Asthma Again? Im So Fed up on Not Getting Answers from Our Dr!

Have the tested him for bronchitis, bronchialitis, pneumonia, croup, whooping cough, etc?? Have they recommended an allergy test? Can you take him to a pediatric ER instead of his pediatrician?

Hope the little man feels better and you get some REAL answers :(

If you have asthma and you get any infection it canl trigger the asthma. I have a brother with asthma, a child with asthma and now grandchildren with it. Our son was on inhalers and they didn't help and finally we found a good allergist and he put him on large doses of Prednisone which scared me but he said you have to clear up the infection in the little tubes and not just the big ones or it will come back continually. It worked and yet if they get sick at all like with a cold it can trigger it if not under control. I would see a good allergist and get on top of this now.

Asthma is constant breathing problems. If he has breathing problems eveyr 2 months, it isn't asthma, although the breathing problem can develop from always sneezing & coughing from a cold b/c the airways can start closing up from doing so much work.

It could be allergies, esp if its dusty in his room (no offense). Try keeping his room as dust free as possible. Don't just dust but use a cloth and dusting spray like Endust to pick up the dust. Keep his bed covered by making his bed in the morning to keep any settling dust off the actual sheets/blankets he'll lay with. Get him a hyperallergenic pillow. Toss any stuffed animals he sleeps with and curtains in the dryer once a week on no heat. Keep his bookcase covered so the books will stay dust free. If you have carpet, vaccuum in the morning after you have dusted.

This is VERY normal for kids to get sick so much at this age. Just think of it this way...he is building up his immune system, so by the time he starts school in a few years, he'll have a strong immunity.

My son (now 7) has Allergy & Cold induced Asthma. Sounds just like what your son has. Whenever he gets a cold he gets wheezy and coughs a lot. The allergies are not as bad since he's on allergy meds. He was a lot worse when he was younger and now that he's older it's not as bad. We used to do the nebulizer and sometimes get a prescription for prednisone (as steroid) and it would help a lot. I did take a lot of days off because he would cough and wheeze so much he wouldn't make it to school. Not much more you can do other than the nebulizer and prednisone. I think just call up some doctors and tell them your son has cold induced asthma and that you need a doctor that is familiar with this. I used to dread so badly whenever he got sick because I just knew how bad he got. Good luck!

Asthma is not fun and its a long process to figure out the best preventative measures! My daughter had similar problems at that age. It seemed like once a month she was on the nebulizer. She only needs meds when she get sick and now (at 5) I know that her triggers are allergies - worse in the spring than fall. I can give her flovent in an inhaler now when she gets a cold. If it gets to her lungs then I add the albuterol. I was doing pulmacort in the neb when she was little and adding albuterol for wheezing. Some drs recommend pulmacort for the duration of flu season as a preventative measure. My daughter wasn't that severe so she didn't need that. Asthma and allergies tend to go hand in hand so that is something you may want to look into at some point. I didn't seem to get any good info from the pediatricians either. You may want to try an asthma / allergy specialist. Good luck! Breathing problems are no fun for mom or baby!

I am asthmatic, and there are many things that can trigger it. Eventually, you may be able to do an allergy panel to figure out exactly what it is that is triggering his. For me, its cats, dogs, dust and certain outside "stuff" (ragweed, etc.) Anytime I stir up a lot (or a little) dust I have an attack. If I get a cold, it manifests in my lungs and triggers an attack. Also: cold air itself, can trigger the lungs to clamp down, so if you take him outside in the winter, put a scarf over his nose and mouth. When he breathes in, the air will be slightly warmed and less likely to make his lungs seize up.

I disagree with P.S. below. It is true that one always "has" asthma... but it can be controlled such that one is asymptomatic for months. Otherwise, her advice seems sound. But you could absolutely get flare ups of asthma every two months or so. That's kind of the definition of it.

It sounds like you might want to take him to a specialist. It sounds like the nebulizer is treating the attack, but not the underlying problem, which is why he is flaring up so often.

Good luck! I wasn't officially diagnosed until I was in my teens, but I was impacted in my childhood because I couldn't run and play without getting winded. You are ahead of the game with your little guy because you can learn how to control it so it doesn't effect his life.

I wonder if he has pnemonia and needs antibiotics to get rid of the infection? Sounds like he might have an underlying cause and not just a cold. Don't know, but if you are doubting your doctor, just go see someone else. It can only help.

My youngest son had a lot of problems with asthma and colds and allergies he is now 5 and it's not so bad. He was put on Singular when he was 2 and that really helped( takes a couple of weeks to get it back under control), then when he was 2.5 he had his tonsils and adenoids out and he didn't get sick for a year not even a cold. Check into these things.

Are you seeing an allergist? We had the same problem with our son, and the allergist put him on Singulair and zyrtec, and he never had a really bad flare again, and its been several years.

If your son has asthma, which it sounds like he does, it will not go away. It will periodically rear it's ugly head, most likely during illnesses it sounds. You say asthma like, but it sounds like he has asthma. You will need to treat him for it. If you don't already see an allergist i would highly recommend a pediatric one.

