Seeking Info Regarding Asthma

Daughter was diagoned when she was 8 mo old. Hospital stay for one of my twins on 10-06, and nebulizers and inhalers galore. I suggest taking them to Childrens hospital in milw. We used Dr. Kevin Kelly and say his PAC I think its called, named KIm she was AWESOME!!!!!. email me privately. I have dealt with this for 9 years.
C.

Hi C.,I now have a 5 1/2 yr. old,and I can tell you that yes it is a scary time when your child is having an asthma attack,We found out our son had asthma at the age of 1 1/2,he started with eczema then he ended up allergic to dogs,and peanuts,but just here the beging of Spring the Dr. did a peanut challange and with good luck he grew out of the nut allergies,and dog allergies,he is now allergic to rag weed,grass,cat there were times he scared me to death when he couldn't breath,many nights in the hospital.Me and my husband both smoke and we found out that with us smoking in the house that is why he was getting sick all the time,we don't smoke in the house anymore even in the winter.our son has not been in the hospital this past yr.You just have to learn the triggers,our son's triggers are smoke,and slite cold. and as soon as you notice your child getting sick you take action.But I can tell you that it possible your childs allergies will change as they get older,we went from a nebulizer to inhailers,singular,zyertec.if you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask.Good Luck!Your Friend.

Hi C.!! I can sympathize with you! My daughter was first hospitalized in ICU with allergy induced asthma when she was 18 months. It is really a scary experience! She was ultimately hospitalized 3 times with many trips to the ER. She also has really nasty ezcema that caused bleeding sores. She used to be on Pulmicort, Albuterol, Pedapred, Flonase, Singulair, Zyrtec and Claritin. The steroids were really altering her personality and lowering her immune system. She has had pneumonia twice. I have found some wonderful products that have helped her to be able to stop taking the meds. I have her on 2 different antioxidants, vitamins and B Complex for the ezcema and asthma. When I started her on the B vitmains, the ezcema disappeared in 1 week which was better than the 3 -4 weeks the doctor told me it would take with the steroid cream he gave me a prescription for.

If you want more information, please let me know.

Hi,

I have 10 kids...one with asthma is now almost 24. When he was a baby we lived in an older home, lots of carpet, a cat, and wood heat. None of those things helped his asthma one bit. Oh how I wish I had then what we've had since Nov. 2002...have you ever tried any kind of air cleaners? Our Fresh Air Purifier was so effective that many odor/chemical outgasing/smoke/mold as well as bacteria removal issues have been obviously removed. Allergens too.

Just wondering if you would rather give your little one meds or just purify their air with real activated oxygen production from a wholehouse purifier...what do you think?

B. in WI

C., although I do not have any children with asthma, I have suffered from it since I was born. I was put in NICU when I was born with breathing problems and have had asthma ever since (it gets better as you grow older). What my mom did is keep going to the doctors and even if you feel weird about it, give your child all the medication he is prescribed. If you have carpeting in your house, you should clean it twice as often as you regularly do and keep all stuffed animals away from the crib while he is sleeping. In terms of dusting, the same thing, dust his room everyday. That will help with his symptoms. My mom said she was devastated when she found out, but once you are past the shock, just concentrate and doing everything in your power so that your child is able to breath well and be healthy.
Good luck with that, and if you need any advice from a lifetime asthma sufferer please do not hesitate to contact me. I can sympathize with your worry.

C.:
I know what your going through my son has asthma also and had a low case of RSV when he was very little. It can be very scary, but remember to stay calm when he has a problem. I would be willing to talk about my experiences with you if you would like contact me personally and we can chat.

I find the similarities between us. My daughter was born 2mos. premature(and was born with NO breathing problems,just had to learn how to feed and keep her body temp.up)after getting out of the special care nursery she luckily qualified for RSV shots that were outraegously exspensive.Thank God she never got RSV. My daughter has had a nebulizer for wheezing since 2mos. old and has eczema as well. Our pediatrician refuses to put a label on my child saying she has asthma she said once your labeled with asthma and it's in your medical records you may have problems getting insurance and stuff later in life. So she says my daughter has "wheezing" We used the neubulizer with albuterol alot as a infant, once inawhile as a toddler and hardly ever as a preschooler. Now my daughter is in Kindergarten and I pray we can be done with this and hopefully she has outgrown this. I will say my daughter get's sick alot easier than most people and stays sick alot longer I have heard there is a link between asthma and eczema and being african american. We are not african american though we are caucasion. Make sure your kids get a flu shot your youngest for sure qualifies. That has helped us alot!I should also add I think MILK makes my daughter's eczema worse. And my daughter won't touch eggs so we don't have a problemt there.

