Questions for mommies of Asthmatic children

[newbie2b]

Hi.  As you may or may not know, I am expecting my first baby on May 9, 2007... Seems so far away!  Anyway, one of my biggest fears (in addition to everything else that could go wrong) is my child being born with Asthma.  This is due to my having severe asthma as a child.  I was admitted to the hospital 14 times before I was in the 4th grade.  I've had pneumonia at least 7-8 times and have had several collapse and double collapse lungs.  I've stayed months on end at the hospital. Theres a great chance that my baby will have asthma to.  My mom was unable to work until I was about 9.  I'm so worried.  So here's my questions.  Any moms out there have an asthmatic child as I described above?  How do you deal with it?  Do you think that breastfeeding will decrease his (I'm sure it's a he..even though I'm only 11 wks..lol) chances of having asthma (which is what i've read).  I would appreciate feedback from anyone who has dealt with asthmatic children or has dealth with it themselves.  Also, I find my asthma getting a tad worse with my pregnancy.

:-/

[deanne11]

My DD has asthma and she is 2...we didn't know until this past March when we flew to AZ from PA....the change in humidity...and dryness of AZ triggered it....just such a drastic change in 24 hours...her lungs just couldn't handle it.

She does okay.  We use a dehumidifier to help with the congestion and keep it loose.  Living in a older house on a wooded lot..we have lots of mold and dust mites so the dehumidifier works wonders, yet it stays at a comfortable level as not to trigger the dry croupe cough.

Anyway, she uses a nebulizer now, before it was just liquid albuterol but now she's old enough to hold the electric nebulizer she does and it's as needed.

Some people say a humidifier but we have always been told a dehumidifier....you have asthma so you should know what to do.
I'll tell you though...it's stessful!!!  My dad smokes and I hate hate hate bringing her there.

[deanne11]

by the way...i don't have asthma, neither does her daddy..now he used to but grew out of it...so i don't know how she has it...maybe it will be like her daddy and it will pass as she gets older.

[newbie2b]

Well, in a sense,  I grew out of mine to.  It still comes and goes that is, until I got pregnant.  It seems to have reared it's ugly head a bit. So I use albuterol. I also have a nebulizer but dont need to use it at all really.  I'm sorry that she's asthmatic.  I know it sucks big time for you and her.  But if her daddy grew out of it, I'm sure she will to. :-) (My father grew out of it but I guess passed it along to me anyway)
I was just wondering if you were able to go back to work (if you worked to begin with) after she was diagnosed.  If you dont mind the question.  Thanks :-)

[emma10]

I do and so does my son (got it around 8 y.o.) We both have food allergies too. Much asthma like all eczema is considered allergic in origin. Breastmilk eliminates one of the common triggers, dairy products. Unfortunately soy is in top 10 too so formula is not really a good choice either, just b-feeding.  I think this helped DS for a long time but eventually even the pollen caught up with him (it's very mild, mine is not).

No pets, no rugs, no blown-air heaters, lots of HEPA airfilters, can help too. Good luck, you never know. My DD has NOTHING at all.

[Pippsquike]

My son has Asthma (is now 9) that started with his first asthma attack at 2. He was in the hospital for  a week and was very prone to pneumonia and sinus infections. Every April until last year he ended up in the Hosp. (must be something in the air).... prolly pollen. He takes his nebulizer as needed and seems to be growing out of it somewhat as he gets older. he also take singular and zyrtec daily. he's finally getting old enough to take his inhaler (coordination is hard for young ones). And it is so nice witht he new FMLA  (Family Medical Leave Act) act. Asthma is a chronic condition....so Doc just has to fill out the FMLA forms once a year, and I can take off from work to care for him when his Asthma flares (since Nebulizer can't be taken to school) and work can't dock ya for it.

[deanne11]

yeah - I work...fulltime....uggh..HATE EVERY SECOND OF IT....WHAT HAPPEN TO THE JUNE CLEAVER DAYS.

It's funny this question came up because just yesterday we got a 2nd nebulizer....it stays at her school and I just sign off on the days I want them to give her treatment.

This is the first time in months she has had to use it.  And this is the first time I every brought it to school.  I would typically do her treatment in the morning before school and once after school and then had them give her liquid albuterol during school hours but the diarreha got so bad I didn't want her still using the liquid form.

