I've got 3 here w/ asthma. One is doing fine. The other two...not so much. lol

Both my son and daughter are on 5mg Singulair and 10mg Zyrtec daily. Last week my son needed the inhaler almost once a day. My daughter has been complaining of stuffy nose at night and was wanting a nose spray like brother's and then started with another cough Sun. afternoon so Monday I called the ped's office about both kids.

Set up an appt for my daughter, and talked to the nurse about my son. She said to put him back on the nebulizer 3x/day and call in a couple of days if that didn't clear things up.

After making the phone call, my daughter's cough just kept getting worse and worse. At one point Mon. afternoon I heard her wheezing, so I gave her the inhaler. Tuesday at the appt, doc heard a lot of wheezing w/ the scope, so gave her a neb treatment. More wheezing, so a double neb. Still wheezing so a chest xray. Doc said it was mostly viral and sent us home on 60mg prednisone a day for 5 days and nebs 3x/day, but about every 3-4hr for the first couple of days.

I called the dr office back this afternoon around 1ish because my son wasn't getting better on the 3x/day. He wasn't getting worse, but he wasn't getting better. The doc wasn't going to be in the office so we couldn't get an appt anyway, so the nurse said to up his nebs to every 3-4hr and call in the morning if need be. She said hopefully he can kick it on his own...without the steroids...this way.

Well, since I called (deja vu here!) he has been getting slowly worse. I gave him a treatment at 2:30pm, one at 6pm, he sounded like he could use one by 8pm but I held off till 9pm. Checked his lungs w/ my ear to his chest (hadn't dug up the BP cuff w/ the scope yet) and he was definitely wheezing, so he had another at 10pm. Dug out the BP cuff and used the scope...minimal wheezing on the right, clear on the left. I haven't done anything else yet, but he is still coughing every couple of minutes and every time he tries to say something he starts coughing again.

What to do? At the moment I don't hear any wheezing even w/ the scope, but the cough is not a cold cough...it's an asthma cough. There's no way he has the wheezing his sis did at the doc's yesterday, by the end of the appt you could hear her from across the room. If sis didn't need the ER at that point (granted she then had a script for the prednisone...), I don't know that he needs the ER now. And yet he is still coughing....????

Any ideas?

Chris

I feel for ya. My daughter (who's 18 now) has had asthma all her life. I've been through much of what you're going through now. Trust your motherly instincts. Really. You'll know if he gets to the point where you need to take him to the ER. But if there is any doubt, err on the side of caution and take him in. You can call the ER and explain the symptoms also and they can advise you whether to bring him in or not. If you decide to hold off a bit, and it sounds to me as if you can for right now, here's what I would try. Get some water and boil it. Remove it from the heat, put a towel over his head and lean him over the steam (carefully of course so he doesn't get burned). Let him inhale the steam. A humidifier also helps in a room if you have one. If not, you can also try turning on the shower and let it get hot. The steam will build in the bathroom. Sit on the commode and let him inhale it while you lean him over your lap. Sometimes patting on the back between the shoulder blades will help loosen mucous so he can cough it out. And don't be fooled by the wheezing or lack thereof. Sometimes kids can have a tight chest, so much so that air is barely getting into their lungs so you can't hear any wheezing. Often parents will think, "Ok, he's doing good, no wheezing sounds." But if there is not much air getting into the lungs, there's nothing to produce a wheezing sound! So keep a close eye on that. If his color looks good and he's not turning bluish (check his fingernails too) then he should be ok. Aside from that, if you have any guifenasen (an expectorant) you might try that in order to loosen any congestion. One other thing I used to do with my daughter was to have her take deep breaths. This forced open her airways better then she would cough as a reflex. But that's what I wanted because it would help her cough the mucous up and out, clearing her lungs. Try all these and see if it helps. If not, and you feel it's getting worse, take him in! Good luck!

Well, he finally fell asleep, so I just checked on him from time to time to make sure he didn't start in wheezing again. Gave him another neb when he got up at 9am (my kids are weird, they rarely are up before then) and halfway through he said, "Mommy, they just make me worse". ugg So, I call the dr for an appt while sis is getting her treatment. Repeat of sis' appt Tues, only he gets the prednisone and Zithromax. I picked up a second compressor for the nebs. Our poor machine was protesting all the usage yesterday with both of them on it every 3-4hr! lol

Now I've got 5 more days of the steroid roller coaster. Three of them with both kids riding it. Yea! =(