Where should I go now with my 7 year old son who has chronic pneumonia?

[yolanda40]

My son is 7 years old has had pneumonia  at LEAST 5 times in his life (will find my copies of his record which Ihave to prove it)after having the vaccine, rsv twice before he was 1 year old after having the vaccine, has had a bronchoscopy twice once at 10mos old and one at 5 years old, first one to determine diagnosis second to receive prognosis over time. Today he is 7 with pneumonia again home on Omnicef, spitting out so I can see blood tinged dark green mucous. I trust our pediatrician, but I think it's time to revisit our pulmonologist or lung specialist or respiratory  specialist to determine why he's having pneumonia so often and if there is anything more we can test and do to ease him.  Mind you he doesn't know any different because he was born with problems and chest pain, he is athletic and currently plays baseball, but we have noticed his breathing and lungs does way him down. HELP?

[National Jewish Health]

It would be important to know if the pneumonias have always occurred in the same portion of lung; if so, that would suggest the existence of some type of congenital lung structure abnormality, with poor mucous drainage/clearance, that has predisposed him to recurrent infection.  I suspect that his pediatrician has already checked for lung diseases such as CF, bronchomalacia, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, bronchiectasis and for inherited and acquired immunodeficiency states.  If not, that should be done.  

And, yes, it is definitely time to re-visit the pediatric pulmonary specialist. It is important to identify  the cause(s) of these recurrent infections that can damage his lungs.  Your son may require a variety of tests, including a CT scan of the lungs and possibly tests of what is called mucociliary clearance.

[roeann]

If your doc hasn't run this test yet I would demand he check him for cystic fibrosis (sweat test and/or gene).  Also, I would demand a referral to a respiratory doc.  As you can see I'm pretty demanding 8^)