Good Morning C.,

Oh! So..... Much to share. I too, have SEVERE Asthmatic Children. My daughter 7 x with RSV and Quarentined at Children's Hosp. in St.Paul for 1 week stints. I am off this Morning to a Dr.'s Appt. for myself, and will share more LATER. Until then get your Son into the BEST ASTHMA GROUP in the TWIN CITIES, which is:

Children's Respitory & Critical Care Specialist, P.A.
Garden View Medical Building
Suite 601
347 North Smith Avenue
St. Paul, Mn 55102 ( Connected to Children's Hosp. - St. Paul )
Phone # ###-###-####

We see Dr. PAUL KUBIC - But any Dr. in his GROUP is A+++++++++++

This is so... important, that you see a Asthma Specialist. The Drugs are essential, and must be monitored Closely! We SOLD our Lake Home up North, to be closer to Children's Hosp., The Mayo Clinic, and Dr. Kubic.

I apologize for any Misspelled words, I have to get the Kids on the Bus, and me out the door. I have a 4.5 son & a 7.5 girl.
Because of their Asthma, I am a STAY AT HOME Mom, and a Strong Advocate & Researcher on Asthma. We have been through it all!

Please get an Appt., and I will send more Later! HAPPY FRIDAY!

R.

My 8 month old had RSV and was hospitalized for about 10 days when she was 3-4 weeks old. She has asthma now. I am not sure of any allergies but she has had 2 ear infections and 3 respirtatory infections already. We use a daily neb treatment with pulmacort to help strengthen her lungs and prevent infections. We also have albuteral nebs for anytime she is weezing. I am not sure what will happen long term but I am hoping she is able to grow out of some of this over time.

I'm not sure this will help or not I found that both my girls have a sensitivity to cows milk. Once I took them off of cows milk and switched to Soy (I think I will experiment with Goats milk soon - as strange as that may sound) their eczema cleared up.

Cows milk has an adverse affect on children. Goats milk is best suited for human consumption because it is closley similar chemically and physcially. Children digest goats milk easier than cows.

Cows milk is paturized which destroys the friendly bacteria needed in the colon. It also destroys fluorine, a trace mineral best known for building hardness of bones and tooth enamel. Raw goats milk contains 10 x's as much fluorine as cows.

Cows milk has been linked to many forms of upper respiratory problems in children and number one is athsema. Along with a host of other problems including eczema of the skin. So if you do cows milk, you may want to possibly start there. If not goats milk - try the soy. I hope this helps.

I have a 5 year old who had been diagnosed with asthma when she was 18-24 months old! I was questioning this because….

She used to go to Children’s clinic in St. Paul and the hospital and thought this was the best around, but sadly I was wrong! I was waiting to get into my daughter 12-month check up and ended up waiting for over an hour! This was become a normal, every time we were there we where waiting and waiting! Even when she was sick, it was so hard for her not to touch anything! I just couldn't do it anymore! The doctor’s were to busy and all I ever say was interns witch is not what I wanted!!

After all of that I decided to see another doctor's office! When I say my daughter’s new doctor, I had her explain why she was diagnosed with this! She explained that it was because of her always coughing, which could be asthma or allergies or even both!! I was told to watch that close and if there was any change to let them know! We where not sure until this last year, I just had her tested for allergy on her 5th birthday!

There are tons of astma/allergest specialists you can see! They are going to be the most helpful for anyone not knowing anything about asthma! I can give you a few places to go but it is in the north suburbs! If you’re interested let me know! Otherwise you can always call this places I know of and I am sure they can give you a closer office of specialist!

