Early Asthma symptoms?

[jenn-]

I am wondering if my 4 yo might have asthma. Way back in October he had a nasty bacterial case of bronchitis. I know what it was because all 6 of us had it and we shared it with several family members (all got better only after antibiotics). Since that illness he has had bouts of coughing. Sometimes he goes a couple of weeks without a cough, other times he starts coughing and can't seem to stop. Last week he coughed until he puked a bit. He doesn't seem to have problems when he is active, so I don't know how to "trigger it" so the doctor could see it. Does his symptoms sound like it might be asthma?

[KrissiK]

My son has asthma - the coughing kind. He doesn't have shortness of breath or anything but when he has an attack it sounds like he's going to cough up a lung. It's bad. It's triggered by allergies. He was diagnosed when he was about 2 years old. We have finally gotten to the point when we know what time of year to expect it and I know what to listen for when he starts to cough and how to get it controlled. He's 7 now.

[littlebug42]

My daughter coughs with her asthma. That is how I know she is having a problem. Inhalers have made a world of difference for her. She is 6.5 and hers is mostly allergy triggered as well although if she gets a coid she is particularly susceptible to lung problems. I would ask your pediatrician.

[Mrs Mungo]

I am wondering if my 4 yo might have asthma. Way back in October he had a nasty bacterial case of bronchitis. I know what it was because all 6 of us had it and we shared it with several family members (all got better only after antibiotics). Since that illness he has had bouts of coughing. Sometimes he goes a couple of weeks without a cough, other times he starts coughing and can't seem to stop. Last week he coughed until he puked a bit. He doesn't seem to have problems when he is active, so I don't know how to "trigger it" so the doctor could see it. Does his symptoms sound like it might be asthma?

 

If he's coughing until he's puking at times, then he will probably be wheezing in his lungs, even if you can't hear it. If I were you? I would ask for a referral to a pediatric pulmnologist.

 

This is because my son had similar problems for a few months after being hospitalized with bronchiolitis. After being blown off by Family Practice docs I threw a fit and was referred to a pediatric allergist. The allergist got his symptoms under control with antibiotics and steroids until the cough stopped then a nasal steroid (post-nasal drip related to allergies is what causes coughing in a lot of kids like this) combined with asthma meds and the coughing stopped. My son wasn't actually diagnosed properly until we moved here (fwiw, the medication for this was basically the same as what the allergist had started). He has now been diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans. It's basically caused by scarring in the lungs when the inflammation went untreated for so long (during the time I was being blown off). It's permanent, it will never get better, he only has around 75% of the lung function that he should. H

 

Maybe it's asthma, maybe it's a persistent infection that needs treatment before it causes an even worse problem. He needs to see a doctor.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Mrs Mungo

[i.love.lucy]

I'd get an inhaler for him. That's how we started. Then it got bad enough so that we now have a nebulizer for his chronic spells usually in May and early June but sometimes also in the Fall. He has allbuterol and pulmicort combined for his nebulizer and had an inhaler with Xopenex. We only use these at the onset of symptoms which for my ds is the cough. It tends to sound croupy and that's when I know to break out the "breather". Talk to your pediatrician. No need to cough his little head off, and odds are it will just get worse.

[mrs.m]

I am wondering if my 4 yo might have asthma. Way back in October he had a nasty bacterial case of bronchitis. I know what it was because all 6 of us had it and we shared it with several family members (all got better only after antibiotics). Since that illness he has had bouts of coughing. Sometimes he goes a couple of weeks without a cough, other times he starts coughing and can't seem to stop. Last week he coughed until he puked a bit. He doesn't seem to have problems when he is active, so I don't know how to "trigger it" so the doctor could see it. Does his symptoms sound like it might be asthma?

 

My youngest started with something like this. Have you taken him in to talk to the Dr. about it? I don't think the Dr. ever heard him cough but could hear it in his lungs. He also sent him for a chest x-ray which showed that he still had an infection and needed another round of antibiotics. He has virual induced asthma so every time he gets a cold he needs breathing treatments to calm the asthma. And his main symptom is a cough and he'll say his stomach hurts :confused: . Now that we have it under control, he doesn't get it very often.

