Please help

This is my first message as I am new to this forum. My two year old has viral-induced asthma. At the moment she is poorly and so as well as her usual reliever and preventor inhalers, together with montelukast, she is on day five of prednisolone and anti-biotics for a chest infection. However, we cannot help her to stop her dreadfully distressing asthma cough. She is on six puffs of salbutamol four hourly. Does anyone have any other ideas? She is so sleep deprived. Many thanks.

[KateMoss]

Hello KMc,

sorry your daughter is having a bit of a rough time.

If you are at all concerned I would advise you to call NHS Direct. 0845 46 47

or if really concerned, please go to A& E, don't be afraid of making a fuss.

It is difficult for us here to see how bad she is regarding the coughing - It could be just a cough or it could be the asthma as well.

People here are happy to give advice but not in possible emergency situations.

There are some medical minded people who do post here but it does depend on who is logged in and looking at the messages at the time.

Meanwhile, is there a cough mixture that is safe for her to take?

Anyway, Please take care & hope I have helped a little - there may be some parents out there who can advise a bit more on little people!

Kate

[Hidden]

Hi KMc

I hope that you daughter is feeling a bit better and welcome to the boards!!

I'm not sure how long your daughter's been on montelukast and 5 day course of pred and A.B's - hopefully they should start to help.

But if she's still struggling and you are concerned then i would go straight to A&E - or at least talk to out of hours service /nhs direct. I know hospital isn't always a nice place to be but sometimes it's necessary - ours is always really good with little ones and we're seen really quickly - we're never made to feel that we're wasting thier time.

It's hard with little ones (and their parents) but i do know from last year that Ollie (he was 2 1/2) was pooped - either his cough was waking him up or we were waking him up to give him more puffer/nebs (we ended up getting admitted several times). Also when Ollie's bunged up and coughing i use olbass oil inhaler.

I'm not sure about humidifiers and how helpful they are with asthma but i know that they can help with dry cough.

Hopefully once the A.b/s and pred kick in and you'll see some improvement soon.

But please if you are at all concerned or she doesn't seem to improve then please seek medical advice.

I'm sorry that i can't be of more help - take care and i hope that things improve for you all soon.

Claire

[Hidden]

Hello KMc,

Welcome to Asthma UK; I am sorry that your daughter is so unwell at the moment. It must be a very worrying time for you all.

I'm afraid I can only reiterate what others have already said - we're not able to offer medical advice in this sort of situation, as it's just too dangerous to do so when we can't see and directly assess your daughter. If you are concerned about her, please do seek urgent medical attention by calling your out of hours GP, NHS Direct or by dialling 999. If your daughter is coughing or breathless to the degree that she is struggling to speak, eat or sleep, or if things are not improving with her salbutamol, or you are in any way concerned, please do dial 999. Young children can deteriorate very rapidly with asthma, so it's always better to be safe and get her seen.

I do hope things improve for you soon.

Em H

(Doctor and forum moderator)