Sudden Asthma Attack in 5 year old

DS3 who is 5 and a half woke on Saturday night wheezing and unable to say more than two words with one breath. It was about 3am and I was breast feeding bubs and he just walked up to me and said 'breath hurts' and I could hear him struggling and wheezing. I put bubs to bed and got DH up and we gave him some ventolin with the spacer but it made no difference. DH had a shower ready to take him to emergency while I called the after hours GP hotline. They were fantastic. We ended up giving him the ventolin 5 more times and after 1.5 hours were happy enough to go to bed with him in our bed to keep an eye on him. I have no other kids with asthma and only had the spacer and ventolin from when he was younger and had horrible night coughing. He was fine last night. I will take him to our GP tomorrow for a check up too, but what do I do about a school? I'm worried it will happen again. Should I keep him home until he sees the dr? Or send the spacer and ventolin with him and tell the teacher? Sorry this is so long. Don't really have anyone other than DH to talk too and it was really scary so good to be able to just get it out.

My 11 year old had a sudden attack a month ago she hadn't had one for ages before that. We ended up in hospital, but only for the day.

The signs I go by to work out whether she should go to school or not are mainly around how often she needs the puffer. Has he had the puffer again today? Does it last 4 hours? does he need the puffer at four hours again? If yes to any of these I would not send her to school. Asthma takes alot out of their body and I really encourage my daughter to have alot of rest after an attack like you described so maybe one day home at least. I have an asthma care plan in place with the school and her teacher. If she needs the puffer at school at all after an attack I ask them to ring me so I can decide whether I need to pick her up or not. Usually I would only pick her up IF she has needed the puffer again within four hours.

I hope that helps.

I would take him to the doctor and not send him to school. He would also be exhausted from the stress of trying to breathe, along with the lack of sleep. One day off to see the doctor and get a proper asthma plan would not be harmful to his schooling.

My DSs both have asthma, as do I. A significant attack makes you exhausted for a few days.

I wouldn't send your son to school. I'd make the appt with your GP and get a plan in place to manage his asthma and hand it to the school

Thanks ladies for telling me of your experiences. I will keep him home tomorrow and get an asthma plan done up at the doctor. Just wondering though is it odd for an attack like this to occur out of the blue, assuming it is asthma? He is on singulair tablets but that was more to keep his Eustachian tubes open and put a stop to the ear infections. And would that be considered a bad/ serious asthma attack? They don't get much worse do they - not sure how I'd cope if they do!! :)

has he ever had asthma diagnosed before? If hes never had it before I would be inclined to think croup rather than asthma, expecially this time of year. Croup isnt necessarily less dangerous, my parents nearly lost both my brother and I because of severe attacks when we were very young, but we tended to get a very severe form, but it is very different to asthma. I would be investigating alternates and not necessarily seeking an asthma diagnosis which can lead to unnecessary interventions. The other "indicator" I have found for croup is a slight illness up to 3 days either side of the attack. My attacks were usually an indicator that I was 24-48 hours off getting sick, and more likely to occur at seasons change- either as it was getting colder or warmer.

Could it be allergy related? I have quite bad "asthma" but have found out not long ago it's actually all allergy related. Im allergic to grass, so I get all my symptoms in spring/summer/some of autumn and I have all the symptoms of asthma, wheezing, tight chest etc. And ventolin helps it. It took doctors/specialists like 12 years to figure this out. I actually put it together myself and brought it up to my doctor and she was very much "yeah!" And sent me to a different specialist who agreed and now I'm on allergy desensitization treatment

I've had had some asthma symptoms I guess. I mean when had the ventolin and puffer for him as he kept waking up during the night having coughing fits. Once on the singulair though it did stop happening. I'm not convinced its asthma yet. Will see what the dr says. Wishing I had of taken him to the ER now so they could have seen/heard it. There was no coughing at all, even with the wheezing and hoarse talking voice. He has not been unwell before or since - no runny noses or anything. I wondered about allergies too but nothing is different. We didn't go anywhere different or ear anything different. Spent the day at home. If I wasn't breast feeding his brother I would have taken him but DH would of had to go and he wasn't keen since we got it under control here.

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DS3 who is 5 and a half woke on Saturday night wheezing and unable to say more than two words with one breath. It was about 3am and I was breast feeding bubs and he just walked up to me and said 'breath hurts' and I could hear him struggling and wheezing. I put bubs to bed and got DH up and we gave him some ventolin with the spacer but it made no difference. DH had a shower ready to take him to emergency while I called the after hours GP hotline. They were fantastic. We ended up giving him the ventolin 5 more times and after 1.5 hours were happy enough to go to bed with him in our bed to keep an eye on him. I have no other kids with asthma and only had the spacer and ventolin from when he was younger and had horrible night coughing. He was fine last night. I will take him to our GP tomorrow for a check up too, but what do I do about a school? I'm worried it will happen again. Should I keep him home until he sees the dr? Or send the spacer and ventolin with him and tell the teacher? Sorry this is so long. Don't really have anyone other than DH to talk too and it was really scary so good to be able to just get it out.

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Doctor is the perfect person to ask , hows Ds3 now? puffer ventolin is also the bestfriend of most asthma sufferers.. use humidifier when sleeping it helps in respiratory issues like asthma. most of people i know if they asthma attack they stay at home, much safer