Hi~~ I just joined this board. I had found a thread titles ...taking my 6 yr old to an asthma specialist tomorrow.....I can't find it again. I would like to know how that visit went. My son was diagnosed with asthma right after he turned 3....he is now 6 and has gained 40 lbs due to the steriods and meds. There HAS got to be something else to be done. I was reading an article that said the difference between Western medicine and other medicine is that western meds wanna just treat the symptoms not cure the illness. The way his asthma is being treated he will be a diabetic and have lots of problems as an adult. PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT THE SPECIALIST SAID. I have been debating on whether or not to take my son to one. You would think his pediatrician would want whats best for him. but from what I've been reading I'm not so sure he is. thanks alot :)

First of all, the inhaled steroids will not cause the weight gain. Has he been on oral steroids? You should be seeing a pediatric pulmonologist. I would never trust a GP, Internist or pediatrician to correctly treat asthma or allergies. You need a specialist.
Asthma has nothing to do with diabetes and it cannot be cured. However, children often outgrow it. Adults don't. I don't know where you are getting all this mis-information but get to a pulmonologist and get the right treatment for your son.

YES! Inhales steroids CAN cause weight gain! Get your info straight!

Well, my doctor says they don't and I haven't experienced it nor have any of my friends who are on Flovent/Advair/etc. So I can only speak from personal experience. Perhaps you'd like to give us your background in this topic????

All you have to do is research the internet and look up possible side effects. Or go to medications.com where the side effects experienced by any corticosteroid (i.e. Advair) are actually reported by people who take them.

Well, there are a lot of side effects that "can" happen but the percentage is very low that they do. And boards like this typically have more people responding who have problems than those who don't which skews the data. I'm not saying it would never happen only that most people don't experience any side effects when the drugs are used properly (that goes for thrush, etc). So you shouldn't Not take the med because you're concerned about weight gain. what a silly reason...asthma can kill you..perhaps another pound or two is worth the trade off? And I seriously doubt that inhaled steroids was the only cause of this child's 40 pound weight gain. if so, he has other issues as well.

thanks for the responses. My son has a nebulizer and has been on abuterol and he is now on xopenex. He takes singuliar. And yes he has been on alot of oral stroids. The first Dr. we saw that diagnosed him kept him on steroids instead of perscribing a nebulizer. He was on Prednisolone (sp) alot. thats when most of the weight was gained. He has only been on a few steriods in the past 2 years and very limited.He has taken another kind of steroid I think it starts with a "D". not sure. He gets croop sometimes so his Dr. prescribed nephrone and broncho saline for his nebulizer for the croop. The steroids just scare me. I hear all the negetive things about them. and If there is something else to do about the asthma I want to find it. The reason I said that Western Medicine treats the symptoms not the problem is because a few yrs back I was having severe side pains and went to the dr several times with it. They perscribed me pain pills and told me to take tylenol and lay on a heating pad.after doing that for weeks The pain got so bad and I was running a 103' fever I was taken to the ER they again sent me home with pain pills and told me to see my obgyn the next day. I did and I had a abdomenal sonogram done...then a catscan.... that was on a friday. we had to wait til monday to hear the results. well the fever came back and the pain was so severe by Sunday night that I went back to the ER. I was admitted around 2 am and had emergency surgery at 6:00 am. I had a cyst that was attatched to an ovary and a fellopian tube that was so big the Dr and nurses took pictures of it. They had to remove the ovary and tube along with it. see they wanted to treat the symptoms ( fever and pain).
I will take my son to see a specialist. I just hope he outgrows his asthma.
I read in a medical site online about asthma and diabeties. something to do a low immune system. If I can find it again I will copy and paste it on here. and Diabetes runs in my family anyway.

I certainly sympathize with your situation. And your son could very well outgrow the asthma. In the mean time, he does need to see a specialist. The oral steroids are just awful. His asthma should be controlled thru other means and he'll be a lot better off.
Keep us posted.

Wow, I am so sorry that all this is happening to you and your son. I really do believe that you are right about the whole Western medicine thing. Well, there are some things I could suggest to you. Research what you can about milk and its effects on asthma. I think you will be very surprised and may find that you won't ever want him to eat anything with dairy in it again. I know I am that way now. There's also a therapy I have been getting called craniosacral therapy which involves very light touch and is very effective with many health problems. It has been very helpful to me and I recommend it a lot. Also before I forget, there's the raw food diet (even though I hate to say diet and have it mean something else) and it has helped many people as well. Do some research on those things and see what you think about them.
I wish you the best and tell us how it all goes. *hugs*

Ladybryd92

Yes, oral steroids can cause MAJOR weight gain and steriod induced diabetes. I would take Titchou's advice and get him into a specialist.

Oral steriods can be good and bad, they are fast acting and get things under control very quickly by suppressing the immune system, most people go on them to get things under control, giving their regular meds time to work and then they are weened off the pred.

Maybe they felt your sons situation warranted something fast acting but long term health can be compromised along with stunted growth. Pred depletes you bones severly.

I do hope they find a better way to get his asthma under control long term.
Let us know how things are going.