadgets that might improve things? So far we have had suggested ionisers, dehumidifiers, and humidifiers !! No confusion there then

On another note, showed GP what I thought was a bit of excema, which keeps appearing on various parts of DD ! GP says she doesn't think its excema, but chicken pox, pointed out that this is the third or possibly fourth time she has diagnosed chicken pox in the last 18 months ! GP seems to think that DD has some kind of lingering chickenpox/shingles virus. I have to admit that I have never heard of this in my life so once again, any experience of this please ? GP seemed to think she is not infectious though

Thanking you in advance for reading even if you can't help !!

as for chicken pox virus, could you see another doc? i have just recently had steroids for my asthma but have no experience of using them for children. hope someone else can help you better x

I don't know anything about heart problems but both of my boys have asthma and both have steroids for it. When ds1 was first given his steroids inhaler he also had regular check-ups at the childrens outpatients dept of the local hospital. His height and weight were monitored there too and he had no problems at all. At 6yrs old he wears 9-10yrs sized clothing. He now just has annual reviews with the asthma nurse at our GPs surgery. Ds2's dx is fairly recent but he too is monitored by the asthma nurse, although more regularly than ds1. He too has had no growth problems.

IIRC the risk of stunted growth with steroid inhalers is very small. (There must be a better way of phrasing that ) If the non-steroid one isn't effective for your dd then it would be worth asking your GP which would be riskier for your dd - stunted growth or a full-blown asthma attack due to poorly-controlled asthma?

Does your GPs surgery have an asthma nurse who you could talk to? At our surgery the GPs readily admit that the asthma nurse has far more knowledge on the subject than the GPs do.

The humidifiers vs dehumidifiers seems to depend on what triggers the asthma in the first place. Personally my own asthma gets much worse when the air is warm and damp. For others the trigger can be when there's not enough moisture in the air.

Hi There
DS2 is 4 & has used inhalers for a couple of years. He was 3 months prem with chronic lung disease was ventilated & oxygen etc.
His lungs have improved loads but has been left with asthma.
He has tried several inhalers & medicines, like you our GP & us were reluctant to give steroids but tbh the only one that consistently works for ds2 is the becotide, he is seen at the asthma clinic regularly, they are meant to monitor growth but he never lets her near him & I always cut the dose right back when he is well. In the summer he had a few short periods not using it at all.
If your dd does have a virus she may just need a short course of something to settle her down, this non steroid one may do the job.
My ds2's growth certainly has not been effected he is HUGE.
Take care