My 16 Month Old Twin Boys Have Asthma Brought on by Respiratory Infections.

What have worked miracles for me is the traditional medicinal brand called Breathe Easy. At the first sign of a cold I give it to my son and it has been a great help. Follow the directions on the package and give it to them daily until the cold passes. Trust me I have an asthmatic son and I have been using this since he was diagnosed at 14 months. He's now 7 and it still works.

My oldest had the same problem. It started with a severe case of bronchiolitis at 3 months, after that he had asthma with every infection, not just respiratory infections. He did grow out of it, he is now 12 and has not used his nebulizer since he was about 6, I think. Once we started care with a chiropractor, he had fewer occurrences and when he did need the breathing treatments, it was only once or twice until we could get into the office. I wish we would have started adjustments much sooner.

Here are some things you may not know.Have you ever thought about the effect of your cleaning products,laundry detergent,fabric softener,air fresheners,even shampoo and body wash on your home,especially for those with asthma??
We experienced significant improvements when we switched to chemical free and toxin free products.
If you are interested in learning what we did,go to
www.SwitchStoresForHealthyLiving.com

Tania,
I have the same problem. My son sees an allergist. He has him on maintenance meds that have made things better from fall to spring. My son is on cold #2 in 2 weeks. Things here are not much fun either. with being on breathing treatments and steroids, he is bouncing off the walls. He just started kindergarten and already missed a week of school. If your on the east side of PGH, and dont have an allergist for your sons, Dr. Otte of Premier Medical Associates is very good. He treats my whole family. I have ashtma, my daughter adn son have allergies, and my other son has the infection induced asthma. Make sure they get their flu and pneumonia shots if they haveent already gotten them. Dont avoid taking them places, I always felt exposing kids is best because they will build up an immunity. Just wash their hands all the time. Keep sanitiser or diaper wipes with you for non access to bathrooms. Good Luck
T. Gerken

My son doesn't have asthma but he does have an illness that compromises his immune system. During the cold and flu season we do avoid taking him to places with crowds. It's not that we completely isolate him for the entire season, but I take him on fewer grocery shopping trips, for example. We also don't go to to breakfast with Santa and other similar events where there will be tons of kids in tight spaces. If my daughter has a doctor appt during that time, I try not to take him so he isn't exposed to the sick children - if I do have to take him I put a mask on him. We also bought him a winter hat with a piece that covers the mouth and nose. We do a lot of handwashing and sanitizing. And everyone in the family gets the flu shot. One more thing, our family and friends have seen how sick our son can get from a simple virus - he actually just came home last night from a week-long hospital stay for a viral infection. We always check in with them on the day of a birthday party, Christmas dinner, visit, etc to see if everyone is healthy. If someone is sick we don't go. We made it clear from the beginning that we would need to decline attending functions if people were sick because of the harm it could do him. Everyone understood and has been good about working with us to keep him helathy. If there was anyone who didn't understand...too bad for them. Good luck to you.

Hi Tania,
My husband and I grew up with severa asthma and our son has the same fate. He had RSV at 3 months. He is two now and the asthma is much better than is was. We too were doing the neb several times a day and he slept in a bouncy seat all of his first winter. We have worked down to one neb a day of pulmicort as a preventitive measure (at bedtime). The benefits far outweigh the risks, especially with a healthy set of lungs going into cold/flu season. Be sure to get them the flu shot...change the sheets once a week if not more often.

Do they have any other triggers other than cold/flu season? I hate to say it, but if you have pets, you may want to consider getting rid of them. Pet dander is awful for a child with asthma. Also, if you celebrate Christmas, go with an artificial tree, much easier on the lungs.

I would also try and see a specialist to see what they suggest. We go to Lower Bucks Peds and they've been great, but our son's asthma has been manageable so we haven't had to see a specialist.

I agree that they may outgrow this. By the time I graduated college I was only dealing with allergies. All of my asthma symptoms had subsided. I was very active throughout my school years and my parents encouraged my participation in sports even though I was never the fastest or best...it was a great way to increase my lung capacity and stamina.

