My 14-year-old son was diagnosed about one year ago with exercise-induced asthma. His symptoms weren't severe, but he would get tightness in his chest and coughing after running a lot playing soccer or having a tough wrestling match. The allergy/asthma doctor has him taking Zyrtec and Singulair and pre-treating before exercise/sports with Albuterol and Intal inhalers. My son will be going to all-day soccer and wrestling camps, so the doctor prescribed Foradil, which is supposed to last 12 hours. The Foradil was to replace the Albuterol and Intal. In addition to Advair and Serevent, I just found out that Foradil carries a black box warning from the FDA (these meds can increase the chance of asthma-related deaths). Even though the chance maybe small, I don't want my son taking any of these. I have a call into the dr., but does anyone know of something other than these meds that can be used to control asthma on a longer-acting basis? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!!

Flovent (and the other inhaled steroids) can reduce the inflammation and limit the chances of him having an ashtma flare up but he'll still need to have a rescue inhaler available

It usually takes a while for Flovent and other inhaled steroids to reach their full effectiveness (about 7-14 days of daily use) so they might be an option if the camps are a week or more away.

I can understand your concern. Has he had trouble with an all day camp before with just the albuterol pre-treatment (2 puffs 20 minutes before cardio)? Typically, according to my immunologist, the albuterol should be good for an hour's worth of cardio. (I'm a jogger with esthma and have to use it to run) I assume he will have some rest periods during the day. He may find that the normal pretreatment is adequate. How many times a day can he pre treat? I've got limits on me - when I'm doing distance races -but I'm a 62 yr olfd female and I'm sure it would be different for him.

Thanks for the input. I hope the dr. calls me tomorrow, so I'll have to ask him about Flovent. My son goes to soccer camp on Sunday and they go from 8:00 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. There will be breaks, but they go for more than 1 hour at a time. Sometimes pretreating with albuterol and intal works, but sometimes it's not enough when he's running almost constantly. The dr. has never told us what our limits are with the albuterol pre-treatments, but I worry when he has to use it a lot. Thanks again!

Does he breath diaphramatically (lie on back, put throw pillow on stomach, it should move up and down noticeably)? If not, have him learn to breath properly so he can get air deep into his lungs. I used to have exercise-induced asthma for years (played soccer in college) and finally switched my doctor who put me on Aerobid (this is 12 years ago) and breathing techniques to get over it. Drug free now.