Please Help

My son 7 yrs suffers from asthma. His main trigger is cold weather. He has bad cold for a week which is making his cough worse. We have doubled his brown inhaler to 8 puffs a day for last 5 days. His cough is getting worse during the day and evening and the double dose has no improvement. He is not wheezy or breathless. He had an attack 5 wks ago, he was very wheezy with constant cough and had to take steroid tablets for the first time. We don't want to keep giving him steroid tablets.

Can someone please advice what I should do since the increased dose is not making any difference and also how long I need to give double dose for. I don't find my gp very helpful and our surgery don't have an asthma clinic.

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

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All I can advise is go back to your GP. If you are worried now then call your out of hours GP service (you can get the number by calling your GP surgery they usually have it on the answer phone message) if your son get worse, is having trouble breathing and especially if he is having trouble speaking dial 999.

Bex

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Hi Kiran,

Welcome to Asthma UK; I'm really sorry to hear that your son is struggling at the moment.

As Bex says, I'm afraid there is not really much that we can do to advise you in this case. We are very happy on the forum to discuss a lot of the issues related to coping with asthma and the different treatments available, and to answer general questions if we can. However, it wouldn't be appropriate or safe for us to try to give you specific medical advice concerning dosages and so on for your son - no-one can safely do that without seeing him and knowing his medical history.

Please do go back to your own doctor, as he is continuing to have symptoms and getting worse. He/she will be in a better position to make an accurate assessment of your son's condition and advise appropriately. In the mean time, if he should deteriorate, become very breathless, find that his reliever is less effective, or you are worried in any other way, please seek emergency medical advice.

Take care, and I hope he improves soon

Em H

(Asthma UK forum moderator)

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thanks for your reply

Took my son to out of hr surgery and as usual dr checked his chest and no wheeze so he said everything is fine. I can't understand that the Gp thinks everything is fine unless the child is wheezy. My son is coughing for more than a week and the medicine is not working. We think he needs to change his medicine so thinking him taking him to hospital tomorrow, not getting anywhere with the Gp.

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Is there another GP at your son's surgery that you could take him to see? We encounter GPs with very odd opinions/treatments for asthma on a fairly regular basis, so you may have more luck if there are other GPs at your surgery.

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Thanks Peaksteve, seen 3 diff GP in the suregry and they are all the same. Also spoke to the asthma nurse on this site who advised to go to another surgery where there is an asthma nurse so we are going to register with another surgery.

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Hi there, my son is currently having a bad asthma attack (he is seven) and we have been in to a&e three times in the past 12 hrs .He too is affected by the cold. When We went to hospital the first time yesterday, 10 pm thay put him on nebuliser and sent him home with no further treatment! At three am he needed to go back, all the time i knew he just needed steroids.They said it was a mild attack and needed nothing but his inhalers! At 9am we took him back and they could not believe he had not been admitted through the night because his oxygen levels were so low. Being his mum I knew what he needed , we have seen this so many times before.Eventually he got his steroids,but will struggle until they begin to work tomorrow. All i can say is through experience it is much better for them to get the steroids as soon as you recognise the signs of an attack because they become so ill otherwise also I find that once they have gone so far into an attack inhalers do not work. .If they had given me them last night it woud have avoided so much pain and discomfort.I do understand however your reluctance to give streoids ,i too am concerned about the long term affects of over use. The key is to understand asthma and to get it undercontrol with inhalers ,something i have yet to master!

Good luck all i can say is DO NOT always believe the doctor, trust your instincts and demand treatment,try not to worry!

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Hi Kiran

I hope that your son is a bit better now. As for wheeze my son (3 1/2) very rarely has one!!!! He too is affected by colds/coughs etc.

I know that steroids are a worry (i hate Ollie having to have them - only had heated discussion with partner today over them!!) But basically there are times when they need them and not having them could lead to them being more poorly. Ollie's on this 2nd course this winter which is good for him. Today his inhalers weren't working at all so i knew he'd have to have another course. He hates taking it - i hate him having it but i also don't want him to be ill.

I always try to see the same GP and after loosing the plot in surgery last year as long as my preferred GP is in then i get to see him. I hope you have better luck at your new surgery and find a doctor that is understanding.

As for brown (preventer) inhaler i can't remember who told me or where i read it but i think that it can take a while for the increase in dose to take effect - i'm sure we were told this by one of consultants in hospital but not sure.

take care

claire