my two year old

[mysmile*]

My two year old got a runny nose one day lasst year.  Two and a half hours later i took him to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing, and a fever.  they did a chest x-ray and told me that he had phnumonia. this has happend six times in the last year.  He starts with a runny nose, and within hours a fever and wheezing.  his doctor dx him with asthma and prescribed pulmicort and xeopenex, and singular as needed. the only thing is by the time he gets his runny nose and we start the treatments it is to late the meds dont help.  he was born six weeks earily and i want to know could there be something else that the doctors are missing that is causing these? and why do his attacks come with a fever 102+? IF IT IS ACTUALLY ASTHMA, WHAT CAN I DO TO AVOID THE TRIPS TO THE ER AND THE HOSPITAL STAYS? AND THE cHEST X-RAYS ETC.. How can i manage this at home.  its taking a toll on him now even if he falls down he says..."i gotta go to the hospital."  its sad.. any adivce would be comforting... thanks.

[prepaid guru]

We just arrived home from a sleep study at Children's in Dallas.  Our 2.5 year old daughter is 48 lbs. and 39 inches tall.  Our ENT suspected that her weight gain may be causing sleep apnea.  Well, preliminary results after the study show she does have mild obstructive sleep apnea.  The plan is to move forward with a tonsilectomy / adnonectomy.

She was diagnosed with RAD when she was 6 mon. and has been on Zyrtec, Flonase, Proventil and Flovent since then.  We also tried the nebulizer for one year, but by year 2 she refuses it now.

She is very, very active and cognitively off the chart.  But she won't sit still for very long.

Our most concern right now is her weight gain.  One pound a week over the last eight weeks.  She usually eats a good lunch but doesn't eat but 4 bites at dinner and hardly has any candy.  She drinks around 30 ounces of 2% milk a day.  Her weight gain has contributed to mild reflux. The doctor prescribed Prevacid.

Any thoughts on weight gain?

After the surgery (tonsils), our PCP wants to have a MRI to see if she has a lesion on her pituary gland (middle brain).  This may be messing up her hormones and causing these changes in her body.  She has had blood drawn to check for thyroid and hormone problems and it all came back normal. She also had a bone scan of her wrist to check for normal bone growth.

I have noticed that she is starting to experience restless sleeping.  She will sit up in bed (3 AM) and call people's names out and make conversation when no one is in the room. Then lay back down and continue sleeping.  Or she will scream out, as if dreaming, then turn over.

[National Jewish]

Since your son was born 6 weeks early, he is more likely to develop asthma.  However what you have described could be asthma or reactive airways disease (RAD).

Infections like a cold or pneumonia can cause inflammation of the airways of the lungs.  Usually when this occurs, your son may cough when he is active or laughs.  This inflammation can cause wheezing.  After the infection is gone, it is possible for the inflammation to linger.  This inflammation can last for several weeks.  Sometimes this inflammation may linger for 3 to 6 months.  Eventually the inflammation will go away, and then the wheezing will stop.  This is called RAD and behaves a lot like asthma.  This inflammation often clears more quickly when it is treated with an inhaled steroid, like the Pulmicort Respules

[mysmile*]

sorry about the double post