Good luck!

Tania,
I have an 8 yo son who has asthma. His stems from a serious bout of croup at 15 months that left him hospitalized for a week. He is on Singulair now as a preventative. He's been on it since he was 5. It's a chewable, so he doesn't give me any problems taking it. We run a cool mist humidifier in his room at night that really helps. Also, I buy an oil called "Breathe" from naturesinventory.com that really helps when he starts to feel an attack coming on. It's been a wonderful supplement. The advice about the vitamin C was great, but make sure you talk to you doctor before giving any more zinc than is in a lozenge. We now only have to use the nebulizer about twice a month. Sometimes more during the winter.
Also, ask the doctor for a fast acting inhaler to keep with you just in case you are out and can't do the nebulizer!
HTH,
B.

You may want to consider their diet. http://pcrm.org/ Look through this site thoroughly.

Tania,

Twins with asthma-- you must be dreading the winter! I have no miracle advice, just common sense, but as I write it it I realize how bad I am about following all this stuff! First off, make sure they have their flu shot asap-- flu season can start as early as October, and it takes about 6 weeks for the shot to reach maximum effectiveness (and let's hope they picked better this year!) Secondly, you can't protect them from everything, so stop stressing about it. That only makes it more likely that YOU are going to get sick too. Make sure you are washing their hands-- a lot-- use baby wipes/hand sanitizer if you have too. And make sure they are getting (with their ped's approval) the appropriate vitamins to keep their immune systems healthy. Lots of C and Zinc (as appropriate). And at the first sign of a URI, take what ever steps your dr. suggests to keep it from getting worse!

Good luck.

I have three kids (ages almost 9, 6 1/2, and 21 months). All have mild asthma that is triggered by colds and illness. The two older did not develop asthma until they were toddler (at least that I was aware of) they younger developed it last year. As to your first question, I do not keep them from places where they may pickup a cold. Unfortunately, given the fact that I work full time and the two older are in school, there is no way to do that. My kids are on maitenance inhailers (flovent) during this time of the year. The "baby" is not, but she she does not trigger with every runny nose. I am not sure if she is even old enough yet. This is only our second cold season with her asthma. SO, we will see.

My biggest suggestion for you is to talk the kids, if you are close enough, to CHildren's hosprital's Asthma clinic. I did/do have a pediatrician who is pretty good with asthma. But, the doctors and nurses at the Asthma Clinic are obviously always to the cutting edge of treatment protocols. Also, the eductaion that you will get about asthma from them is invaluable! The number for appointments is ###-###-####. They are a comprehensive center, so they will also do allergy testing to determine if there are any other triggers (my two older have no other trigers). They are also fantastic with the kids.

Good luck!

Hi Tania,

contact Lucey Harley at ###-###-####

Hope this helps. D.

Tania,

You might also want to consider changing the products in your home, especially the ones that you clean your home with. when they breath in those chemicals from the products it can be harmful to their lungs as well. I notice a big difference when I clean. Before when I would clean and breath in the chemicals my throat would start to feel like it was tight and my chest hurt as well. Now when I clean I do not get the feeling of tightness in my throat and chest. I also use these products around my children so I know they are safe. Before I would chase them out of the room when I was cleaning.

If you want to know more about safer products please contact me directly at ____@____.com.

M.

Tania,
Been there, I have 4 soon to be 5 year old twin boys. Both have health issues. They both have been (one continues to be) reliant on the albuterol neb. treatments. One of my boys seems to have outgrown a lot of the wheezing and coughing, but my other has not. It took finding a great allergy and asthma doctor that was persistant in finding ways to prevent having to get to, at times, ER visits with 2plus hours of albuterol and months of oral steriods just to get him back under control. We now manage him proactively with pulmicort treatments varing from .5 1 X a day to 1.5 twice a day depending on his need. This has kept him out of the ER and off the albuterol for quit sometime baring the occasional need for a quick treatment. I would first first caution you that every child is different what worked for my two may not work for your two, but I think that if you find the right doctor who can narrow down the triggers (if the "colds" seem to last longer than 7-14 days you may be looking at seasonal allergies especially if this happens the same time each year). Viral triggers count too. Once you figure out the triggers, you can then come up with a plan to try to avoid, if you can't avoid then look for a way to treat. A good doc. will follow those steps. Good luck, if you need any more info, or help, just email me ____@____.com if you just need to vent, been there and I know it is very ruff! Hang in there,
Jennie
mom to Jesse and JOnah almost 5 year old twin boys

