? for Moms with asthmatic toddlers

CarolinaDaisy · March 2010

DS has mild asthma which has mainly in the past been triggered by viruses. He was on Flovent (2puffs twice a day), but I really didn't like having to give a daily inhaled steroid to my child and I wasn't sure he needed it. So we weaned him off of it (per Pedi's instructions) to see how it would go. Well, after 2 weeks of coughing at night and occasionally waking up, it seems we need to do something.

He also is having allergies to something (not sure if it's indoor/outdoor or both!) Pedi said we could either do the Flovent + Claritin or Zyrtec or we could try Singulair instead.

We're going to try Singulair for the next month and see how it goes, but I was just wondering if anyone else has a toddler on this medication and what your experience has been.

I hate having to have him on a daily medication, but if it improves his quality of life then I will learn to live with it. I am sure hoping the asthma is something he will outgrow. I had it as a child and so did my brother and we do not have it as adults. However, my 64 year old FIL still has asthma to this day and uses an inhaler multiple times per day.

jc&cat · March 2010

I don't actually have an answer to your question but a question for you. How did they determine that your LO has asthma? Your first statement with the night coughing is fueling my thoughts that DS is dealing with asthma. Thanks for your help!

Lucky_Dragonfly · March 2010

My nephew was on Singulair at about 12mos for asthma. HE did fine with it and it reall helped him out. he also had to use it in conjunction with a nebulizer, but once the whezing stopped then he was weened from the neb and he really only needed the Singulair for the summer months.

CarolinaDaisy · March 2010

Well in October, he caught some sort of a virus. He went to bed fine and fussed on and off through the night, some coughing, but nothing I was worried about. The next morning he slept more than an hour past his normal waketime so I went in to check on him. He was awake, lying there, and just looked rather pathetic. He also had vomited at some point during the night.

I picked him up and immediately realized he was breathing WAY too fast. He also had a slight fever so I gave him some Motrin and a quick bath. He was uninterested in breakfast (and he's a big eater!) and overall not particularly responsive to anything. He would just whimper occasionally. When I went to change his diapr, I realized that he was having chest retractions and struggling a bit to breathe. So DH and I quickly dressed and took him to the Children's ER.

We spent several hours there and he received a few breathing treatments of Albuterol and they sent us home. He was not wheezing at all, just breathing very quickly. His blood oxygen level was pretty low so they knew he needed help with his airway. They said he had 'reactive airway disease' and would probably have similar occurences with a cold virus or other viruses. We were ok for a few weeks when he got sick with a cold and we had a similar breathing problem and ended up using a lot of albuterol at home to control it.

A few weeks after he got better, we went in for a check up with our Pedi because he was still having a lot of coughing, severe coughing fits, although it was mainly at night. Our pedi recommended going on Flovent for a few months to get through the cold season. We just weaned him off at the end of February.

He started coughing again and it has just increased. He is not sick, just has a chronic cough that has lasted 3 weeks now. Mostly coughing at night, several hours after going to bed. He also is having some allergies lately, so I thought maybe it was just due to post-nasal drip, but pedi says that should just be when he first lays down and that isn't happening at all.

Apparently, there is a form of asthma that mainly manifests as a dry, non productive cough, especially at night.

auburnbride2be · March 2010

It sounds like we are experiencing the same thing. A couple weeks ago, they finally diagnosed DD with mild intermittent asthma. We are using a nebulizer with a preventative medication two times per day and then doing albuterol in the nebulizer when she has a flare up. We don't know yet what her triggers are besides the third hand smoke at my in laws' house - so we won't be going for overnight or long visits anymore. Needed an excuse anyway because I never liked doing it anyway. She also has issues when she gets a cold with any drainage or congestion. Right now, we are having the night time coughing. Daycare says she's fine all day and as soon as it nears bedtime and she lays down, the coughing starts. We are just in the beginning of this, so I don't know much about it and all the various meds. I am ready for the docs to let us use an inhaler b/c it is very difficult to get DD to sit still for 10 minute breathing treatments multiple times per day.

CarolinaDaisy · March 2010

We have never used a nebulizer. We use an inhaler with a mask and spacer and just hold it in place until he gets 5 or 6 breaths. It was awful when we first started (DS was 16 months), we had to restrain him and he would scream but when he screamed he had to inhale so it worked out fine. He quickly adjusted (with a few weeks) and is an angel for it now.

And now we only need it for the Albuterol if he has a flare up. The singulair we are going on is a dissolvable granule form that I can mix with applesauce or something. We are going to start it tomorrow, so I hope iut works well!

I'd ask the pedi about switching to an inhaler with spacer and mask. I totally think that is the way go!

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