asthma under 12 mths

[cheeky boys mum]

HI All
Just wondering f anyone has or had their baby diagnosed with asthma.
My son is 9mths old. When he was 5 wks he went to hosp with brochilitus and has since had it reccured and is now being treated as asthmatic.
Apparently one of his triggers is catching colds can go straight to his chest and his breathing is quite affected.
It is starting to get under control w/ventalin and will be on a preventative every day even when well. Not the worst thing that can happen as it is manageable but I guess if attacks are triggered by colds etc I am worried about him mixing with other young babies. He is due to go into childcare next month or so as I was going back to work.
Do I stay home? I know you cannot protect them from every little bug and the preventative is meant to help keep him well....
anyway I was interested to hear from anyones experiences.
Cheers
Julie

[Rell]

Hi Julie
My daughter was diagnosed with asthma when she was about 12mths. Her asthma seams to be triggered by cold weather so we are fortunate that she only needs to be on her preventer during the colder months. She went into daycare at 10 mths until she was 2 and I think as long as the asthma is managed properly with a preventer it should not be to much of a problem. All daycare centres have asthma management forms for you to fill in so they know what are the triggers and what should be done if an attack happens. It is inevitable that kids will get colds and staying home won't stop your child from picking up colds. I know it can be a bit worring at times but your GP should be able to adjust medication if needed to keep the asthma under control. Good Luck

[xkwzit]

Our DD1 was wheezy as an infant. Many of her colds went onto her chest and gave her mild breathing difficulties. I nearly freaked out the first time she was prescribed ventolin The doctor told me that even if she responded to the ventolin treatment, it did not mean she had asthma. She said asthma could be difficult to diagnose in children under 2, as many kids who were wheezy infants grew out of it. She is now 3.5 and we have not had a wheezy episode for years.

So if your son's problems are mild, he may well grow out of it, eventually

Best of Luck

[cheeky boys mum]

Thank you for replying. :)
I feel better just having voiced my concerns.
I have to give myself a reality check sometimes because it is manageable its just getting to that point and hopefully he will grow out of it as he gets older.

[mumof2girls]

Just a quick question, doesn't ventolin, bricanyl and the preventers etc all have steroids in them? I know my hubby's does and when they told me that my youngest had asthma at a young age (and yes the cold triggered hers as well) rather than give her ventolin I would stand in a steamy bathroom etc to help clear her chest as I refused to give her steroids, my neice now does the same for her son and he is a pretty bad asthmatic but she has the puffers just in case. My daughter hasn't had an "attack" since she was 2.

I guess my question was have you checked out all the other options available for asthmatics rather than just rely on what the doctor prescribes?

I'm not trying to get on anyones nerves here as my daughter is now 11 and things may have changed medication wise, but for young children to have steroids at such a young age seems wrong to me.

Let me know please!

[cheeky boys mum]

Yes they do contain steroids. I raised this with the doctor and was told they are in such a minute quatity it would have no side effects.
We are going through a hospitals respiratory medicine wing so I do feel we are in the best hands because I am also aware at such a young age asthma can be over or under diagnosed.
You have raised a valid concern and I think we all need to be aware of all options available and have been on the net to explore natural alternatives as well however I do believe in my sons case they would be to compliment anything prescrided by the doctor.
He was quite sick, incredibly rattly chest, sometimes gagging to get a breath, gone off food, I had to keep up small BF to get fluids into him etc. Like anything there are different degrees but he is on the improve and by the sounds of things as he is so young it is likely he will grow out of it.
As a mother we all want to do the best for our kidsand make informed decisions. At the end of the day I think we do.

[mumof2girls]

Good to hear that the medication won't have any side effects. I hope it helps your little boys and that in the future he does grow out of it. You are right by saying that we all want to the best for our kids and make informed decisions, I couldn't agree more. As I said before my daughter is older now and I'm not up to date with the medication anymore. I wish you and your son well for the future! :)

[Ojoj]

Hi I have an almost 11mth old she has had 3 'colds' all of which they tell me was Bronchiolitis. DD had immunisations and within days had her colds. This is all new to me, Asthma has been mentioned twice now (oh but we won't dioagnose under 12mths). First she was on an Elixar which did open the lungs up a bit. Then she ened up with virus throat infection/ red sore toncils, so then it was antibiotics. Back to the Dr's again which resulted in 2 single doses of steroids (i didn't know what to make of this). More antibiotics as the virus was still present. A review followed 3 days later, it was decided to stop the Elixar keep up the antibiotics and start on the nebulizer. We have been doing this now for 3 days it does seem to be helping. The Dr we have been seeing is fantastic, l just don't know what to make of all this. It has been eight weeks now with the 3rd 'cold'............

