Now that I'm really paying attention to Cady's cough and when it happens. I am seeing more signs of it. The other day, we were all playing on my bed and Cady was doing a lot of jumping and playing and laughing. She started coughing, wheezing, and she couldn't catch her breath. We had to stop the fun...I got her a cold glass of water and just sat with her on my lap, keeping her still and calm for about 20 minutes. It finally calmed down. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. But, I do have asthma...very severe asthma and I had two asthma attacks this week...bad ones. And I'm really scared that Cady is going through the same thing and there's not much I can do for her until we see the allergiest in two weeks. I'm worried about her, but it does seem to calm down if I just have her sit still with ice water for a little while.

Judy, so sorry.

You see an allergist for asthma?

I had to see a lung dr - what is he called?

What do you take for your asthma? Maybe you need more preventive stuff?

Good luck, let us know how Cady makes out.

Her ped thinks that her asthma is related to allergies. Not on its own. So, she is being sent for allergy testing and treatment. The allergist is also going to test her food allergies. If her she has asthma and it's related to allergies then treating the allergies could reduce the asthma.

As for my asthma, it flares in cold weather. Walking ten minutes from my office building to my car in below zero wind chills send my asthma into overdrive sometimes. As for my treatment, my asthma is allergy related. Besides the cold air, environmental smells agravate it, but mostly, if my allergies are not fully under control then neither will my asthma. For instance, if I'm on Zyrtec and Flonase as my allergy combo, then my asthma rarely flares. But, because of insurance issues, I'm on Claritin and Nasarel, which are not nearly as effective. Get what I'm saying? Anyway, in general my asthma is pretty well controlled, but subzero temps just affect it in a bad way.

Pulmonologist...that's the kind of doctor that does the asthma stuff...lol! I never had to see one. My allergist always treated my asthma and now my family doctor treats it.

My daughter had exertional asthma. Whenever she ran or was too aerobically active, she would get some bad attacks.

Oh...I keep forgetting things here...Jean, my treatment for my asthma is Advair 250/50 2 x's per day. It works beautifully and honestly, I haven't had a real attack in three years until this past week when it's been so cold outside.

Exertional asthma is what my sister has. Exercise-induced, I think they also call it.

The children on asthma do really well with singular and or pulmicort as a prevenitive and xopenex for attacks.
I would try to find a asthma clinic for children in your area and consider seing a lung specialist.

My daughter had exertional asthma. Whenever she ran or was too aerobically active, she would get some bad attacks.

This was my dd too.....she had activity enduced asthma...she grew out of it sometime in middle school...cause she played basketball just fine.

At Kaiser, you have to go on a referral system. Her ped referred her to the allergist who can then refer her to different specialists. He's taking it step by step, I think. The allergist is in a couple weeks. I'll update then after we see the allergist and let you know what the next step will be.

This was my dd too.....she had activity enduced asthma...she grew out of it sometime in middle school...cause she played basketball just fine.
I had the same thing Debbie and also grew out of it around middle school. That or I just got really lazy about that time and didn't exert enough energy to have an attack(lol)

Poor Cady. Jonathan would do the exact same thing but when we were outside playing in the springtime and fall. It got so bad with the cough that he would puke. At nighttime it was also really bad, and it took a year for the doctors to figure out what was going on.
He is on flovent and nasonex daily and we have albuterol for emergencies. As for the allergies, we will go to the ped and I ask for Zyrtec just before the allergy season starts.
I agree with you on the Claritin. I have allergies myself and it's really not working that well but that's what they would only give me when I was pregnant with Owen. This year I will ask for Zyrtec again.

Ick - as someone with nasty asthma, I feel for your child. Also, I just want to add that I know that in my case, and lots others, cold drinks make an asthma attack worse. The cold beverage works rather like cold weather. Anyywas, I hope this is not true in your child's case, but after reading your post I just wanted to send you a heads-up that the ice water might help calm your child, but might make the wheezing worse. Good luck! Stephanie

Hi Judy,
My son who is now 3 has struggled for a long time with what we thought was reflux. He would cough and vomit most nights and as he got older when it wa cold and when he did a lot of running around. He was put on a preventer and it has been over a year now and he is a different child.

I am in Australia and last week saw a professor in respiratory conditions and he said yes he does have asthma and probably has all along.

I just thought I would tell you my story because it has been a long slow road.

Cheers,

Natalie