[Amber in AUS]

I would be heading for the Dr too. It is possible that it is asthma. I have one with coughing asthma and one with short of breath asthma. We spent Sunday night in the hospi with an attack. It isn't fun at all. Even if the wheeze isn't audible to the naked ear it can be audible with a stethoscope. They can also check oxygen levels which will show reduced lung function from whatever cause. I don't think it matters if he is symptomatic when you take him in just explain what has been doing on. Is he worse in cooler weather or the evening? That can be a sure sign of asthma.

[jenn-]

Thank you all for your responses. I think I am going to try to get him an appointment.

[emubird]

OTOH, my daughter doesn't cough at all. She does, however, have terrible "insomnia" because her heart races and she has to work hard to breathe if she lays down. It has helped to sleep sitting up, but she can't sleep as well that way.

 

I'm only mentioning this in case others are reading this and suspecting asthma but thinking it has to have a cough with it.

 

When my husband's asthma attacks are at their worst, he just sits there and can't move. No coughing, no wheezing, nothing audible from the outside.

[Mom2J112903]

J has the coughing, short of breath, and the nightime problems a pp was talking about. He has started sleeping SO much more peacefully since we got the formal Asthma dx and new meds going. His pedi placed him on Pulmicort and Singulair after failing his lung function test. We got into to an allergist whom is also an Asthma specialist, and he is now off the Pulmicort and on Asthmanex. WOW what a difference!!! He is also recieving allergy shots 2x/wk and taking Nascort and another allergy med in addition to his Singulair.

 

At the beginning of the month J could not swim 30ft, he is now swimming half the length of the pool :D

[mrs.m]

If they do give him an inhaler, I highly suggest requesting Xopenex. Albuteral made my DS CRAZY HYPER!

[Dana]

If they do give him an inhaler, I highly suggest requesting Xopenex. Albuteral made my DS CRAZY HYPER!

 

Same thing happened with our son with the nebulizer. Albuterol makes him really mean. Our allergist said Albuterol has two molecules while Xopenex only has one :confused: And since the Xopanex works for us, that's what we go with.

[Mrs Mungo]

J has the coughing, short of breath, and the nightime problems a pp was talking about. He has started sleeping SO much more peacefully since we got the formal Asthma dx and new meds going. His pedi placed him on Pulmicort and Singulair after failing his lung function test. We got into to an allergist whom is also an Asthma specialist, and he is now off the Pulmicort and on Asthmanex. WOW what a difference!!! He is also recieving allergy shots 2x/wk and taking Nascort and another allergy med in addition to his Singulair.

 

At the beginning of the month J could not swim 30ft, he is now swimming half the length of the pool :D

 

Singulair takes a while to build up in your system. After my son was on it for a while it made him unfocused and angry. I talked to the doctor and it is well known to cause mood disorders. We took him off it and he was like a new boy. Singulair doesn't really do anything on its own, it helps the other meds work better. Just a heads-up.

 

Same thing happened with our son with the nebulizer. Albuterol makes him really mean. Our allergist said Albuterol has two molecules while Xopenex only has one :confused: And since the Xopanex works for us, that's what we go with.

 

:iagree:about Albuterol v. Xopenex. Once my son could do an inhaler Flovent and Advair also seemed to work fine without the anger.

[Ellie]

My dd's symptoms didn't mean anything until after she had her first actual attack when she was 6: she couldn't blow her nose; she couldn't blow up a ballon. When she was about 6, she developed a cough--not a nasty cough...just a cough. One morning we were getting into the car and she threw up mucus. Eeeuuu. But she seemed fine otherwise. The next morning I went to chuch and left her home with Mr. Ellie; when I came home she was wheezing. I didn't know it was wheezing, you understand, but when I saw her chest caving in and out, I knew this was something rilly rilly bad.

