Congested Son... Could It Be Asthma or Allergies????

My Daughter Had rsv numerous times when she was little, try a cool mist humidifyer, it really worked.
V.

I had the same thing, also with my second son. It ended up that he kind of hung onto the milk after feeding and that made sort of a wheezing sound. Pretty scarey but he was fine. By all means if you are worried take him to a specialist., Peace of mind is important.

By the time my son was 1 yr, he was in the hospital 5 times with pneumonia. We did the entire medical model from allergie shots, inhalers, drugs, you name it, we did it.

I figured out what the cause was about 7 years later.
ALL the cleaners I was using in the house, espeically the Tide, (cuz that was I used and he would be close to me and breathe the detergent) Dreft, Ivory Snow on his stuff and the household cleaners I used.

Just a thought... Wish I would have known that many years before, would have saved alot of sleepless nights and anxiety

I have a soon to be 3 year old who has asthma. For the first year of his life I was concerned about his breathing but his pediatrician said we shouldn't be concerned and that they don't diagnose asthma that early. We decided to take him to a pulmonoligist who confirmed that he had asthma. He has been on maintenance medication ever since and it has helped a lot. Early on it was a nebulizer treatment that was very time consuming and now he uses an inhaler once a day. I would recommend you taking your son to a specialist.

They put my daughter on a nebulizer when she was 6-8 weeks old for congestion and wheezing. Maybe ask your ped. about it... it really does help. The breathing treatments got rid of the congestion within a few days.

There are some supplements that might help with congestion/allergies, but you need to be sure you get them from a source that is pure and effective. Regular old flintstone's just don't cut it. We had lots of respiratory issues with our daughter, adn we now have her on powder supplments and some other things that really seem to have helped her. I'm happy to give you more information.

One thing you might want to try also would be a cool mist humidifier, adn some eucalyptus essential oil in the nursery. It really will help, as it helped our daughter. **Don't get a vicks plug-in since this is just toxins and chemicals that gets dispensed in the air which may further irritate*

Good luck!!

Please send me a private message if you are interested in hearing alternatives.

K

I replied to your other post as well, but wanted to also mention that chiropractic might help some of your son's issues. Make sure you find a chiro who specializes in children. It is not the popping, cracking experience you probably think of when you think chiro- for babies it is more like a very gentle head massage. It helped my baby sleep better. I do NOT recommend CIO for anyone, but particularly not for a baby who is having questionable health probs like respiratory and/or tummy issues.

If I were you, I would cut the dairy, relactate, cut the dairy completely from your diet and supplement with dairy and soy free formula if you HAVE to supplement, not give him any solids yet, and get him to another ped or homeopath, AND make an appt with an allergist.

I wish you well!

K.,

It could be both, as they are often related. My son (now 8) had similar symptoms although not as severe as wheezing at 5 1/2 months. As an infant he was colicky, irritable, slept very little, uneasy and had eczema. It turned out he was and still is allergic to numerous substances, one of them being dairy. I breastfed until he was 17 months but completely eliminated dairy from my diet. I also had to eliminate soy, eggs, corn, wheat and any processed foods. It was tough but he got so much better and people were saying: he doesn't look like an allergic child. Even though I tried very hard to keep him away from his allergens (food, molds, dust, etc), he developed asthma by the age of 4. Still, avoidance is helping us keep him off steroids.

I would eliminate dairy completely and see how your son is doing. The congestion may ease as well. Nutramigen (not sure of spelling) is a hypo-allergenic formula that I know off but it contains soy. There may be other more gentle on his system but best to consult with your doctor. If you don't feel comfortable with what your doctor says, try a second opinion. Watch your baby in different environments - maybe there are other factors that affect his breathing: change the laundry detergent to scent and dye free, avoid using fabric softener, remove any air fresheners or plastic things that have a smell, avoid using smelly cleaning and dusting products or anything that you can think can irritate his air ways.

Also, I strongly recommend using EFT (emotional freedom technique - www.emofree.com) - you can surrogate for the baby. Dr. Mercola has more helpful info on his website at http://www.mercola.com/forms/eftcourse1.htm. I use it very often and it helped with my son's wheezing.

