My son is 22 months old. For the past 7 or 8 months, he has been having difficulty with asthma. He was diagnosed with Reactive Airway Disease about 7 months ago. He has been on Pulmicort since then. He wakes up almost every night with a terrible cough. Breathing treatments help it, but doesn't make it go away.

We took him to an allergy/asthma specialist yesterday. He had allergy testing done and was allergic to nothing. He has terrible eczema as well. The dr is having bloodwork done to rule out an immune deficiency. We also have to go have a sweat test done on March 14. I am freaking out because of this test. I have never noticed his skin being salty before. He is short for his age (like in the 10th percentile for height), but his weight is finally going up to like the 40th percentile I think. I just figured that it was because of his prematurity.

There is no history of cystic fibrosis in our family. Could this be cystic fibrosis??? TIA

There's no history in my family, nor my spouse's. In fact we just reviewed a geneology report a relative sent us that goes back over 100 years and nothing, nada.

DS was diagnosed at birth because of a bowel obstruction and other symptoms. I just met a woman a few months ago who's daughter is the same age as ds -- she was diagnosed around the holidays -- failure to thrive, nasty diapers.

It may or may not be CF. But if it is, it is better to find out sooner than later. Start treatment options, prevent lung damage. Don't panic. Is there a children's hospital near you? Make sure you keep after your doctor to find answers -- ask for genetic testing, ask for a pediatric pulmonololgist...

My daughter started having trouble with her asthma at 1 year old. They did testing for the immune system, sweat test for CF, a biopsy to test the cilia in her body to see if it was working properly and everthing came back ok. We were still having major trouble with her asthma. Finally her doctor did genetic testing for CF and any polymorphisms. The CF came back negative but the Polymorphism came back positive for two M470V's. One she inherited from me and the other from her Dad. Studies are just beginning to be done on this M470V but it is not believed to disease causing at this time, according to Ambry Genetics. What it does mean is that she is more likely to get sinus infections than the normal child and the sinus problems in my daughter is a major trigger of her asthma. Right now we have the sinus problems a little under control and this helps her asthma but it's day to day really. Even the cold weather can set her off.

I absolutely agree about checking out a children's hospital in your area. Even if it is not CF, you still need to find out what is triggering the asthma. By the way, my daughter didn't show any allergies either. Her doctor said sometimes they have to be a little older for a test to show positive on the skin. Another words young kids may have allergies but still show negative on the skin tests. She recommended we test again in the future when she's a little older. My daughter is 2 1/2 now. If you click on the large ByHope it will ask if you want to see all posts by me and you can read some of the other comments and details about my daughter and what the doctors have told us.

Good Luck!

Hey- this sounds identical to my son 5 ys old. What were the sweat test results? We go for ct scan Mon and sweat test Tues. She said she would start on immune bloodwork if she didn't find anything on these tests. Sharon