Anyone Else Have a Child on Breathing Treatments with a Cough/cold?

Albuterol is harder for kids in my opinion. I use Xophenex for the kids. They don't have shakes near as much and they seem to respond better and faster.

It is also good when the kids are having a crying jag when the mask is on their face. They breathe deeper and will be coughing up more goo.

It's hard having one like this, I know.

I carry a Pari portable nebulizer every where I go. It will plug in to the car cigarette lighter, it will plug into the wall outlet, and it has a batter pack that will hold a charge for days.

My son was diagnosed with reactive airway disorder around 18 months old. We purchased the nebulizer to have on hand whenever we needed to give him a breathing treatment. He is 4 now and had his adenoids out last March. It has helped a lot. We haven't used the nebulizer with albuterol in about a year. I do still give him zyrtec for stuffy nose and occasionally he will get a cough, but he has improved so much. We were going to check to see if he had allergies if the adenoidectomy didn't seem successful. Perhaps that is something for you to look into since your son is still having problems. Good luck!
A.

my youngest had to use breathing treatments pretty regularly until the age of 4. I thought for sure he'd have asthma, etc. Nope. He is great now. Grew out of it. It is painful when going through it though:(
You are doing all the right things!

I am so sorry you both are experiencing this. My son was on breathing TX for a while. It can be pretty scary but a lot of times they outgrow it. Singulair can help but can have side effects on little ones. It's the humidifier that bothers me. They are great for humidifing but they can spray germs around. Be sure and follow directions for cleaning and often. Great, another thing on your plate, huh? Sorry

My son is just like that. He had been since 6 months whenever he got RSV. We would normally have about 6 or 7 chest xrays a year. I even went as far as to seeing a pulmonologist. He was having to use pulmicort daily and albuterol as needed. I hated it for him. For one, he hated the treatments. No matter how cute of a machine I bought or let his stuffed animals do it with him... heck I would even do them, but I have asthma and am supposed to use symbicort so it didn't really do anything to me... I would have to practically hold him down.

Mine turned 4 in June of this year. We had adenoids & tonsils out/tubes put in last year in Oct. I think we only had to do one breathing treatment last winter (it's always worse in the winter). Plus I have only had to do 1 round from January until now, with zero chest X rays for the year. We have done away with the pulmicort and everything else. Come to find out he doesn't have real asthma, as in he doesn't suddenly have attacks. It's only whenever he has a cold or allergies.

Have you had your child tested for allergies? Mine is actually allergic to mold spores, higher concentrations of mold are much worse. Normally I would not notice the initial allergy because it wasn't typical, he wasn't around cats or dogs and he didn't really eat many new foods. I live in Louisiana and there are mold spores all in the air on any given day. It wasn't until he would develop a respiratory infection that I would notice something was wrong.

Once he was tested and we learned how to control it and prevent... as much as possible with this being LA... he rarely gets sick anymore. I think they also, somewhat, grow out of it and develop better immune systems. Plus I have learned to spray down the outside of my house more frequently, or not purchase bath toys that can suck water into them. Simple little things like that have drastically changed the respiratory infections since he doesn't have the initial reaction, it doesn't further develop into something much nastier.

Mine is prescribed so many meds it's ridiculous. Pulmicort, albuterol, singulaire... on and on. I do not give any of them to him anymore.

I was also advised NOT to use a warm humidifier at all. They do seriously spread germs and bacteria. There really isn't an effective way to keep them clean. Plus, if you can't breathe, I know from experience, the LAST think you want is warm moisture anywhere near you. It makes it harder to breathe. A cool mist one is much better but still just as germy.

I found these little vicks warmers walgreens. It plugs into the wall and you change out the cartridge. They are dry or kinda gooey like (I don't know if thats a word, but w/e). They aren't hot if you touch them, either. The warmer heats the vicks on the pad and thats all that is emitted into the room. No warm moist and germs flying everywhere and no heat to burn him with.

Try having the allergies checked. I never would have thought that about mine. If you ever need anything, you can message me. I'm sorry your little guy is going through this.

