Are viruses making asthma worse.

Hi all,

wondered if anybody else is having problems with the changes of weather. My son, nearly 3 was diagnosed 6 months ago, he has a preventer twice a day and the reliever when needed. We have discovered that when he has rapid breathing, a high temperature and feels weak, the docs are not thinking that its asthma, more a virus. In the last 6 months we have been at the hospital 6 times, always the same symtoms, rapid breathing, high temperature, weak and sleepy. We seem to be going around in circles, is asthma making a virus worse, or is a virus making his asthma worse?? He doesn't wheeze very often, and his chest sounds clear, but the rapid hard work breathing and weakness seem to be asthma. Nobody seems to know, but we have come across a few who have suggested that children with asthma, can have problems, with the change in seasons, and this could be what is causing it, does anybody else have similar experience, thanks in advance.

Catherine

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Hi there. My son is 2 yr 9 months and has had asthma since about 10 months old and YES viruses do make it worse for us.

Everytime he gets even so much of a sniffle it goes straight to his chest! We are use to it now and able to recognise the 1st symptoms so luckily can hit him hard with his meds before it get too out of control.

The seasons don't seem to make a difference with Isaac, it's more how many snotty children he has been exposed to LOL.

Hope you lo is ok at the moment. I'm afraid sometimes it does feel like you are going round in circles but once to can recognise the early symptoms you will feel alittle happier with dealing with it. As for wheezing - Isaac has Atypical asthma and doesn't always have a noticable wheeze this is quite common in young children I believe.

HTH

Sarah

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my three years old asthmatic son also lives the same circles VIRUS CAUSES ATTACKS do not feel upset almost all asthmatic babies and their parents experiences the same feeling. But try to recognise early syptoms of your child and observe which medicines and treatments are more useful. because it depends on. by

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Hi Catherine

My son Ollie is 3 - he was diagnosed with Asthma last Dec. We've been in hospital about 6 times aswell since last year. Ollie's asthma is affected by viruses and maybe the cold weather - most of the summer he's fine as long as we keep him on anti histimines as he's got hayfever and away from anyone with a cold. But since change of weather he's been poorly again - 1st week at pre-school and mixing with other children and bang he's back on blue inhalers and anti-biotics!!! Ollie also very rarely wheezes and his chest is often clear when we see gp - but he often has a very high temp - rapid breathing and cough. Ollie's illness was labeled 'virally induced wheeze' for a long time as all hospital admission over winter coincided with him having a virus. He also get a 'viral' rash!!!

We have seen several consultants - all offering varying advice - but one told us to 'hit him hard and early' (with his meds obviously) as soon as we see any symptoms - in Ollie he gets red under his eyes and generally looks peaky - then we get him straight on blue inhalers at least 5 puffs 4 hourly and i ring my GP. I then tend to have to either see or speak to GP every day or so to keep it under review - we've done this since April and have only had one admission since then. We've had two colds that didn't end up with hospital stays or prednisolne.

After having to make a complaint about GP receptionist i now have a flag on Ollie's notes (the Witch alert) which means that I always get to speak to GP usually within about 30 minutes of ringing and always get an appointment on the same day usually within an hour or two. Ollie can go from being a bit poorly to very ill in the space of about 3/4 hours. We also have an asthma action plan which i downloaded off this site and filled in and then discussed and ammended with my GP and paed - this really helps as it clearly states what we should do and when - and more importantly it shows anyone that we have to see (ie locums - diff consultants) what meds Ollie's on and what steps we've taken.

Ollie's on 2 puffs of becotide am and pm - blue inhaler when needed and montelukast - 1 tablet at night - antihistimane 2 a day in spring and summer. Oh and pred when he's really bad.

I know it's really really tough - when Ollie was ill last week i was beside myself - i don't think any off us could face another winter like last year. But getting over our first virus without hospital and pred have made me feel a bit more confident about the months to come.

I hope that you have a better time this winter - unfortunately there's no quick fix or magic answers - we found that as we got more in tune with Ollie's symptoms we are able to stop him getting very poorly and hopefully as he gets older he'll be able to tell us when he's feeling ill.

Take care and i hope that your son is ok.

Claire

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Many thanks for the replies ladies, I am sorry to say Claire, that in your post you could have been you talking about my son. Vertually identical to the symtpoms that we have, my main concern was that the hospital think it is not the asthma and that I should not be giving him the inhaler! We did manage to find 2 nurses, who knew immediatley that it was his asthma that was causing problems with his breathing, and that the virus was making him poorly. He is a lot better now, but we seem to be getting a lot of conflicting advice about what we should be doing, I am sure this is very similar with all of you, but at least the three of you seemed to offer the same view point, blue inhaler when it first bugs me that something isn't right. Being fairly new to a child with asthma, we worry about overuse of the drugs and have been given warnings about the effects of over use, something that I find hard to understnad when you have a child who has breathing difficulties, but still find myself worrying, too much/not enough. We have made an appointment to see his asthma nurse on Friday so hopefully I will feel a little more prepared to deal with this when it occurs again. I am also downloading an action plan from this site, one for me and one for pre school! It is very disheartening to walk into the hospital with a poorly child who you can see has breathing problems and a asthma diagnosis to be told, no not that, when I was so certain that it was, it made me wonder was I sure he was asthmatic? Plus nobody even considered to continue with his inhaler whilst we were there, I even mentioned that the reliever inhaler was helping to slow his breathing, you feel like jumping up and down and shouting at them, of course I woudn't!

Thanks once again for your advice and experiences, it is very helpful to hear how you have managed to control these episodes, fingers crossed we don't have to many over the following few months.

Catherine

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Hello Ä° am a father not a ""lady"" but i do not write this to correct you but i advise you to have full collaboration with the father of your child. Looking after babies is not only the job of mothers. Especially the longterm illnesses which may endure a lifetime such as asthma. Sit the father, make an action plan together. Try to take him to hospital with you. Share your opinions and urge him search asthma on net. Then discuss your information. This works like a couple therapy and may relax you.Until 6 or 7 we can never be sure that our children get over asthma or not and this is ver annoying. i hope all our children get soon well

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my daughters asthma has been very bad in the past year and since the autumn every attack has been put down to a virus.the real problem is that she needs prednisolone to treat her asthma and has been taking tablets for four months in varying doses.so these lower her immune system so she catches something else.i think it will be a vicious circle until the summer and no more coughs and colds