In Erin's 18mths of life, she has spent probably 8 months with a horrible barking chesty cough. After countless trips to the doctors (several different ones) and countless explanations (croup, whooping cough, left over from cold, ear infection, etc the list goes on), we finally seem to be getting somewhere.

Yesterday she was prescribed 4 puffs of ventolin, 4 hourly and I'm over the moon to say that after 8 doses she is not coughing any where near as much as she was a couple of days ago. And she actually got a full nights sleep last night without being woken by her cough...YAY!

So my question to anyone who is dealing with/has dealt with asthma, do you have any tips or info I should know?

Thanks:)

Our little boy, now two and a half, went through a similar thing before someone in the medical profession actually uttered the word asthma. He was about 9 months old when it all started. Saw many doctors along the way, some of which looked at me as if I was making it all up as he was never coughing or wheezing to a great extent at the doctors. He suffered a sever case of bronchiolitis which left him spending 5 nights in hospital on oxygen he was striggling so much to breath. His specialist put him on ventolin via a nebuliser, he moved on to a puffer late last yaer. At the first sign of a cold, flu, etc, we're on top of it straight away to prevent onset of severe asthma. Winter is the worst time we have found. The doctor hsa said that because he has it at such an early age there is a good chance he will grow out of it. I must admit that this past year has been a lot better than the first year he was dealing with it.

I am a pharmacist (well I was 6 months ago before I became a SAHM!)

Are you using a spacer?
Keep away from anything that appears to trigger symptoms (easier said than done I know!). This can be things like pets, plants, even foods. Sometimes you may have to start a diary to learn these things.
Exercise is good, esp swimming
Speak to your doctor about getting the annual flu and swine flu vaccines.
Keeping the house clean (but you dont have to go absolutely crazy) but make things easier for yourself by getting rid of unnecessary curtains, replace carpets with lino/tiles, consider a vacuum with a Hepa filter.

Good luck with it all, thankfully a lot of kids will have outgrown it by roughly 10-12 years old

Thanks AmandaR and Rachels Mummy:)

Yes she is using a spacer with a mask, and has surprised me with how well she has been letting me give it to her.

So far the triggers that we have found are smoke haze (when we had local bushfires in Dec) and the big one is high humidity. And I've started jotting down anything I notice in my diary too smile

The majority of our house has floor boards and our vacuum does have a HEPA filter, so I guess thats a start.

Looks like nows as good a time as any for swimming lessons too smile

Thanks again,
Bec

Anyone else? Any suggestions are appreciated smile