But again....hers is BAD yes but very infrequent.  THANK THE GOOD LORD.

Of course I've had to call out a lot....3 weeks of vacation/sick time and most of it has been for her.  Between my husband and I about 10-15 days this year used for her.

[Marcus's Mommy]

Congrats on being pregnant. My baby is due May 8th, 2007, so we will have babies at the same time.  

As for asthma, I don't have it and no one in my family history has it. My husband doesn't have it and only his grandmother has it(she has one lung).  

Our son Marcus, who I breast fed for 5 months does have it.  I've never been around it until his attack at 11 months old.  I wasn't sure what was wrong, he just kept breathing fast.  We took him to emerg and he was taken right away.  We spent the night there with him having a mask on every hour.  Two weeks later it happened again and it was really bad.  He was hooked up to everything and stayed 2 nights.  I was so scared.

He had a third spell but no over night stay.  We have now had him on a purple inhaler for a year and 4 months. Two puffs in the morning and 2 at night, now it is only once.  It has been amazing. No attacks since then, thank God.  We live in Ontario so we get hot humid summers and cold winters. I think his is triggered to weather changes, if it is hot one day and cold the next. I always thought people with asthma got it from running too fast, Marcus got it from just sitting.  The told us to watch for a little cough and a runny nose, that is when it starts.  I also never knew until a doctors appointment that I can not give him cough medicine, ever!  He has to cough to get the flem (phlegm) out or he could have another attack.

sorry for writing a book.  Hope this helps. I don't think you can change what may or maynot happen.

[newbie2b]

Nebulizer not allowed in school?  Wow that's so crazy to me.  Nebulizer has saved my life numerous times. I cant imagine a school not wanting to have that on hand.

[emma10]

What did you switch to when you went off breastfeeding?  I really really suggest you look at that. If it's dairy based, try the soy. Just for a few weeks (min. 2) --I bet you there will be an improvement. It's worth the try. Asthma is sometimes exercise-induced but it is mostly an allergic reaction--see Hugh Sampson, MD for articles.  Does he have any skin reactions too?  

If the formula doesn't work, I'd think of having the RAST food allergy test. If you remove whatever he's allergic to, he might get over it entirely.

Sorry to be such an "allergy-nut" but we suffered a lot with it because the doctors would dismiss everything as having no cause, ie oh its just a rash. When the poor thing finally got tested at 14 mos. he had lots of positive scores that had been bothering him for months and resulted in low growth (this is a gradual consequence).(RAST by the way is just one blood draw and they test his blood--they don't ***** the baby with needles).

[Marcus's Mommy]

After breast milk we went to Nestle good start. We did that until he was 1 now it is regular milk. He is almost 27 months now.  I don't think milk bothers him but he has had a rash around his mouth a couple of times now and the doctor says its exzema (eczema) (sp?).  I haven't found what triggers it yet.  Thanks for the heads up on it though.

[newbie2b]

Thank you all for your insight.  It's one thing to be a child with the asthma, its totally another thing to be a mommy of an asthmatic child.  It helps to hear your stories, it makes me feel a little prepared. :-(
I remember how bad it was for my mom.  She's wonderful.  She would stay with me in the hospital for weeks on end and go to work (when she worked) from the hospital.  She would sleep on two hard chairs (this was early 80's so, no comfy recliners available for her) I remember watching her toss and turn. I remember once, I was in ICU I must have been really bad because they were shoving tubes either down my nose or in my throat and I remember seeing her crying and asking her why she was crying.  I was so little and sick.  My heart goes out to all the mommies out there who have to go through this.  I know it's tough.  I'm just trying to prepare myself.
Just one more thing.  I'm sure you all know this already but, sometimes when you go from hot to cold to fast (ie: cold outdoors to a heated inside) it can get pretty bad.  Even still, I make sure my mouth and nose are covered with a scarf so that, the change is not so dramatic for my lungs.

[have 2 kids]

Most schools allow nebulizers at school with a Dr's order.  I don't understand how they can say no.
I have asthma.  Developed it as an adult. No chance of outgrowing it.  I just started taking singulair for it.  Hoping it works.  
I've never heard of not using cough medicine.  When my attacks get severe my Dr has me take Robitussin with codeine.