Oh, Tania, I feel your pain. I can't imagine going through it times two though. My son is now 5 years old. He has had asthma since he was 4 months old (started with croop) and in the begining he went to the hospital a few times with pneumonia. I took him to a pulminologist/allergist and got him on a treatment program as part of a proactive approach to the situation. This includes Singular daily, flovent (inhaled steriod) daily, and Xopenx Neb. treatments as needed. Over the years I have become an athsma detector with my son. I have learned as soon as I see a runny nose...I increase his Flovent and start neb treatments immediately. I also have found some home remedies which work for me and my son. With Asthma comes that horrible cough. I have found that I can avoid some of his neb treatments (the ones I was giving him as soon as I heard that cough) with something I received on the internet...I know this is kind of strange, but it works. Rub Vicks Vapor Rub on the bottoms of their feet covered with socks. I swear this works! It has kept my son out of the hospital and from getting treatments that normally I would have started immediatly. Mind you I have been doing the Asthma thing for 5 years so I know the difference between being able to handle it myself and calling 911 or bringing him to the hospital. You may not be there yet. I rub the Vicks (a good coating) on the bottoms of his feet, even this toes and put a pair of light socks on him. It was like a miracle! Along with that I found an amazing product called Sudacare plug ins. They are waterless vaporizors. Just aromatherapy no chemicals. Between that and the vicks, he sleeps comportably and so do we. When he gets really bad, and I do know when we reach the point of WE NEED HELP, I call 911 because you do not want to drive to the hospial with a baby that is having trouble breathing.

I would also avoid going places with him where I knew there would be the threat of him picking up germs. I became a germaphobe due to his situation. Antibacterial wipes and wiping everything down before we sat down was torture. I would not let him stay over anyones house (relative). Places like chucke cheese, jugle wonders, please touch museum, etc... Were my worst nightmare. I could calculate to the day (3 days from the time of exposure) when I would be taking him to the doctor's after being in a situation like that. I would be angry if anyone put him in a germy situation. It was not pretty. When it snows, I have a panic attack, thinking how am I going to keep this child from going outside. Snow and cold weather are his enemy. Can you imagine watching all you friends and sister playing and having fun in the snow and Mom telling you that you cannot. The crying alone could send him into an asthma attack. 3 days later...To the doctors we went.
Now, I have a pretty good handle on it. I still get panicked when snow is in the forecast. Now, there is no telling him he cannot go out. I just try to make sure it is just for a little bit and he has to wear a hat that covers his mouth and nose. He knows what makes him feel bad and when it is coming on. He now tells me when he needs a treatment and when he needs to go to the doctors. It is a shame that a five year old has to go though that or even monitor his own treatments, but because he can tell me when he needs one, I am able to start treatment before I see and hear the symtoms. It has become more tolerable. I am still not looking forward to the fall/winter, but I hold hope that with each passing year he may grow out of it. I remind myself that things could be so much worse and I am grateful that we have learned how to handle it well and have a great pediatrition and pulminologist who help monitor him along with myself.

Good luck on you journey and do not take this lightly. Get to a pulminologist as soon as possible in you have not already done so. It is important to take a proactive approach to Asthma.

L.

I,too, have twin boys, but only one suffered this way. I was just cleaning out our bathroom closet last night and pulled out his nebulizer with expired medication. It can go away with age, it was around 3 for us. He still gets every little cold, but it is not as severe. When he was that age, yes, I did avoid most situations with other young kids and we stayed home. The beauty of this is that they have a built in playmate - they wouldn't be suffering terribly missing all those playdates, storytimes, etc. I also got them vaccinated for flu and rsv. We wash hands all the time, use lots of common sense and anyone coming in the house washes, too. Good luck, I hope that this season gets easier for you.

