Reactive Airways & Asthma ...

**reAllytee** · 13-09-2009 21:24

So as we all know G likes to add things to his list of issues lol

Now he has always had issues being that he has a low immunity so when he started getting sick this Winter it was sorta expected iykwim.

Thing is along with ear infections he has had so many chest infections that it almost feels like its been never ending ! He has been on countless antibiotics & he hasnt been over prescribed them as that could really go against him when he truly needs them iykwim so have been keeping them for when he is quite severe.

Our Paed has said he has 'Reactive Airways' whatever that is or I dunno maybe thats nothing I have no clue when it comes to this stuff ( gimme Reflux any day

) & has been holding off calling it Asthma or giving him meds to treat it as such. He is a great Paed so I trust his methods because he doesnt hand out meds like lollies but I am starting to get to the end of my tether.

G is spending hours coughing non-stop & whilst not struggling to breath ( otherwise you would hear me kicking & fighting a hell of a lot louder ! ) he is often vomitting at least 5 times a day because he also has a great gag reflex still due to Reflux but its also listening to him coughing & coughing & coughing thats doing my head in. Its often keeping him awake because he just cant sleep & all the steps we seem to take forward in getting him sleeping for periods of 4hrs or more are dashed as soon as this cough builds in strength again ! When it does go away he doesnt cough through the day at all but will have a few coughing 'fits' of a nite but thats when he is doing great iykwim but most of the last 4mths have been spent like the last few nites with a barking heavy cough all day & nite with 'fits' lasting upwards of 30mins.

I am going to demand Asthma meds tomorrow .... Will it be worthwhile or am I just holding out hope ????

**Areca** · 14-09-2009 04:24

I'm no expert but it could be....even if it's not ventolin might help. My mum gets a cough through winter that will just start up and she sounds like she's going to die and she'll cough for around 30 minutes at a time. She was tested for asthma but she doesn't have asthma, however having some ventolin when she gets hit with a coughing fit helps her immensely.

DD1 is an asthmatic and her asthma just presented as a clear runny nose and a dry persistent cough through the colder months last year. No trouble breathing or anything. Even this year when she landed herself in hospital with an asthma attack (by the time we got to the hospital she had blue lips and had to stay overnight so it was a decent attack) you couldn't hear a wheeze without a stethoscope.
Be warned though...steroids can make kids psycho....really off the handle nuts. There's not much you can do in the way of ventolin but if they suggest a preventar to see if that helps then ask for a non steroid one, unless he's had steroids before and you know he is fine on them but even using ventolin causes DD1 to go a bit nuts, but when she had her attack and was given steroids in the hospital....wow, just wow. I had to make an appt. to see our GP for a follow up and she kicked the phone out of my hand three times, she would chase DD2 around the house just to kick or hit her for no reason what so ever. I set them up to watch playschool thinking it would distract DD1 enough so I could unpack from the hospital etc. I sat DD2 in the highchair so she couldn't go near DD1 and the second I turned my back DD1 was up slapping DD2 across the face repeatedly. These aren't things you need to be dealing with!

**naiwen** · 14-09-2009 07:55

DS has reactive airways disease, he was Dxd at 8 months I think (struggle to remember LOL), whenever he has a URI or chest infection it will affect him, also over exertion and when he is hysterically upset.

He will wheeze and cough and refuse fluids, we treat with ventolin and prednisone if it's very bad.

AB's will treat the infection that is triggering the RAD but they won't stop any wheezing/coughing/shortness of breath in the meantime.

DS RAD affects him quite badly but that is because of the scarring in his airways/lung tissue and history of CLD/RDS etc. And his reduced lung capacity of course!

**reAllytee** · 15-09-2009 00:34

Thanks lovelies ... I really couldnt get him to the doctors today after a very sleepless nite, having no car can truly suck some days !

I will get him there tomorrow & chat about where to go from here .... I just worry about another medication iykwim but then really the way he coughs some days & him vomitting more than normal & he cries so much from it, its awful !

**mum of 3** · 16-09-2009 11:43

MY DD2 was diagnosed with asthema earlier this year so far we have had no luck with ventolin but prednisolone has helped a little i haven found that she goes crazy as far as energy wise but it does make her hungary my other dd has had it a fair few times for food allergies and it has done the same to her as well.

hope you find something that helps