Potentional Asthma/Ventolin Trial Started 13 1/2 month old

DD has had this persistent cough, residual from 3 bouts of croup and 2 bouts of bronchiolitis, we saw two different Dr's last week to make sure that it was nothing contagious, or either of the above again.

Yesterday I received a call from Daycare, they told me that DD woke up Wheezing and had coughing fits, where she stopped breathing and when she restarted she struggled to get going again, and became quite distressed. They calmed her down and said I didn't need to pick her up it was just a courtasy call.

So I called the Dr's and got her in 1 hour later. Picked her up, got into the Dr's and broke down in tears - had a bit of a bad day, was very tired from our trip and just completely over DD not having a break, it is just not fair. :cry:

The Dr looked at her full history (Mild Lung Disease at birth due to prematurity, croup, brochiolitis, two requiring hospital visits), listened to her chest and her nasty sounding cough watched her breathing, she was labouring and had a significant wheeze. He discussed asthma, and said that she was a high risk of getting it due to her list of respiratory infections over the past couple of months. There are two treatment options ventolin and/or oxygen.

We are now starting a trial starting with Ventolin. It is a 50:50 chance that this will work or not, as she may not have developed the muscles enough for ventolin to actually relax the airways and open them up.

She is starting on 4 puffs, four times a day, and overnight if required. We are doing this for a week and then reviewing how she has/has not recovered.

I am hopeful that the ventolin works as I am not sure what would happen if we had to look at introducing oxygen to aid the recovery. I know she is working hard with her breathing and it hurts to see her struggle again, I wish it wasn't so hard sometimes.

I guess we just want some answers and for DD to be able to enjoy life and spend time with her friends without being constantly sick and having to miss out.

Hope this next week flies by with some good news at the end :)

Has anyone else trialed ventolin this early, what happened and what was the next step? We are hoping that it does the job and then we can reduce the dosages.

TIA for any information/experience anyone can give us. :)

No advice here but just wanted to give you and N some :hug: :hug: :hug:

Thanks Pixie :comfort:

Big hugs to you hun, I know how worrying it is for you and how distressing it is for your DD. My DD is an asthmatic but never started on ventolin until she was 3. She also had bronchiolitis at 6wks, 3mths & 6mths and was hospitalized each time. I really hope the ventolin works for her and eases her troubles with breathing. Wishing you all the best.

Regards,
Dianne

:hug: it is so hard isn't it.

My DD also has a history of respiratory distress and infections and has been trialed twice on ventolin, my DD is constantly stopping breathing in her sleep and waking up gasping and screaming, having coughing fits then screaming in distress, bringing up her milk due to coughing/phlem just sitting and irritating her, it just doesn't seem to stop.

The ventolin did seem to help, it helped her keep her milk down and helped with the coughing, I think in our situation it goes a bit deeper though, we are actually off to see her respiratory specialist today at the childrens, I am hoping to get some answers.

I know this isn't of much assistance to you. Just wanted to offer a :hug: as I know how hard it can be.

Thankyou diannescruffy, :comfort: for you and your little girl, that ouwld have been very stressful especially when she was so little, ours started when DD wad 8 months old.

DD, thank you for your post, I understand the breahting probs and the screaming that follows and how distressed they get. Is she still of ventolin? Did it reduce the wheezing/coughing much?

I hope your appointment at the children's goes well today and that you get some answers. :comfort:

xxoo

DD1 had reoccuring bouts of brochiolitis, I spent many night ssitting up with her so she could breath and to keep her calm. At 12 months she had two lots of redipred before finally going onto ventolin probably about 13 months too.

She was on 2 puffs twice a day for three months and had also treatment dose if she had an attack. We worked out that her teething was a trigger, something outside would trigger an attack later that night. She was lactose intolerant and having too much dairy also seemed to have an effect on her breathing.

After about 6 months she went onto one puff twice a day for a month after a bout of bronchiolitis and now she rarely needs it.

She has only one molar yet to come through and can have dairy foods too so I will wait and see what happens in spring to see if playing outside still sets off an attack.

Good luck Beema, will keeps my fingers crossed for you that it works.

I personally could not hear the wheezing but the doctors could so I cannot comment on that .

