SCARED-please help, 3 year old asthma out of control?

[babiespalace]

Hi I had a question about my 3 year old daughter. She has pretty severe asthma-at least I think. She sees a asthma doctor although I don't think he is listening to me. Most nights my daughter sounds horrible, wheezing, crackles, and rhonchi throughout her lungs. She grinds her teeth and twitches all night. The albuterol does not help, but sometimes moving her different ways-she clears up. Any ideas? She is maxed out on all of her medications. She is on prevacid once a day, flovent 220 twice a day, zyrtec 1 cc daily, and singular 5mg. Usually during the day she don't wheeze-maybe once or twice a week she has an episode.


Other problems: Bowel movements changing colors-white/tan.?? and has a hard time with bowel movements, although she usually goes daily.

tests they did:
adnoids-came back good
blood test for liver-came back good

Rencent infections in the last 2 months: pneumonia, 2 ear infections, infected cut on finger, viral infection.

2 hospitalizations in nov 04 and feb 05 for asthma.

Recently took blood for common allegies, pneumonia level (last year it was low), and sma7
no results yet

What could this be, do you have any ideas? She has been so sick for so long and I don't know how to help her or what could be causing her to get like this at night.

Should the asthma doctor be doing something else? He hasn't ruled anything out.

Her main doctor refered her to an ENT (ears nose throat doctor)

any ideas or help would be great-thank you so much for your time

[celtic_mom]

Hi! I'm so sorry you are going through this. Is the asthma doctor a pediatric pulmonary specialist? Even if he is, I think I would be looking for another one. It doesn't sound like this one has your DD's asthma under control. You can call the local Children's hospital to see who they recommend.

Is she nebulized with albuterol? I would ask that she be switched to xopenex immediately. It works better (IMO), lasts much longer and would probably help her sleep better, plus it is much easier on the heart (which is why she should be on it in the first place).

The ENT is another good place to start. I'm fairly certain that my problems keep re-occuring because of sinus issues. I'm going to see my ENT on Monday.

On the subject of white/tan BMs. Since the liver tests came back fine, I would say to look at what she is eating/drinking. Gummi bears can cause that and so can certain juices. I found out about the juice first hand, after I took my DS to the ped for the same reason. They did blood work to test his liver etc, and it came back neg. I went home and looked at everything he had to eat and drink for the previous day or two. That's when it dawned on me that he had been drinking juice boxes that I had not purchased before. Juice boxes went away and BMs went back to normal. From now on, only the neon blue juice, at least then I'll know why DS's BM is blue .

[jerrie97]

I'd first look into allergies. I know you said that she had blood drawn for it, but would it be possible for her to get skin testing done? The skin testing is more accurate and you get the results quickly.

If she doesn't have many allergies, get a sweat test done, possibly with genetic blood testing. The sweat test rules out cystic fibrosis, which is a genetic lung and pancreatic disease. You mentioned that her bowel movements are tan/white -- are they formed or are they loose/greasy?

And I'm not sure if you mentioned if she's gotten her immunoglobulin (IgM, IgA, and IgE especially) levels checked -- it'd be a good idea to get those levels drawn too.
IgA and IgM antibodies are responsible for fighting infection, and IgE causes allergies.

Hope you're able to sort this out quickly!

[babiespalace]

Thank you so much for replying. My daughter was already tested for cystic fibrosis. I asked her asthma specialist if he could do the skin testing for allergies. He said he would prefer to do it when she clears up. She has been sick since nov. He said we would do common ones through her blood.

Last year she had the IGG and IGA testing. He told me last year her IGG's were low and this year he said that last year they were fine. I am confused about that. Also her pneumonia level was low last year and she got a shot. They just retested it and I should get the results next week sometime.

One thing I do know-she has been so congested ALL winter and still is. I don't know why. I try to suction her nose out-but I am not very good at it. Could this trigger and attack?

On the subject of her bowel movements-have you ever seem a bowel movement after barrium? That is what it looks like and the same consistancy. I haven't bought anything out of the ordinary. And her bowel movements are like this for months and months.

Also, I have notice a few times her asthma got way out of control. Her eyes were red and drainage came out-very little throughout the day. Her pre-school sent her home thinking it was pink eye. And every once in a while she says her head hurts.

Last year all of her asthma attacks were triggered by viral infections. My baby is sick constantly. This year the viral infections aren't the only cause and I can't pinpoint anything.

I did just read an article ear infections could be caused from allergies.

I have schedulaed an appt for tomorrow to see a new asthma doctor and next week she sees a ENT.

I am just so frusterated and scared-I don't know what to do. Should I ask her albuterol to be switched? What kind of heart problems do they cause??

Thank you guys for helping

hugs
shelly

[celtic_mom]

Hi again! If they haven't done a CT scan of her sinuses, they really should. I have had lung infections on and off (mostly on) since Oct/Nov and finally had an asthma attack in Feb because of one. I didn't know I had asthma before then. After months of antibiotic treatments etc, my pulmonary doc ordered a CT of my sinuses (even though I have no pain, pressure, fever etc) to try and figure out why I kept getting infections. Lo and behold, I have sinusitis. Now I go in to the ENT on Monday to see where I go from here.

As far as you DD, honestly, at this point, I would be looking at taking her to a center of excellence for pediatric asthma/pulmonary treatment. Do you know of one close to you? If not, you could contact the local hospital or perhaps do an internet search to find one.

When are her results coming back from the allergy testing? I think that might go a long way in figuring out this problem too.

Try not to panic. I know how scary it is to have a sick child and to feel helpless when they are sick. It will get better though. You just need to find the right treatment and doctor.

On the albuterol - all I know is that is harder on the heart than xopenex. When I was given albuterol via nebulizer it just caused me to have heart palpitations and the shakes. It really didn't even help my breathing. When they gave me xopenex, it helped immediately, lasted longer, and I didn't have and tachycardia or shakes.