I can't believe I haven't been on here since 2012!!
I'm feeling quite desperate at the mo! My daughter has viral asthma & has had since she was 4 years old. She's now 7. We had a great summer with her health last year but on September 10th she got her first autumn cough. With constant visits to my doctors/asthma nurse having had 4 lots of antibiotics, prednisolone, clenil & ventolin daily & going back on montelukast (which she was taken off of because she had such a good run all summer), she was then hit with pneumonia in November. Since then blood tests have shown she has low iron & was suffering with dehydration.
Anyway we managed to squeeze in a relatively good xmas, but on Boxing Day she developed a cough out of nowhere. Having been back & forth to docs all this week I've been told her chest is clear but obv her asthma is triggered again. She is coughing constantly, it's a very dry, hollow cough. Yesterday the nurse changed her pump to seretide? But I just can't see her improving again anytime soon.
She's due back to school Tuesday, she has already missed about 3 weeks since September.
Is keeping her in doors the best thing? Out of the cold?? It's so frustrating, I feel so sorry for her. Has anyone else's children been suffering like this this winter? Have they too missed a lot of school? Xxx
How is she doing now?? this winter has been brutal on lungs!! My hosp cons says the resp wards are overflowing with people, lots of whom ave had well controlled asthma till this point!
Seretide is good as it has a long acting reliever in it (so works like ventolin but over 12hrs) as well as the steroid component, so doesnt take weeks to build up like the clenil will have. If she doesnt get on with that then some people do better with Fostair or Symbicort which have formeterol (a different long acting reliever which kicks in a bit quicker) the other benefit of fostair is it is good for very little airways as it has finer particles!
Hello, thank you for your reply! I was giving up.
Basically she managed to go back to school 2 weeks a go, but has now been struck down again with another chest infection. This time on the opposite side to where she developed the pneumonia in October. She's started taking Erythromycin antibiotic to try & nip it in the bud b4 it turns nasty like last time. She looks so pale & is becoming very breathless. The asthma nurse said this morning that she wasn't wheezy (but maybe because all the ventolin she's had during the night. I find all this very worrying. Her consultant has told me that it's ok for a child to have 10 infections per year???? Really? What's the reason? Why is her chest so weak? It's becoming so common now for her to be poorly, more so than being well. Family & friends don't understand why. Which puts me under pressure as I don't know why she's like it. I know we'll be at a&e b4 the w/e is out! She has missed so much school since September, although the school are very supportive. I pick her up for home lunch everyday to avoid her playing out in this bitter cold weather. I've left a message to bring her consultant appt forward, as this can't continue till end of March. Thanks again Soph for your reply. I'll make notes of what u said to take with me at our next appt.
I just want answers as to why she is always suffering, there doesn't seem to be anyone else in her year like her, so feel like we're the only ones!
I can't believe the similarities between our daughters! Mine is 6 and began viral at 2, but of late it seems to be a daily occurance that she is struggling. Pale, coughing, sore tummies all the time. Shes had a cold for about a month that she can't seem to shake and like you am wondering what I can do with my what feels like constantly poorly child. We had a super summer but this winter has been rubbish. That said we have managed to stay clear of the hospital this time. She is on seretide and ventolin, maybe I need to just get her reviewed rather than holding off hoping things are going to get better. We are due for hospital review in April. Poor toots its horrible seeing them like this.
Children can often be found inhaling impure, dry air indoors, particularly during sleep. Many parents leave central heating systems running all night and others use gas cookers that emit alien gases that rise upward into bedrooms where they may become trapped if there is no proper ventilation.
My advice to parents with children who suffer any kind of respiratory disorder is to ensure the air inhaled is clean and moist. It is not difficult to dodge concentrations of poisoned air in the streets if parents keep their minds on the job. Teaching children to expand their lungs regularly would also be helpful.
my son has been the same this year - he was diagnosed as having asthma when he was 3. and he is 7 at the end of march - we have never had a period like this, he had a mild attack in November just after his flu jab funnily enough and has not been right since. Had a three day course of strong steroids at the time and he did improve then after Christmas he had cold after cold, he was constantly coughing and not sleeping through the night his inhalers just weren't working, Back and forth to doctors eventually after many trips to the dr and asthma nurse we can see a slight improvement, he is now on two inhalers morning and night (im sorry I forget their names!) green and orange the are, also taking montelucas (not sure of spelling!) tablets, he was on the granules but needed to move onto tablets now because of his age. Its taken a few weeks but now he is sleeping through the night without coughing and is not coughing as much during the day, still get the odd day that is bad but at least we can see an improvement - he does however still get out of breath after playing with his friends at lunch time and when doing PE, (he never got breathless at all or coughed before) so I need to discuss this with a doctor and have an telephone app with them next week. WE are not using his blue reliever as much either so that is good at one point is seamed to always be in my hand!
I hope things are improving for you as it really is such a worrying time - ive been worried this winter more that I ever have ever worried about his asthma before as its taken so long to get under control again - we are getting there though!
I sympathise with all of you but feel reassured that I, my little girl(6) isn't alone! Many of Clara's problems are upper respiratory tract infections. We have antibiotics on standby at the chemist if she gets a non stop repetitive dry cough. Like I think Samo said we to we're told that asthmatics are 4 times more prone to colds and similar. We've just got through a runny nose and was about to come off her 4hourly ventolin and a cough has started!! We to have family and friends that don't really understand and are barely supportive and somewhat dismissive. We also feel we are a pain constantly in the Doctors waiting room or calling 111!!
It sounds like we are all in the same boat so any advice we can share will be for the betterment of our children.
An asthma plan is essential if you don't have one. Also be persistent and insistent with Doctors etc as if anything happened you'd regret you weren't. Also do not be afraid to hit 999 if your worried and if your little one is struggling. Asthmatic children get a priority response-don't take them to A&E yourself.
Finally Clara is on a 95% reduced dairy diet so she has less dairy fat cells in her which means reduced mucus and therefore less places for bugs to harbour, mutate and grow. I hope that like me Clara grows out of it but until we have a whole year without issue I won't drop any of her meds-montelukast, sere tide and ventolin when needed.
Hi,
Im new to this forum and have just posted in the ""general|"" section about my 13 year old who is in intensive care. Are you sure its just viral asthma she has? Symptoms can change all the time but you wont get a referral to a consultant with viral asthma so maybe get a second opinion and see if her diagnosis is the same cos it does sound like she could do with seeing a respiratory specialist and maybe having her medication changed. It very frustrating especially when they miss so much school, I have had to speak to my daughters head teacher and the pastoral nurse as she has been in hospital 4 times already this year missing a week each time and we are only in week 6!! I have also changed consultants even though we had the head of paediatrics as our consultant for years and already this new guy has loads of different ideas and tests to do so a second opinion can be vital.
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