 

So I took her to the hospital. Yup, turns out that she had asthma. Her attacks were only triggered by respiratory infections, although her lung function was still not normal (I talked her ped into giving her one of those breathing test thingies--blow into this gizmo, take a breathing treatment, blow into the gizmo again...big improvement).

 

So all this to say, yes, it would be a good idea to have your ds evaluated for asthma.

[Mrs Mungo]

So I took her to the hospital. Yup, turns out that she had asthma. Her attacks were only triggered by respiratory infections, although her lung function was still not normal (I talked her ped into giving her one of those breathing test thingies--blow into this gizmo, take a breathing treatment, blow into the gizmo again...big improvement).

 

And if there is NOT an improvement, then it's a fixed lung obstruction. That's how my son was diagnosed. It's called a Pulmonary Function Test or Spirometry.

[jenn-]

Thank you everyone with the continued responses. I have made him an appointment for in the morning, even though DH doesn't agree with me. Mommy gut and experience is going to over rule here.

[KrissiK]

Xoponex has been great for us. Like other posters, Albuterol made him hyper. Another thing... if it's allergy related, don't let them automatically put him on Singulair. DS was on it for a while and it sort of helped, but... I just don't like the publicity with it and it was expensive. So, I took him off it and put him on generic Zyrtec, you know you get it at Costco for $15 for a couple hundered pills. Works so much better than the Singulair. He didn't have an attack this spring, whereas last spring he was on Singulair and we had to have him on 8 different meds at the same time to get him under control. All I'm saying is... if it's allergy related, you may need to play around a bit to see what helps him.

[katemary63]

My daughter's and my asthma is manifested in coughing. It is alergies. I wouldn't know how to trigger it either. It's there one day and not another. We use inhalers only when we cough but also take claritin and rhincort.

[sbgrace]

Singulair is the only thing that helped my son enough (he also takes zyrtec and we tried every other med short of steroids with him). Without singulair he'd need steriods and he tolerates singulair well/fine. I just wanted to mention because I was so afraid to try it and I'm glad we did.

 

Coughing enough to vomit can be pertussis which can and does hang on and on.

 

Our pulmonologist does a test with a blow, measure output, albuterol, blow again after albuterol takes effect. My son's output was 65% better and that was without active asthma at the time. They can't do that test with a preschool or toddler so often it's symptom diagnosed. My son's trigger when young was respiratory infections like colds. As he got older it was allergies. Singulair helped in both cases.

[jenn-]

We went to the doctor this morning. He feels that DS is too young to effectively perform a breathing test so he is going off of symptoms only. He firmly believes that DS is probably on the asthmatic scale, but closer to Reactive Airway Disease than full blown Asthma. He gave us 3 weeks worth of Singulair to see if it helps. Singulair hasn't helped any of my other kids with their allergies, so I don't hold much hope this will help him either.

[JennyD]

I'm glad that you got in to see the doctor. My 5yo also had a number of asthmatic episodes this past year, all triggered by colds, but our doc is holding off on an official asthma dx until we see what happens this upcoming year. According to her, the respiratory lining takes about 12 weeks to heal after one of these bouts, so from what you said it's possible that your son just hasn't had the chance to recover from his initial illness.

 

If the medicine your doc prescribed doesn't work, definitely make an appt with a specialist. My son responds great to albuterol, but not everyone does, and apparently there are tons of options out there these days.

[Ellie]

And if there is NOT an improvement, then it's a fixed lung obstruction. That's how my son was diagnosed. It's called a Pulmonary Function Test or Spirometry.

Ah. Could NOT find those words in my brain cell!

 

How's your ds??

[Mrs Mungo]

Ah. Could NOT find those words in my brain cell!

 

How's your ds??

 

He is doing really well. Having reduced lung function doesn't seem to reduce his activity level. :tongue_smilie: Hawaii's mild climate has been good for him. I'm dreading moving back to the mainland in the winter.

[jenn-]

Guess whose son is currently coughing again. :glare: We don't start the Singulair until tonight.