Minimal Change Disease

Hi,

I need your suggestion on Minimal Change Disease.

My Son is 2Yrs Old he got Nephrotic syndrome- Minimal Change disease in Nov-2008 and he is diagnosed with Prednisone since then. He responds very well to Prednisone and his Protein counts drops to Negative or trace after using it for one week. But whenever he has any Cold/Cough/fever it relapses. Since Nov2008 he had 4 relapses. Since he is relapsing frequently we could not bring him out of Prednisone.

Does long term use of Prednisone causes any severe side effects?

Also frequent relapses does they harm him?

Appreciate your answer to these questions.

Thanks,
Venkat