Question about my son? - Asthma Message Board

teresa2007 · 02-24-2007, 07:42 PM

Hello!
When my son 5yrs old gets asthma attacks they usually last over a period of about week. When he has this he gets really sick and he is pale and dark circles under his eyes. He also gets a slight fever. Does this normally happen when someone goes thru asthma episodes? Tee

MillyMollyMandy · 02-25-2007, 06:56 AM

Hi Teresa
My son also appears pale with dark circles under his eyes when his asthma is bad. Could be due to several things, sleep of course is usually disturbed, which could cause this. The fever may be due to infection, infection can indeed be a trigger for the asthma attacks.
What medications does your son take? It may be that they need to be reviewed, or increased temporarily during periods of illness.

Hope he is feeling better soon, I know how it feels when the little ones are not well. My son is now 14 but the worry never goes away, he has had a bad period this last few weeks, I increased his steroid inhaler a few weeks ago, but he went drastically downhill on Friday, reliever inhaler would not increase his peak flow reading, and he is now on a short course of oral steroids, and feeling much better.

Please feel free to ask anything you need to, sometimes it helps just to share experiences with others who are in the same situation.
Mandy

teresa2007 · 02-25-2007, 07:17 AM

Hello Milly,
Thank you i appreciate that! He is on albuteral inhaler and also the breathing treatments, flovent and singular but it doesnt seem to help all that much, im not sure what to do. Thank you for that info because that helps me better understand what hes going thru. Is the oral steroids helping your son? Tee

MillyMollyMandy · 02-25-2007, 07:59 AM

Hi again Tee
Had to google the meds your little one is taking, as the brand names for the drugs are usually different in the UK where we live! From what I read, the albuterol is the reliever, or rescue inhaler, flovent is the inhaled steroid, or preventer, Singulair appears to be a longer acting reliever, please correct me if I got that wrong!

If the meds don't seem to be having much effect, it may be useful to have his technique checked, to make sure the drugs are getting to the lungs where needed, not just in the mouth or throat. When Jake was younger he used a spacer device attached to the inhaler, so it didn't matter so much about timing the breath in with the activation of the inhaler.

Jake is feeling much better now, his peak flow readings are really good, but he is into 3rd day of oral prednisolone, so the crunch time will be when he finishes the course!

Hope this helps, of course you may have already tried the things I suggested. How long has your son been diagnosed? Mandy

teresa2007 · 02-27-2007, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MillyMollyMandy

Hi again Tee
Had to google the meds your little one is taking, as the brand names for the drugs are usually different in the UK where we live! From what I read, the albuterol is the reliever, or rescue inhaler, flovent is the inhaled steroid, or preventer, Singulair appears to be a longer acting reliever, please correct me if I got that wrong!

If the meds don't seem to be having much effect, it may be useful to have his technique checked, to make sure the drugs are getting to the lungs where needed, not just in the mouth or throat. When Jake was younger he used a spacer device attached to the inhaler, so it didn't matter so much about timing the breath in with the activation of the inhaler.

Jake is feeling much better now, his peak flow readings are really good, but he is into 3rd day of oral prednisolone, so the crunch time will be when he finishes the course!

Hope this helps, of course you may have already tried the things I suggested. How long has your son been diagnosed? Mandy