i have a 3 year old Granddaughter that this past December they finally came to the conclusion she has asthma. This is after 2 month of continuous coughing and no one sleeping for all that time. They put her on albuterol inhaler, pulmicort inhaler and singulair tablet. It seemed to do the trick until this past Friday when the coughing started again. (she does the pulmicort and sibgulair once a day and albuterol when it flairs). nothing worked so today they put her on oral prednisone for 5 days. does anyone else have this problem where once it flairs up nothing seems to work to calm the cough?

I'm on Pulmicort & Albuterol. About twice a year, I get an episode where the coughing won't stop, and my peak flow readings are going down. When that happens, the Dr. gives me a 5 day burst of Prednisone. That takes care of it. You hate to take a lot of that stuff, but a short burst once in a while, shouldn't have too many side effects. This time he also gave me a "hi-test albuterol" called Combivent. It's not for emergency use, as it takes about 15 minutes to kick in, but it also helps relieve congestion.

Hi, my 14 yr old son has had asthma since he was a baby, he also has occasional episodes where the usual meds are not enough, and needs a 5 day course of steroids. In fact he just finished a course a couple of wks ago, and is much improved.

Buffalo gal is right, although worrying, the occasional short course should do no harm, and is better than the alternative of frequent severe attacks causing permanent lung damage.

You should soon see an improvement, take care, Mandy. :wave: