How much is too much?

My daughter is 5 and was diagnosed with asthma at 2 years, although the symptoms had been there since she was 6 months old.

Her asthma has been slowly getting worse since July, 3 courses antibiotics, 30 days of prednisolone (3 seperate 10 day courses) which resulted in the most horrible oral thrush. She has been on 800mcg of becotide daily for the last 18 months, and salbutamol. But on Monday after another trip to the GP about her asthma we have came away with another 7 day course of prednisolone (4 tablets a day) and been told to up her becotide to 1200mcg daily (3 puffs of 200mcg, twice daily). That seems a high dose to me for such a small child, was just looking for anyone elses opinion please.

Thanks Jacquie

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Hi, sorry your lo is having a bad time of it at the moment.

Not sure about how much is too much, but my son was on 800 of becotide aday and he is 2. Do you use any other preventers?

The reason I ask is that my son was given montelukask a few months back and it has worked wonders for him. From what I have been told some people don't see much difference but it is worth a try. He is now only having 200 mcg of becotide a day and has been quite well control. We have had one blip in the last few months as apposed to every couple of weeks changing amounts etc.

I found the nurse on the phone number given on this site was most helpful and armed with her info the gp and I worked out what would be best. Give them a call they are really helpful.

HTH

sarah

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This does seem awfully high doses. My son was diagnosed when he was 16 mths and we spent the next 12 months in and out of hospital and on ever increasing doses of becotide interspersed with prednisolone ('though not as high as your doses). Our turning point came when he was prescribed a long- acting beta 2 agonist - Serevent which is taken alongside the Becotide, twice a day. Although not generally recommended for under 5s, (he was 2 and a half), it has literally changed all our lives. He has only been in hospital twice in the last 2 years and only been on prednisalone a handful of times. We have also looked at Seretide, which combines Serevent and Flixotide (another corticosteroid) in one inhaler, but so far haven't needed the extra power that this would give. In addition we are about to start on Monteleukast (which works on the atopic side of things - he now has dust, cat & dog allergies and we think mould) as he has not been quite as stable recently. Can I also recommend a book which I have found really useful?

: ASTHMA. The Complete Guide by Professor Jonathan Brostoff and Linda Gamlin.

ISBN 0-7475-4043-8

This seems really up to date on all aspects including treatments and drugs etc.

Best of luck with your little one. I hope you can get things under control - it is such a scary thing to live with - for both us and them!