Breathing Treatments and Appetitefor My 6 M/o Daughter

my daughter is now three and at 18 months was diagnosed with severe allergies and allergy induced asthma, she has been on breathing treatments for 5 months now (pulmicort) and has the albuteral inhaler and albuteral breathing treatment med. I was told by my daughters specialist the do the pulmicrt daily but to only use the albuteral as needed- inhaler for asthma attacks and the treatment for severe attacks- the albuteral treatment did decrease her app. the few times we had to use it, i don't know if it was a coincidence or because she wasn't feeling well, either way I will only use it as a last resort, but the pulmicrt is fantastic and has no ill effects on her- you should talk to your specialist and not just a ped. if youre concerned.

Whenever my son gets sick he simply doesn't eat as much. If he is very sick he normally ends up losing weight. He had bronciolitis as an infant, and also went through cough/flu season on nebulizer treatments because he would WITHOUT a doubt end up with pneumonia. He did eat less. I found feeding after treatments is easier because breathing was easier.

A.,

I agree that her appetite may just be down because she's not feeling well. Or she could even be going through a growth spurt. I know when my kids were getting ready to grow they would eat like crazy, then when they actually started growing, they would almost stop eating all together.

On another note...
My youngest daughter started out the same way yours did. She was hospitalized with RSV at three months and continued on aerosols for a LONG time. We started on the same meds you have, but I was told one thing differently that you may want to check with you pediatrician on. It was always stressed to me by the pediatrician and the pulmonologist (lung Dr.) that regardless if she had any symptoms or not, she needed to continue the Pulmocort treatments on a regular basis (ours was two times a day). Then to use the albuterol as needed for attacks. The reason for this is because the Pulmocort is a corticosteroid which aids the airways in functioning properly, and it also cuts down on the number of "attacks." I'm not sure if this would be the case with your daughter, but it would be worth checking into. Once I realized where I was going wrong and began the proper regimen, we spent much less time taking care of a sick baby.

I work for AstraZeneca, the company that makes Pulmicort. It is a drug that I sell to pediatricians and I have never seen any data showing an affect on appetite. I also call on allergists and pulmonologists who see a huge population of asthma. Pulmicort is used for patients with asthma and I have never heard any complaints from the doctors. I can't speak for the albuterol, but your child should only be using that as needed and doing the pulmicort daily.

First let me say that she sounds like my middle son, who at age 7 is fine and though he still gets those nasty barking coughs EVERY time he gets sick it's been years since we used his nebulizer. so chances are she will outgrow the worst of this in the next few years and be fine. as for her eating, there's no reason to be concerned, baby's breath through their noses, mouth breathing is something that is actually learned, so when a baby is sick eating is tough. it's terribly hard to suck on a bottle when you can't breathe, and even when we adults are sick we generally don't want to eat much. So unless hse strats dropping wieght i'd just chalk it up to she doens't feel good and try not to worry to much. a baby can not starve themselves, she will eat when she is hungry, jsut be sure that if she is eating less at a time you are offering her food more often. good luck, hopefulyl she gets better soon