Advice for my 5 month old son with inhaler

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this group and am after a little bit of advice. My 5 month old boy,Oscar, has just been given an inhaler.

Since birth he's had a very slight wheeze, to be honest i havent noticed it that much, it usually in-laws, friends and even strangers who comment on his little wheeze. He's a thriving baby boy and so it's never crossed my mind to take him to the GP about it.

Then about 3 weeks ago he started coughing in the night, every night between 4 and 6 m, the cough got worse and worse and woke him up crying. The more he cried the more he coughed, a rather vicous circle. I took him to the GPs on Monday this week and they sent us straight to the Paed. unit a the hospital as a precaution. When we were they they confirmed he does wheeze when he breathes and told us that he likely to just be a 'happy wheezer' but gave us an inhaler for his cough and wheeze and to use 4 times a day 5 puffs a time.

5 days on and the night cough is slightly better, he only coughs for an hour and then nods back off. However his normal slight wheeze has got audibly worse and he coughs on and off in the day time too. If i take him out for a walk in the buggy his wheeze eases but afterwards when he gets back inside his wheeze is much worse and he coughs and coughs.

I rang the hospital back this morning and they told me to give him up to 10 puffs 4 times a day now, but so far no change and he's starting to drink less milk. He's a happy chap and not showing any signs of distress, however i'm confused as to what i am being told by the hospital, they say if the 10 puffs dont improve his wheezing to take him straight to my GPs or A&E. This all seems very extreme to me - I thought he was a happy wheezer ?!

Can anyone offer me any advice please? I don't want to over react to what may be a harmless wheeze but at the same time if my son is at risk I want to be able to get help for him. Should i be worrying ?!

Many thanks for taking the time to read this,

Annie

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if you are unhappy please please phone the gp or go to a&e!

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Annie, welcome and so sorry to hear your sons having no luck with the current meds, go back to your GP, this is clearly not working for him, and further tests or different meds are required

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thanks for replying, if he's still wheezy tomorrow i'll ring the GP's. It's just really hard to work out what to do when he seems so happy in himself and yet sounds so awfull. I guess I'm worried about being branded over-reacting mummy but rather safe than sorry

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With children it's difficult, they can't speak to let you know, but you know your own son better than anyone, and if you say somethings wrong, don't ever question yourself.

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Afternoon All,

I rang my GP this morning and we were sent to an out of hours surgery where the doctor confirmed Oz still had his wheeze and a 'crackle' noise on his chest. We have been told to keep using the inhaler and I've been given some antibiotics incase it's a chest infection. If he's the same tomorrow as he was today we've been told to ring the on call GP again to be een straight away and to make an appointment with our GP Monday to discuss Oscars on going care. So no further on at the moment - hopefully the antibiotics will help him !