However it definatly did help with her coughing, she seems to be worse when she is asleep and was having coughing fits constantly waking her up in distress, now she may have a cough here and there but usually not enough to wake her anymore.
I am down to just 2 pumps before bed at night as I think she is finally over this chest infection.

She still seems that she is shallow breathing and stopping her breathing which seems unrelated to the need of ventolin, I am going to request a sleep study to determine what is happening with this side of things.

Both DS1 (6) and DS2 (nearly 4) have asthma. DS2 was diagnosed at 13 months, he has had four doses of steroids so far this year. He was on ventolin from 13 months, fairly regularly. Fortunately the doctors and I have been able to identify what sets off his asthma (illness, certain pollens, hayfever etc). He is fairly easy to manage now that we have identified what the general causes are. He was a full termer, but has had 4 bouts of croup in his little life! He doesn't have an audible wheeze when he has asthma.

DS1 gets asthma associated with chest infections and bronchiolitis - he was also 6w prem, had pneumonia at 8 months and was hospitalised. He regularly gets bronchiolitis, and has an audible wheeze associated with asthma.

So each child is different - I'm also an asthmatic, so know how to administer the medication and what to look out for.

Now just to convince XH that he should abide by the doctor's recommendations and give ventolin when the doctor prescribes it - not just when XH thinks he might need it... Why would you follow a doctor's orders when you used to be a nurse??!?!?!?

Thankyou all for your posts and answering my questions.

BR, we were thinking that teething could have had something to do with it as when she had croup each bout was followed by her first and second teeth, but it wasnt to be with the bronchiolitis, so we aren't sure if there is a connectin there or not, and I can't feel anymore teeth coming at all - DD has four two top and bottom centrally.

DD we are getting breaks from the wheezing with the ventolin and I have noticed that the coughing has reduced since we started the ventolin. I am not sure how much of an impact we are to expect from it, whether it is supposed to be instantaneously or not. We are noticing that when she is due for another does, that the coughing and the wheezing increases quite significantly.

How did you go yesterday, are they going to do a sleep study? I would be interested in see what happens 02 wise overnight with DD, to see what happens when she does have these coughing fits, she had a couple overnight, but we didn't administer the Ventolin as she did eventually recover by herself and it didn't wake her up completely, so wasn't hugely distressed.

I am hoping that it helps get rid fo this nasty sounding cough, every doctor that has heard it recently has gone, "oh that doesn't sound good" I think they have been expecting it to be somthing viral or bacterial but the look of suprise on their faces when they listen to her lungs has shown that it wasn't a typical infection, but none were forthcoming with trying to resolve it until this week.

Thankyou Divvy, how did DS2 cope with the steroids, DD has had them twice and she got extremely hungry and was quite clingy - but she also had Croup at the time so I am not sure whther the clingyness was just related to that or the steroids as well.

Each child is sooo different as well, it is not suprising that the Dr's all have different views on what may or may not be asthma. I have had exercise induced asthma, but havn't had problems with it for quite a while now, mostly as I tended to focus more on weight training than lots of running ;)

We have noticed that when we are playing with DD, and she is moving a lot, laughing a lot, she starts to struggle with her breathing and her wheezing is becoming more pronounced, so I am wondering whether this is an indicator as well...

Thankyou all once again will keep you updated on how we go :)
xxoo

:hug:
My DD1 had 6 chest infections in about 4 months & they triggered her asthma. I took her in for yet another dose of abs, but they timed her breathing & put her on ventolin instead. She was closer to 2.

Its a scary thing to go through. I hope it has a positive out come for you.

My sister was quite young when she was started on ventolin. Only a few months old. She was full of mucous & mum actually slept her on her belly as she would've drowned in her own fluids. She used to have the nebuliser at least 4 times a day.

If it helps her, hopefully she can have a preventative to have twice a day, instead of the constant ventolin. Good luck :)

Well we went to the Dr's this afternoon and as a result of our test and his review we have a diagnosis, Small Airways Disease, it has been really difficult trying to find a decent description on Google, as a majority of the references are to severe cases (Cystic fibrosis, or as a result of smoking), but she fits more in the category of Chronic neonatal lung disease, which in most cases relating to preterm birth requires the use of low flow supplemental oxygen facilitates, and home oxygen.