He will outgrow it. Mine did. My son had RSV at 2 months and it affected him for so long. He consistently had to be on breathing treatments. Sometimes I found it helped to keep him on Zyrtec. It seemed to help cut down infections that were allergy induced. Be encouraged!

I know its hard. Nebulizers are so loud...hardly comforting to a sick little boy (and his possibly sleep deprived mommy!). Its so undignified too, to have that plastic shoved up in your face. I know I would hate it.

Are you using it all the time or only when he's wheezing? You don't want to give him albuterol unless he's wheezing. If he's just stuffed up, squirt a little saline in it and let him breath that in.

Make a game out of it. Pretend its a flight mask - set up an area around him with a control board (cardboard with odds and ends like buttons and bottle caps glued to it), controls (old Atari control), and a throttle (toilet paper tube taped on top of a paper towel tube shoved between pillows). Wooden spoons in the pillows also work nicely. You can also set him up on the couch with his stuffed animals lined up behind him for passengers. When its over, tell him its time to "abort" or "mission complete".

You are doing everything right. I give my kids a treatment when they get colds too. It really seems to help lessen the duration of the cold. Are you using the treatments on yourself? you can. Good luck, hang in there

Ugh - sorry you're going through this. I had chronic bronchitis myself for years and years (like you, sick for 3 or 4 weeks at a clip and I'm guessing you're getting no sleep). I was miserable too until I figured out how to get rid of it for good. Good friends of mine had a child like yours - sick 3 weeks, well 1 week, sick 3 weeks....Nebulizer and meds and all that. They did a supplement and he's basically never sick anymore, and he never used the nebulizer again. It supports the immune system and was formulated by one of the food scientists who helped develop infant formulas (you probably know that formulas have stricter manufacturing standards than the rest of our food). He's not going to outgrow it, but you CAN outsmart it.

My son has cold/allergy induced asthma. Although now that he's older (he's 8) it is not as bad as it used to be and he's moved on to an inhaler. I remember many sleepless nights listening to him cough and waking up in the middle of the night to give him his nebulizer. I found that there was less sever symptoms if I started the treatments when I first noticed the cold. I dreaded any time a cold was going around. Good luck. Just know there are others out there that are going through it.

My youngest will be 4 in December, and he has had to use the albuterol and pulmicort breathing treatments since he was an infant. Every time the weather changes, he gets sick and it goes right to his chest. I asked the doctor if it was asthma, he said nope, it's just a cold and goes to his chest, and he will grow out of it. My oldest son also had to use it a few times, but after he turned 2 he didn't need it anymore. It sucks, and everything you're doing is as much as you can do. don't use the warm humidifier, use a cool one, it's better and is more recommended for their conditions. Be consistent on the breathing treatments, for us it was 3 times a day, and it goes away much quicker when you start it right away when you hear that tell-tale cough! Good luck, hang in there.

I had bronchitis at least once every year since I was a baby. As an adult, I was diagnosed w/ allergy induced asthma and also was given Albuterol in inhaler form. Once I even had to have the treatments. My son has also had bouts of bronchitis and needed an inhaler...no diagnosis though.

My daughter has allergies and "pre-asthma" and takes allergy meds daily. When she still has a problem, breathing treatments are started. Recently they did give her an inhaler for quicker results (but treatments are more effective but not as fast acting). Her allergist said that a kid that needs treatments has at least a mild form of asthma (hence the "pre-asthma" diagnosis). It isn't the "can't breath form" but the coughing you described.

I understand what you're going through - because we went through it too! It is SO hard watching your little one struggling to breathe. My now 11 year old began having this issue at almost age 2. Sounds like exactly what your son has (except she never had tubes in her ears). My DD was on Singulair every day as a preventative, and then we did the albuterol treatments through a nebulizer whenever she had an "episode". It was tough but it became part of life. I'm writing to tell you that my daughter has outgrown this!! But it took way longer than a year. We took her off the Singulair when she was 8, just to see how it would go. She had a couple more episodes with the breathing (always brought on by catching a cold), but it got down to maybe only once or twice a year. She turned 11 in August, and I honestly can't remember the last time she had trouble breathing. It's been at least a year. So hang in there mama! Hopefully your son will outgrow it too :)