15.5 month old with "reactive airway"= possibly asthma

KDR1979

Both of my kids have mild eczema and have since they were very young. I was told last year that sometimes asthma + allergies + eczema can all go together. Well, poor DS always gets more sick than DD. They'll catch the same viruses, but he'll be sicker and for a longer time. In February, they both got their 1st antibiotic and he ended up doing 31 days of antibiotics to get rid of his double ear inf and sinus infection. In early June, they caught another virus and he started wheezing. He ended needing about 10 total breathing treatments in June and did 5 days of oral steroids. Well, we made it about 5 wks w/o a treatment. They started with cold symptoms early this week. DH said that DS might have been wheezing Wed night (I was at a work dinner). Yesterday, DS sounded terrible. He was eating/playing/sleeping as usual, but you could hear him breathing from a different room. We went to the peds yesterday and she said he has his 2nd ear infection and needed 2 breathing tx's in the office (I had given him one at home already). You wouldn't even know he was sick (other than snotty nose, sneezing, labored breathing) because he didn't have a fever and went on with his usual activities.  

Went to Walgreens to pick up several rx's....an inhaler with spacer (trying that instead of nebulizer), augmentin, and oral steroid. She is also going to call in a daily preventative inhaler to try to prevent these episodes and she wants him to use it every day for a  year. She didn't seem too optimistic that he wouldn't end up with asthma since he's gotten this bad with summer colds. She is afraid he'll do this with every virus he catches.

 I'm so worried about him now. I was just thinking we were getting to safer age where I could go to the gym (got a lot to loose after 5 IVF's and the twin pregnancy) and let the kids stay in the gym daycare for 45 minutes. I don't even feel like I can do that now b/c I don't want him to get sick. No one in my family ever had asthma, so this is all new to me.

Anyone else have experience with asthma? I'm just so worried about DS and want to keep him healthy.

aglenn

My DD got diagnosed with asthma around 18 months and had similar issues.  Once she did the daily preventive inhaler for a while things got a LOT better and she was able to decrease it over time.  Now she hardly ever uses her inahler (she is almost 4).  So don't freak out about it - once you have a good asthma control plan in place things really can improve quickly and the inhalers may not be a permanent thing.  My DD has also been in day care full time since she was an infant, so she is exposed to plenty of stuff but now she gets over her colds quickly and easily just like other kids. 

If you haven't already you may want to see a pediatric asthma and allergy specialist.  We did that for DD and had her tested for allergies and worked out the asthma plan with the specialist.  It was all extremely helpful and it was good to work with a doctor who saw this stuff every day.  Good luck!

aurora1974

DD2 has been diagnosed with asthma.  She started having problems at around 7 months. She's now 17 months and we just weaned her off her daily steroid treatment a few weeks ago and immediately after stopping she got a cold.  It was a panic time for us definitely but she made it through the cold with no breathing problems this time.  It did take about 2 weeks for the cold to go away though.  She definitely keeps a virus longer than DD1 ever did. We did try and wean her off the steroid in the spring per her pedi and we ended up back in the ER having multiple treatments so she went back on for a bit. Throughout all this she was at a daycare.  

So I tell you all this just to say that if you have him on the preventative that I see no reason for you not to let him stay in a daycare for 45 minutes.  You have (or are getting) everything you will need to make sure he's ok.  You could keep him home and away from every other kid on the planet and he will still get sick because he has contact with others who have contact with others who have contact with others, etc.  

Good luck.  It is still possible that he'll outgrow it.