She had improved enough to not require 02 at present which is a huge relief, she still has the wheeze and cough, but the rattle in her lungs had improved. She will have the wheeze and cough for sometime, he is hopeful that by the age of about 6 she will have grown out of the disease. During the interim any little cold or sniffle will make it worse, "goes straight to her lungs", which is why she has been hit so badly, as what may be minor for other bubs quickly turns into Croup or Bronchiolitis for DD.

So the plan is... When she starts to develop a respiratory type infection, like each time she has developed croup or the bronchiolitis we are to administer 3 courses of Predmix, they usually appear in the evening so that night, the following morning and the morning after that. If she doesn't show improvement ie. becomes distressed, is drawing in her ribs, struggling to breath straight to the Drs of Hosy depending on the time of day/severity, and they will then have to administer 02.

So I am glad we know what we are dealing with and what the plan is, we are to keep the ventolin as that may be of assistance down the track a bit, when she will be reassessed for asthma, but as the ventolin had a minimal effect, it is too early for a diagnosis now.

Thankyou for all of your messages and information :)
xxoo

:hug: :hug: :hug: Vic & Nakita

I am glad to hear that you are getting closer to finding out the cause. At least the cold weather will be over soon so hopefully she won't get so sick. I hate this time of year with DD1 she gets so sick, I upset some friends last year as they kept bringing over their girls when they were sick and couldn't understand when I finally went nuts. Our Dr had advised us to stay away from kids with snotty noses, being a prem and with her weezing we wanted to try and avoid any colds or viruses becasue like you know it makes it worse. She is the kind of mum who knows everything and figured it would be good for DD to build up her immune system grrr!!!

My 19 month old has had a bout of croup, and broncholitis for the 2nd time. Last night we saw the doc and he said poor DS is starting to get asthma, so they put him on the ventilator machine. I was told to buy a ventilator and spacer.

My hubby wants to get a 2nd opinion re the asthma. I can hear his chest is like 'noisy'. I have no idea if and when he would be having an asthma attack. Tho' hubby is asthmatic and he is telling me the more I use the Ventolin spray, the more prone he will be to it.

Men - its like hitting a brick wall...:doh:

If you are not certain about the Dr's diagnosis then you can get a second opinion, it is rare that they officially diagnose Asthma under the age of 2, unless there have been 3 attacks where ventolin makes a difference. Prior to this it is referred to as Infant Wheezing and unfortunately there is not a lot of research in this area, and all of our Paed's and Dr's have said that it can really be a guessing game.

The infant wheeze is often closely connected to Croup, and secondly but less comonly Bronchiolitis, we discussed this with one of DD's Paed this week.

There are some clear signs when your child is struggling to breathe, and the Dr should have gone through this with you.

Some children have an audible wheeze and others and in auidible wheeze, my DD's is inaudible, but when it is audible we need to be at the hospital as she is usually having chest recessions by that stage.

You look at the base of the neck at the front and if the skin is being drawn in the round bit between the bones this is referred to as a Neck Tug, so the baby or child is having some difficulty breathing so you would administer Ventolin as per the asthma plan or recommendations given to you by the Dr. And then take them to your Dr or if they are not open to the ER.

The next level is chest recessions, this is where when you look at their chest that is is not there belly moving in and out as they breathe, it is their rib cage/chest. This is severe and the child needs to be taken to an ER quickly via ambulance to be seen by professionals.

All of DD Dr's and Paed's (ah yes we have a few ;)) all say it for us to give her as much as she needs, and as per her "astham" plans, she has not been officially diagnosed, as she has to have another severe attack or two, and she has a pre exisitng lung condition, resulting from either her prematurity or it has been caused by a series or respiratory infections (8 this winter so far :().

She is on Ventolin every day, usually just 2 puffs every 4 hours as needed, and at the moment she is on 6 puffs every 2 hours due to another infection, everything goes straight to her chest.

She has had up to 6-12 puffs every 20 minutes, in hospital, but at that stage she needed o2 as the ventolin stopped working. They don't become immune to the effects of Ventolin, but with asthma there do become times when the Ventolin just isn't enough.

This is not the opinion first hand from a Medical Professional, this is all of our experiences and the Dr's and Paed's we deal with directly in relation to our DD's issues, every child is different and the recommendations for you child will very likely be different to ours. If you are ever unsure please seek medical assistance as it s better to be safe and know that everything is ok than leaving it too long.

HTH's and doesn't freak you out!