My daughter has really bad asthma that was brought on by a respiratory infection she was premature and her lungs were not really strong. I suffered the same fear plus she goes to daycare part time and I no longer wanted to send her. I decided to see a specialist a childrens hospital Dr. Nash. He was amazing and addressed all of my concerns. He started her on a preventative which helped lower my use of the nebulizer. This helped build her lung strength up. He also said to take her out to help build her immune system. I would recommend talking to your ped or a specialist about a preventative. It change our whole life for the better.

I suggest checking into chiropractic treatment for children. You will need to do your own research & decide because its your choice. My x is a chiropractor and had asthma as a child and it helped him and he does treat children. Good luck, I hope they feel better and stay that way!

Hey Tania -- it's N. from KMOM. Both my boys have asthma due to RSV and pnemonia that they had when they were a little younger than your boys so I know exactly what you're talking about, what you're feeling and the situation. I would highly suggest seeing a pediatric asthma/allergy specialist. We used Joan Montello. Her office is off of Union Deposit ###-###-####. She upped the pulmicort dosage that they were on...instead of once a day, we did the preventative twice daily, once in the morning and once at night. We started that when fall came around and typically did it until May or June, depending on the weather. Then we did albuterol as needed. They are also on Singulair daily. It's not a complete fix-all but it did help a lot.

The one thing that was stressed to us was that when your child has RSV is takes a MINIMUM of six months of no respiratory infections before their lungs could heal correctly and completely. If your boys are anything like mine, they never had that six months... It took FOREVER to reach that milestone. We still have issues and our nebulizers stay out all the time because at the first sign of a cold, we start nebbing them to help keep the breathing problems down.

If you have further questions, email me :-)

N. F.

I also have a child that is plagued with asthma. She is turning 5 in a month and has had asthma since she was 2. Since my husband and I are both asthmatics as well, we unfortunately know what to expect. She doesn't go to day care but does go to Pre-K 3x a week for 2 1/2 hours each time. Once school starts, we have to put her on a nebulizer treatment daily of Pulmicort until summer starts again. That is a small dose of steroid every single day regardless of illness, for 9 months of the year. Luckily it does keep the attacks at bay for the most part. She is on prednisone right now for an attack that she had last week. I do tend to keep her and my son out of situations where I know there may be an increased risk of being sick! Definitely! Sometimes people do not understand that, but they have also probably not experienced seeing their child struggle for breath. If I know that we are going to be around some day care children, I will give her a preventive treatment if she is feeling well. If i know there is a sickness, we usually avoid the situation completely! Cannot afford for a 5 year old to be on steroids that much! The minute she starts to cough, she starts on her albuterol treatments every 4 hours! It is difficult especially when she is in school and I know that she is going to be dealing with this for a good portion of her adolescence. As a child, I missed TONS of school days because of attacks. Luckily they have better treatments for it now though. My daughter literally BOUNCES off the walls when she is on her albuterol treatments and is usually more incorrigible than usual with her Prednisone. It's difficult, especially when they are sick, to discipline them. I often have to remind myself that she is on medicine and that is why she is acting that way. But I also remember that I have to try to consistent and let her know that even though she is sick, it's not acceptable to misbehave. It's a struggle no doubt. I wish you luck. I feel your pain!

When my daughter was about 3 (she's 10 now), everytime she got a cold it immediately turned into bronchitis or pneumonia. After many months with the pediatrician, we decided we needed to do something. We took her to a pulmonologist in Ardmore (Dr. Woodell). He diagnosed her with Reactive Airway disease. Which is asthma. She never had problems breathing except when she got sick. He put her on a preventive medicine with the nebulizer. It was called pulmicort. Not saying it works for everyone but it worked incredibly for her. She eventually grew out of it. When she gets a cold now, it's just a cold.

Good luck. If you don't take the kids to a pulmonologist already, I highly recommend it.

L., Drexel Hill