Any thoughts ideas, comments would be helpful

Thanks for listening

Ojoj

[kamckellar]

hi ojoj,my twins were born 11 weeks early and as a result of being ventilated they both have chronic lung disease.basically this means that the tiniest cold is so huge for them.they are constantly hospitalised when they get a cold.so now they have been diagnosed with asthma.they recently turned 2 and the respiroritry paediatrician only now would say yes its asthma.they are now on flixitide jnr day and night as a preventative and ventilin when required.steriods help the lungs to function more efficiently.thats why women who know or have time b4 a premmie birth are given 2 injections to help the baby breathe when born.i also use a vaporiser in their room of a night which helps by keeping the air moist.also if you use a gas heater in winter place a bowl of water on top if you can as the heater dries the air out and the water evaporates replacing lost moisture.a wheezy baby may not necessarily mean asthma.but theres nothing worse than watching your baby struggle to breathe.so now both girls have a cold thanx to me passing mine on to them and so far no wheeze.hopefully its that their lungs are stronger this year and that the preventative has started to work.ive been told they may grow out of it.but only time will tell i guess.

[nemosmum]

Hi all,

I was born with severe eczema and then when I was about 12 months old it went away and then I suffered my first Asthma attack. I was diagnosed with chronic asthma and was heavily medicated, spending alot of time in hospital as a child. I have been using ventolin for 26 years and I do believe there are side effects. As a child I would get severe headaches which turned into migraines as an adult after using my medications. Also these drugs are addictive and they become so apart of your life that you take them even when you dont really need to- you do this because you become so scared of having a severe attack that you will do any thing to prevent them. My Asthma was stress related as well as being aggravated during colder weather. As an adult I have learnt to manage my stress levels to minimise my asthma and no longer use medications every day. Oddly enough when I got pregnant with my son my asthma totally disappeared and only came back after I stopped breast feeding. I use my medication once a week now and my asthmas under control but I live in fear that my son will get asthma. He is 11 months now and has already been diagnosed with a dust mite allergy (40% of kids with this allergy get asthma too) He has had a wheezing chest before but my doctor always says his chest is clear. I have been so many times to her that she finally told me there is a thing called "happy baby wheezing syndrome" or something like that and it affects larger babies that are other wise healthy. My doctor said that these babies often wheeze but that there is nothing wrong, I dont know whether she is just joking and trying to make me stop worrying or if there really is a syndrome?
I know that asthma is very treatable and not neccesarily life threatening but I remember how it felt to be in the middle of an attack and I would not wish that upon any child. I also dont know if I could cope with seeing my son go through that....hopefully he will never have to experience it
sorry about the length of this reply :)

[cheeky boys mum]

Hi All
I am also worrying about my son having a severe attack.
He is now also on flexotide am & pm and ventolin as required. The past week we are back on the second stage which increases the puffs of flexotide and ventalin 4 puffs 4 times a day. He caught another bad cold and is also a major trigger for him so I am not looking forward to winter.Night time is awful. Last night I was up with him about 3.00am giving him ventolin and on the verge of taking him to hospital as it didnt seem to stop the coughing but it soon eased.
I am taking him back to his specialist tomorrow. I did call him last week and he wasnt overly concearned because he is still eating and happily enough crawling around room just sounding like a steam engine :confused:

Anyway personally I feel there are so many varying degrees and I dont feel confident enough that I know enough so I am taking him back to be checked out.
Before he was diagnosed at a young age he was also a happy wheezer and I think there are happy wheezers without any problems. Asher was just unlucky and obviously has a weakness in his chest. So orlandosmum, dont worry too much just keep an eye out if anything changes.

I believe asthma is under and over diagnosed and its difficult if there is just a cough as some babies dont wheeze or are they developing an infection so they need antibiotics? We are reliant on our doctors care and our instincts as a mother.
I just want to the right thing. I think this has got to be one of the hardest oparts to being a mum.

Ojoj - I hope she is better soon.

[Ojoj]

Hi all it's Ojoj here again

Firstly thank you KAMCKELLAR, ORLANDOSMUM and CHEEKY BOYS MUM for your thoughts and comments.

We have been back to the Dr's for a review good news DD is clear of any weeze or crackle Big relief. It may be that it will be a case of 'Happy Weezer' or a 70% chance of her developing asthma was what we have been told but for me she is well so we will work on the positives.

[cheeky boys mum]

great news Ojoj :)