Good luck and hope your baby feels better soon.

J. K.

Yes, he could be congested and I agree with another post that your child, if he is congested, he maybe should have a nebulizer treatment. Even if the doctor hasn't diagnosed him with asthma, he could still have asthmatic symptoms. There are so many upper respiratory illnesses that have those symptoms. Is the doctor hearing the congestion? Is he concerned about his illness? Follow your instinct and take him back to the doctor if you feel that he is still pretty ill.

There is also another condition that sound like a baby is wheezing. This is a very throaty, almost like a gasping sound. You may want to ask the doctor about "trachea malaysia" or "laryngeal malaysia". It causes a "wheezing-type" sound, called a stridor. You cannot tell without testing, which illness it is - because it depends on whether it affects the trachea or larynx. My daughter would make this alarming sound during or just after a cold. It is something that a baby can grow out of - generally it's a very benign condition. The first time I heard it I thought it was an asthma attack and we rushed her to the ER. Our doctor told us to create a steam bath for her when it happened. It would happen occasionally - just when we hoped to never hear it again. Then, it ended around 1 1/2 years old. Just thought I'd share this with you.

Good luck to you. Hope your little guy is better very soon!

K.,

I would suggest you take him to an allergist & if possible let them to the skin test vs the blood test as that it is more effective. I wish I had taken my daughter sooner as that we went thru 15 ear infections from 3mos thru 15mos, she finally had tubes put in and a yr later they fell out and we were back to ear infections. This turned out to be mostly caused by her allergies, (the allergies were causing so much congestions)she also has slight asthma. But I had to push her ped into having us go to the allergist. She is now on 2 types of meds and it has pretty much stopped the ear infections, but the congestion again goes up and down with seasons. They found out she was allergic to cats, mold and slight allergy to milk. She has been seeing the allergist for about 2 yrs now and they are now talking shots & retesting because the congestion is growing and now at her age they can test for more. Maybe it is not allergies but it sure sounds like it and I now right now my daughter has been back on nebulizer because of the season. Best of luck, I hope you figure it out soon for your baby's sake and your own sake I now how much I worried about my DD's breathing it can be scary.

K.

My son is 7 months and has had 3 colds so far. His last cold lasted 2 weeks and he was wheezing as well. His doctor rented us a nebulizer and I gave him a breathing treament every 6 hours for 4 days. It helped loosen his chest up. It's hard to tell with infants if it's just a cold or asthma, but I highly suggest getting a nebulizer for your house if this is a constant problem. It can't hurt him. Also, I have a humidifier on every night to help my son sleep whether he is sick or not.

Yes it very well could be. Colds and allergy/asthma are so hard to distinguish. My daughter has been diagnosed since she was about 9 months old with allergies and asthma. Of course we had to go through the whole elimination process with the pediatrician before he would send us to the allergist. Our allergist is wonderful. He also recommended that if I feel that she needs to be seen by a doctor that I call his office first instead of the pediatrician because sometimes they can misdiagnose it as a sinus infection when it really is a allergy/asthma problem.

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B.

Did they give your son abuteral (sp?) with a nebulizer to use at home? If he doesn't have one you need to get one. My son had asthma as early as 4 months old but wasn't diagnosed until 8 months old after I refused to listen to the nurses that said he just had a cold and wouldn't let me bring him in. He was diagnosed, finally, because he was having an asthma attack when the doctor saw him. Unfortunately the only thing you can give your son at this age is abuteral. There is no asthma medicine (as far as I'm aware) for a child younger than 1. The abuteral treatments helped tremendously!! He wasn't as fussy because he could breath and he slept better at night. At 1 year old my son was put on Pulmicort (a daily maintenance medicine). It was a miracle. We went from Abuteral treatments almost every day several times a day to once every 2-3 months. My son is now 22 months old and has just been taking off the Pulmicort unless he has respitory problems. If you think something is wrong talk to your doctor. I ended up taking my son to an asthma specialist. It was soo wonderful to talk to someone who understood what was wrong with my son and believed me! Follow your intincts.