Q’s for those with kids that have asthma?

Lucas has been up every night for the past week or so (the last four nights especially) coughing and wheezing away, he's really having a rough time of it atm poor wee tike.

I'm an asthmatic myself and I've been getting asthma every night too, anyway my Mum told me that mine first started off with a cough very similar to Lucas' and at 18 months I was diagnosed with it.

So we went to the Dr's today, enoughs enough. Lucas hasn't eaten in 7 days and despite being cleared from the tonsillitis (by a Dr we don't usually see) I knew something wasn't right. Turns out his tonsils are really bad and he should have been put onto diff antibiotics (which I HAD asked for, but this other dr had refused to give more) ...anyway that aside we now have a spacer and asthma inhaler, our Doc thinks he is showing early signs of asthma!

So I'm wondering for those of you who have kidlets that are asthmatics, when were they first diagnosed and what were the first signs/symptoms? AND were they dairy/milk intolerant too? How do you manage it, any tips?

Silly really, I should know being a bad asthmatic myself but I admit defeat and I'm not so good with sticking to all my inhalers, I have 3 and I'm so slack at taking them regularly (and now I'm paying for it )

Also as a side note, lucas has always been a big cows milk fan ...his diet usually mainly consisted of dairy ...and the past week he gets very rattly after half a cup of milk - could that be the throat or asthma causing it? ...I would have thought that if he had any intolerance to it, it would have shown from the start...

TIA

Don't have kids but i started to get asthma later at about 10yrs. I have noticed however that the last few weeks my asthma has been way worse with the change of season!

Aww hugs hun. Alize was diagnosed with Asthma at 11mths which isnt the norm but the paed did this so he could be given a preventer. He showed signs with brochilitis from a young age but by the time he was 9 mths it was ongoing without any sign of giving up (GP first mentioned asthma) he started responsed to ventolin at 10mths and was contuniously on ventolin until we finaly started beclozone at 11mths old.

Fingers crossed Lucas doenst have this, not nice at all as you know for yourself.

Hiya Steph, poor we boy my heart goes out to you both as Asthma is so scary.
Natasha started off with bronchiolitis at about 9 months then two bouts of pneumonia after she turned one so her poor old lungs had a hard start in life. And even though we spent many nights in starship etc with "asthma attacks" they didn't actually diagnose her until after 2, which is the norm if there is no history of asthma in the family.
If say the parent have asthma I think they can diagnose sooner. Anyway with Natasha who also had a heap of bottles as a toddler I took her to a natrupath (sp) who suggested we change from dairy to soy milk and avoid oranges/orange juice etc not sure why now but I think it was something about the build up of flem.

Oh and back to the symptoms (just re read your post) well coughing all the time waking a night time coughing she still does this drives us all nutty now as we are all over it because she wont take her preventer but she's 12 nearly 13 and of course she knows best. (ooops side tracked again).
Another thing we were told to watch out for was if her nostrels flared while she was trying to breath or you can see the base of the throat draw in then they are snuggling and should have ventolin and if it doesn't get better in say 10min or your worried (mothers instinct) then get them to the Dr.

Hugs to you both. hope Lucas and you both feel better soon.

Hi. How did the night go?

My daughter was diagnosed with Asthma not long before her first birthday. She will be ten later this month. She still needs to take her preventer regularly and her reliever more so in the winter as the cold is a trigger for her.

The thing that helped us take charge of her asthma instead of it running rampant on us was regular appointments with the asthma nurse at the asthma society. She taught me how to use the spacer properly (the doctors had given DD the wrong sized mask!) , how to recognise the early signs and to make a plan on what to do when she has trouble breathing.

Hi,
I dont yet have a baby(on the way), but I had very bad asthma as a kid... I was on a nebuliser 3x a day for a while. Good news is- I grew out of it eventually by 17.... I still get niggles when I get flu, or really sick, or have an allergic reaction, but it doesnt take over day to day. Just wanted to add a positive experience :)

I know that milk, and dairy products are mucus forming. And that is one thing you deff dont want to contribute to with asthma. I have also heard it can irritate it/flare it up.

Another thing- I suggest doing some research on entirely replacing dairy with soy... it contains phyto-estrogens which if consumed in large quantities mimic human estrogen... Hense it is reccomended for menapausal women, and possibly not growing boys (in large quantities). Also- check the sugar content- it aint just soy in soy milk.