I too have to disagree with PS about asthma being constant breathing problems. I have severe asthma and have hospitalized many times throughout my life starting as an infant, and my last hospitalization was last year and i am 40 years old now. Despite having severe asthma, I do not have, nor have I ever had constant breathing problems. Now my asthma is severe, and I have never in my life ever been able to run, not more than a few feet, without an attack. I also can't stay in the cold, and every time I get sick my asthma acts up as well as when I am exposed to anything I am allergic to. It is called illness induced asthma, exercise induced asthma and weather induced asthma, and allergy induced asthma. I have them all. But basically I just have asthma. All asthma is induced from something. Allergens are most often a culprit as is illness and weather changes and exercise. Both my kids have asthma. My daughters acts up most often when she runs or exercises, but has had some problems during illnesses. My son only has problems when he gets sick with colds, but not all colds. Everyone who has asthma reacts to different things and some only react sometimes not all the times. I am unusual in that my asthma is so bad I get it for everything. So having said all that, you have two choices of treatment. You can choose to use medication on a daily basis hoping that whatever triggers it will be minimized by daily treatment, and it usually is, so if you get flareups with illness, next time you are sick your asthma won't be as bad if you are on daily treatment. So if you put your son on daily treatment these flareups will not be as bad when he is sick. I have been on intermittent daily treatment my entire life. I take myself off when I can because the meds are not that great for a persons body, but of course it can be better than some of the consequences of no treatment. My kids on the other hand are not on any daily treatment. I have nebulizers for both of them and inhalers. I choose to treat them only as needed. Depending on the severity of their symptoms that will be re-evaluated as needed. But as I said before, if your son has asthma and sounds like he does, primarily illness induced asthma, then you need to figure out if it would be beneficial to put him on daily treatment, which I am not sure is even an option as he is so young. But you will need to treat the symptoms when he has a flareup. Things you can do are try to catch it early. If you know he is getting a cold, start the neb treatments before he is struggling to breathe. Make sure you do the treatments even if he seems okay at the moment. for example you gave him a neb treatment in the morning and he has been great all day, so you skip it before bed, and then he is up all night wheezing. Then the next day even with treatments he continues to wheeze. So if you had done the treatments throughout the day and before bed the night before, he probably would do much better. The trick with asthma is recognizing the early signs. which is really hard to do with a pre-verbal child, heck with any child. I had trouble recognizing it until I was an adult. But do what you can to try to catch it early. And treat regularly. But do see a pediatric allergist, they can give you the best options for treatment.

My oldest has reactive airway disease ( I think they still call it that) where she gets asthma-like symptoms whenever she gets a cold. She needed to be on inhalers (sometimes steroids) after every cold or upper respiratory virus.

It's not in our family either, and it was very difficult to deal with when she was younger. We spent many nights up with her while she was coughing and those coughs would seem to last forever. I feel for you. It isn't easy.

Make sure you talk to your doctor about possible allergies, which can trigger these symptoms as well. Kids do get sick alot, so every 2 months doesn't seem unreasonable to me, but I know how long the coughing and breathing stuff lasts. Sorry you're going through this.

I know you are frustrated. He probably does have asthma. It is hard to diagnose while they are still so young. We had never had anyone with asthma in our families either so it was all very foreign to us. Our daughter actually had a coughing type of asthma..

It took till our daughter was 2 to verify it. In the meantime, purchase an electric room filter just for his room. We had a hunter. I changed out the filter every 4 weeks because it is so dusty here.

If possible pull out any carpets you have, or just pull them out of his room or purchase a really good vacuum and try to Vacuum at least 2 times a week. take down any drapes in his room. All of his stuffed animals need to be either stored away or placed every once in a while in the dryer on air dry to get rid of the dust.

His bedroom needs to be a sanctuary for him.

Ask if he can have enough medication for you to nebulize him when he has these episodes without having to go to the doctors office.

Another thing we learned on night was that she was really gasping and coughing. We took her to the emergency room. By the time we got there she had totally stopped coughing.. They explained her exposure to the super cold weather that night had opened her airways! It was a good piece of info to have. They said to give it a try when she was struggling. It really did work.

Our daughter grew out of it, but not till she was in about 5th grade.

I have asthma and all my kids were prone to asthma like symptoms when they were little whenever they got sick. Thankfully they all pretty much grew out of it. 1 still has exercise induced asthma but nothing like what I have. We used the nebulizer on all 3 probably up until they were about 3. My oldest had it worse than the other 2. I know it is scary, but not uncommon. Hopefully your son will grow out of too as his respiratory system matures. Good luck, keep pushing the dr's for answers if you aren't feeling like you are getting the right answers.

I don't have any suggestions, but wanted to tell you I understand your frustration and don't give up. The Dr.'s (4 of them) all kept telling me my 18month old kept getting new viruses because she was in day care every 2 weeks, and kept her on antibiotics all the time for almost a year. I kept doing research and figured out it was actually a dairy allergy on my own.

Don't give up and just keep fighting you know your child the best.