The few things I can tell you, when your child cough or gets a cold start the neb treatments! I would watch them outside, especially right now! For some reason people who suffer from asthma are having an ever harder time right now! You can always run a hot shower or get a warm are with vapor, I was told that was not good for child but that was at children’s, when I asked the new doctor she told me to get one! Just make sure it is warm air, not a cold air! The pharmacist would now witch kind! I always mix them up! I just had an asthma attach this weekend but I have not even used and inhaler in 10 year, unless I had a really really bad cold! DO NOT LET SMOKE BE BY HIM! THAT IS THE WORSE FOR THERE LUNGS, SMOKING RESTAURANT, HOUSES even if the house has been "air" out...the smoke get in the walls and everything..there is no getitng ride of smoke!!

Good luck and I hope this helps you! You can always ask me anything! I have grown up around this and I had sport induced asthma, my brother has it really BAD...he is 5 year older than me! I hope everything works out for you guys!

K.

Hi C.-

I saw your ad requesting infor... i have a daughter who is now 3 but i completely understand how you are feeling. She had RSV when she was 10 months and has extream asthma. She has been in and out of the hospital 7 time in her 3 years of life.. The advice that i can tell you right off the bat is to ask as many questions as you can, even if you think they are stupid. We have been lucky that in the last year she has gotten colds but has not been back in the hospital, so i am hoping we are controlling it with a lot of medication now that she can stay out of there... If you have any other questions please let me know..I know it helps to ask other who have gone through this advice.. good luck to you and your family...

My daughter has had asthma since she was 11 months old. After a scary hospital stay or two, I learned a lot about ways to prevent an attack, what the symptoms are (because they are cold-like symptoms in small children) and how treat them. Now that I know a more about it, she has very few asthma attacks.

So my advise to you is to educate yourself on childhood asthma and learn what your childs trigger is, and do whatever possible to avoid contact with that trigger.

I saw someone mention that your youngest qualifies for a flu shot... It's not that easy if he's allergic to eggs. Be careful who you take advice from. I would definitely see a pediatric allergist or pulmonologist, or both. Our 4 year old son was hospitalized the last time two and a half years ago. His asthma and allergies are well under control. We see Dr. Alan Stillerman in Minneapolis. Finding the right (specialist) doctor is the best thing you can do for your son.

Hi C. my nam is Melissa I 21/2 and 4 yr old and one on the way all boys ;-). Well my youngest has been admitted to the hostpital 3 differant times since he was 10 mo. old very low oxygen levels one occasion we had to be taken by ambulance to childrens very scary. Could not understand why this kept happening it is triggered from viral infections other than that he does not have problem. When we were at childrens thats when they diagnosed him with rad they didn't want to say it was asmtha because of it going on his record so they just called rad respiratory airway disease,so they now have him on palmacort( Preventative medicine works great) twice daily and albuteral as needed. I don't do the med's all the time just in sickness seasons, hopefully they will grow out of this it does stink when it flares up.Hope all goes well and God Bless your Family. Sincerely Melissa

My son is almost 9 & when he was 2 yrs old he was dx's with asthma. It was very scary as we first went to urgent care where they gave him 2 neb treatments & measured his oxygen level twice after the treats & it dropped within 1 minute. they transported him via ambulance to hospital where He spend only 1 day in. I did ask lots of questions with doctors & respitory therapists. My insurance company offered a evening class on asthma for parents & caregivers. It was great as they wanted the kids to be present also. One is the speakers took the kids in one room & showed them a video cartoon on asthma. Since then my son has outgrown his flairups. He has to get a neb treatment once a year when he gets a chest cold. He has is doing great. You are the best advocate for your child so just keep asking questions & soon you will be able to know when he will need his meds. Ps Every year when my son goes for his yearly check the doctor refills his abuteral. I have asthma too. This way it saves time and another dr visit when or if he needs it. Good luck.

There is a nurse at the Wayzata Children's Clinic in Mound named Maggie Clem, who has many years of clinical experience (in Texas and Minnesota) working with children with asthma and allergies. My 5 year old son has asthma and Maggie Clem is his primary "doctor". She's great and knows a lot more about pediatric asthma than any doctor I've met. You may want to get to know her.