My DH had pretty bad asthma as a kid and sometimes has issues with flare-ups but he doesn't even have an inhaler anymore so he basically outgrew it. He sometimes has issues when allergies are more prominent but he hasn't used an inhaler in a few years I don't think.
DS #2 is on breathing treatments because his doctor said he was wheezing and his pulse ox wasn't where she wanted it last week (went in for shots but he ended up having double ear infection). Besides the ear infection (he didn't even have fever and wasn't acting weird!) she diagnosed him as bronchialitis (sp?). She said if it happens again she would consider it asthma but I was confused.
I have some follow up questions when we go back next week but wanted to see what other people had experienced. Thanks!
Re: Any LO been diagnosed with asthma?
Mine has not, thank goodness. I have asthma and I wasn't diagnosed until age 12, I can't imagine my little guy dealing with it.
However; my niece has been hospitalized twice for breathing complications. She is 17.5 months old. Her Dr's have yet to officially diagnose her with asthma and said that they will not until she is at least 2. I am not really sure why that is. In the mean time she has had a nebulizer for several months now and takes an inhaler regularly. It's really sad to see that confused/scared look in their eyes when they are having breathing complications.
I hope your LO gets better soon! And hopefully just has a virus and no asthma int the future!
Bronchiolitis is the narrowing of the air passages which causing the wheezing and difficulty breathing. Audra has been diagnosed with it twice. Once in December which she got over on her own and then in March which was RSV Bronchiolitis and she was hospitalized for 2 days. We had to do albuterol nebulizer treatments for those few days. Once she was better you wouldn't even tell she was having difficulty breathing. Her pediatrician thought she could have some sort of reactive airway disease but they weren't positive. I took Audra to see a pediatric allergist/asthma doctor at my work and he did not want to diagnose her with asthma based on her history of only wheezing/coughing while sick. She has no trouble breathing any other time then having a cold. He said we will just watch her over the next few years and see how she does.
Generally at my practice the doctors diagnose children with asthma when they have difficulty breathing/wheezing doing normal activities. They wouldn't really prescribe an inhaler for a few more years because a child LO's age cannot adequately inhale the medication.