Asthma at 1 Year Old ...

Wow, they are having you give him the Orapred on a continuous basis? I can tell you that Dr. Portnoy won't agree with that. Once we went to go see him, we rarely used the oral steroids. When my daughter saw him, he set her up on a Green Zone, Yellow Zone and Red Zone course of action.

GREEN ZONE: Doing Well, No cough, wheeze, chest tightness or shortness of breath during the day or night
Can do usual activities.
YELLOW ZONE: Asthma Is Getting Worse
Cough, wheeze, chest tightness or shortness of breath, or
Waking at night due to asthma, or can do some but not all usual activities.
RED ZONE: Medical Alert! Very short of breath, or Quick-relief medicines have not helped, or
Cannot do usual activities, or Symptoms are same or get worse after 24 hours in Yellow Zone.

The red zone is where the oral steroids were prescribed to be used(orapred.) Since we were able to manage her symptoms almost consistently in the green and yellow range, we rarely had to resort to orapred.

Orapred is a serious steroid with some pretty crappy side effects. I called it "The Excorcist med" because my daughter just got freaky whenever she took it. There are even recommendations on tapering off of it. To the best of my recollection, I think they only had her on it for 3-5 days at a time, certainly not continuously.

Hang in there, Dr. Portnoy will be extremeley helpful!

My son aslo has asthma- I didnt want to put him on meds either but I finaly did and I couldnt belive the difference! We went from having to give him treatments just about every 4-6 hours to none unless he is sick! Ask your doc about taking him off Albuteral and using Xopenex (it is a better formula with less of the jetters. My son is also on Singulair- its kinda expensive but its better then paying the hops. bills! Good luck, I know its scary but when you see the difference you will wonder why you didnt do it sooner!

I agree with the above 2 posts on issues- we have had really good luck with Xopenex and Pulmacort(sp?) and HATE when we end up on Orapred- like the other post it has awful side effects- we call is the "Jekyl and Hyde" meds, as Eli will go from laughing and playing to melt down with no reason in seconds- it is horrible- we've been on it 3x when he has gotten to what the other called the 'red zone'-we also do Singular on a daily basis to control things- runs us $1/pill but has made such a difference in our lives! I too would be concerned about the regular dose of Orapred and Albuteral- both are really harsh meds- my guy had issues from 5mo on and officially diagnosed a year ago next week(only remember because I spent my birthday in CM for 6 hours!) Good luck, I'd be interested to hear what the Ped Asthma Dr has to say- we have been able to handle it thru our Ped (whos son has bad asthma so she has been thru the ringer too) and havent had to seek a specialist. It is an ever changing battle for us and we just keep going along hoping he'll grow out of it by age 5!

Hi J.. I just saw this request and I really, truly think you should consider chiropractic. We have such a high success rate with asthma and there is so much research to support it. Please contact me directly if you'd like me to put together some information for you, call you on the phone to discuss your options, or even to find you a chiropractor near you that I would take my own child to.
I'll do anything I can to help.
Dr. Jeannette

Hi J.

My son was on a albuteral nebulizer from 5 months old to 2 1/2. When your child is a little older, have the Dr switch over to a flovent puffer twice daily with albuteral as needed. You'll find you'll rarely pull out the albuteral. I never thought my son would be able to live without the nebulizer but he does now. He was in the hospital 3 to 4 times per year until he was 2 1/2. I know the Orapred is scary but it saved my sons life so many times. Be careful and make sure you follow the instructions from your Doctor. My son stopped breathing once for 5 minutes and turned blue because I had no emergency Orapred at the fault of a Dr that did not have the experience of Childrens Mercy's Doctors. Joe that owns Pipinnos Pizza on 143rd and Metcalf saved his life and we were on channel 5 news warning mother like you and I. Its better to use the steroid and albuteral than not have them at all. Although my son is doing sooooo much better now, I still keep an emergency dose of Orapred handy. He still sleeps with me because I'm afraid he may stop breathing again. It was just the scariest thing I've every experienced and I don't want you to go through that. Now at 3 1/2 he has outgrown the severe asthma and your son will too. I find that most kids do. Winter is the hardest time for moms like us. Make sure your child has their face covered if its under 40 degrees and a hat on. It really works and cuts down on those visits to Childrens Mercy.