[newbie2b]

Oh no.  Asthmatics are NOT suppose to take any of those types of things.  I cant tell you how many times (as an adult) I've taking something for my cold (just a cold) and have woken up GASPING for air because those medications dry you out.  When your asthmatic you have to get rid of all that "stuff" instead of suppresing it.  It's what keeps you sick.  Mucinex is really good because it breaks down and helps you get rid of all the phlegm.

[emma10]

We got the eczema first (which pediatricians/medical journals now admit is clearly an allergy phenomenon) and the asthma much later, I think because the eczema tipped us off and with the RAST we could eliminate a lot of the foods.  If you have good health insurance, it's honestly worth it to try a RAST (blood test, single tube on which they do "panels" of allergens like nuts or grains or different lists of stuff). If the RAST matches what you observe (ie you get a 'reaction level score' from the RAST and you notice eating dairy always makes his eczema itchier or oozy) then you have good idea of what to give up. One item we never thought of was wheat and gluten grains (had thought maybe eggs, maybe dairy, maybe nuts).  His wheat/grains scores were as high as his peanut score. He can eat them now but we did rice bread/waffles etc for many years. The MD I mentioned has great eczema/allergy/asthma articles (Huge Sampson MD).

[lawgirl17]

How early can you test a child for asthma or allergies? We have always been told that they can't be "diagnosed" until two years even though it may be apparent from very early on.
The child that my husband and I care for clearly has severe allergies. Each day that my allergies act up (I get the worst of them in the Fall but quite a bit the Spring as well), hers do as well. You just feel so badly for the poor little thing because there is nothing that we can do. We have always used a humidifier in her room, and we noticed a huge difference the couple of times that we forgot to turn it on.
I am just curious to know if a 6-mo-old baby can be tested (RASP), or whether we (if we are fortunate enough to continue caring for her long-term) will need to wait until she is closer to two. One of my sisters had allergy shots when she turned two, and she completely outgrew her allergies. My oldest sister and myself, however, were not given shots until we were in late elementary school/junior high, and it was too late for us unfortunately. We will always have allergies, so I have sworn that I will have my children tested early and get them on shots ASAP if at all possible.
Would baby Tylenol be similar to cough medicine in regards to inducing an asthmatic attack?

[twiceadopt]

my youngest got RSV when he was 3 weeks old and ended up with mild asthma, we have a nebulizer and use as-needed. it's stressful but it helps having a pediatrician who understands infant asthma, that makes it a lot easier.

[emma10]

My son had the RAST testing at around 14 months.  It's just that many pediatricians don't even "believe" in allergies, esp. food (he had airborne too of course but we just tested for food.)  He had had the oozing eczema and severe episodes of vomiting for almost 8 mos. at that point (started when he started eating solids even though he was still nursing).  A key part of his treatment was using ZYRTEC (like Benadryl but not sleepy) to control his airborne allergies (he was also really congested but not asthmatic) so his allergy load would be lower.  I did have to fight hard to get the testing, even the RAST rather than skintesting. I went through 2 pediatric allergists, 3 pediatricians, a pediatric gastroenterologist before I felt I had the info. I needed (had insurance but they weren't always going to cover stuff).

Unfortunately we couldn't get much priority in the system until his body weight fell from 50th percentile (which it had been since birth to 6 mos.) to less than zero percentile (around 14 mos.) He then did not grow an inch or gain an ounce for over a year. His bone age still reflects this crisis.

I know they did say we could use Benadryl when he was even an infant. I never did but it seemd approved for babies--maybe it would help your baby--ZYRTEC too seems to be prescribed for very young ones.  I don't know about shots--they don't have them for food and with the odd immune system he had I wouldn't have wanted to mess around bombarding it with massive doses of anything.  I have heard people who swear by it.  HEPA airfilters btw work wonders (cleaning the air, esp. in bedroom).

The only thing I know about painkillers is that NSAIDS can exacerbate symptoms in asthma--these are advil, aspirin, etc. Tylenol is not in that family but with baby I'd check with dr.  GOOD LUCK TO YOU!