newbie

Hi I am new to this board.

I am Sarah, a full time mum to Isaac 20 months who has asthma.

Isaac had his first 'viral wheeze' last december, but has had many more since.

Last week he had a scary attack in which he turned blue and floppy, they then gave me a prventer for him as well as his salbutamol. Isaac has also just finished a course of prednisilone (4th time this year), but they make him extremely angry and aggressive until a week after he stops. Does anyone else find this happens to their child?

Hopfully now we have a preventer we will be on top of it more.

Isaac uses his reliver an awful lot throughout the day as he is very very active, but even when he was in hospital on hourly nebulisers he wouldn't stay still!

I have many many questions etc, but know no one who has a young child with asthma and fell quite alone at the moment. Isaac's Dad has asthma as does my brother and uncle so it is in the family.

Sorry to go on. I wasn't sure how to start my opening message.

Sarah xx

[Hidden]

hi Sarah

I think you replied to my post. Thank you! I appreciate the advice. Joel has finally stopped coughing and gone to sleep and it's after 11pm! For the most part Joel doesn't like to use his inhaler even though we have covered his spacer with Noddy stickers! But he's getting more used to it. When he's having an attack, though, we can hardly get near him with it. He really freaks out. He's had two lots of prednisilone in the last month or so but I haven't noticed any change in his behaviour when he's using it or afterwards.

I'm sorry to hear about Isaac's attack last week. Sounds very scary. I hope the preventer works well for him. We are due to have our first appointment with the asthma nurse next week so we are hoping she will give us some good advice on how to prevent another attack.

It's certainly really scary watching your young one struggling to breathe. Last week I felt so frightened and now am determined to find out all I can to help him. Well, have a good night and take care.

[Hidden]

Hi Sarah

Welcome to the boards

I have three children who all have asthma aged 2-7 They've all had it since they were tiny and yes lots of ventolin plus prednisolone turn them into complete non sleeping shouting for no reason tantrum monsters.

(The 7 year old is currently on pred and is stropping upstairs cos she can't sleep and is exhausted as i type!)

Things will get easier as you learn more/cope better if that make sense.

I've phoned the asthma nurses i think the number at the top when my little ones were first diagnosed and struggling and they sent me some information about asthma in the under 5's which is probably on the website somewhere, gave me loads of advice about spacers- turning it into a toy sitting in front of a video stickers, sticker charts and preschool stuff etc and were really friendly and helpful when despite having asthma myself i was really freaked so don't forget they're there if you need them too!

Marmite

[Hidden]

Thanks, Glad to know I'm not the only one whos child grows horns every so often.

Isaac has a small infant spacer (too small now) from last year and he uses that one to give 'haler' to his teddies, I think letting him explore the mask whilst not in use has definately helped him feel more comfortable with it and he is now so good at taking his inhaler.

I do get pittyfull looks when we go to places like soft play areas and Isaac needs his inhaler. You actual hear some pople say 'shame poor little thing' this makes me quite annoyed as there is nothing 'wrong' with him, he just needs a little help then he is off again. If Isaac hears people saying this each time he needs it in public I am worried he is going to grow up embarrassed by it.

Isaac had a much 'calmer' day today and had a long nap this afternoon so hopefully he is back to normal.

One thing I did notice whilst using the pred this time was that he seemed to get lots of bruises!?! not sure if this is normal, it is almost like the slightest bump made him bruise, should I be concerned?

Sarah xx

[Hidden]

Hi Sarah, welcome to the board. I have a 10 yr old asthmatic son, Sean. When he was younger I used to have 2 spacers, one for proper use and one left around house for him to play with, both covered in stickers. When Sean was three he became the child from hell on pred, during one admission on high dose pred his cons saw his wild behaviour and changed him to another steriod. He had seen some research that differnt steriods affect behviour in diff ways. He did calm down but has been on daily oral steriods since he was 3. We have also found that Sean bruises very easily but that is a side effect of the steriods. Glad to hear you have had a calmer day!

Julie