How and at What Age Was Your Childs Asthma Diagnosed?

Asthma can't really be formally diagnosed until a child is about 5 years old. Certainly sounds like she may be exhibiting symptoms though. I would definitely talk to a doctor, since there are some preventative things you can do now to help, even if it's not called asthma yet.

To the doc you go. It does sound like exercise induced asthma. The thing about is you never know if it is not too bad and will disappear one day or it will strike with an intensity that is shocking. You doctor can help you be prepared if it were to be intense.

My granddaughter was diagnosed when she was just a few month old. She had a cold and developed a wheezing sound. You could see and hear her struggling to breath. We took her to the ER.

I urge you to talk with her pediatrician about your observations. These are the symptoms of an asthma attack just beginning for my granddaughter. Your daughter could have a more mild form of asthma or she could have a full blown serious attack triggered by a cold or exposure to an allergen.

How this changed our lives. We carry a rescue inhaler with us at all times because and attack for her can swiftly escalate to a serious level. She takes medication including a prevention inhaler and antihistamine every morning. She's 12 now and medication is just part of the daily routine.

She also knows that sustained high energy activity can trigger an attack and monitors her breathing. She still participates in running etc. but has an inhaler available when she needs it.

My son suffered with bouts of asthma from about 7 months on - he had RSV at 6 months.

Anyhoo, at 2 years old he was referred to a Pediatric Allergist who specialized in asthma. It was then that he received his first "official" diagnosis. Before that he was treated for asthma but never "labeled" as an asthmatic.

Overall, I don't know that the Dx changed my son's life. He learned at a young age that when he got short of breath to use an inhaler then he kept on going. Since asthma is not contagious he just carried his nebulizer to school on the days he was having an asthma episode.

He played sports and did everything his peers did. He is 16 now, a Junior, a trumpet player, and has basically out grown his asthma. It is mush more manageable nowadays then it was even when his father was a child. His father spent lots of time under a tent in a hospital - my son has never had to hospitalized for his asthma.

But - to the doctor you must go.
If she has asthma - then you much educate yourself and your family about the illness.
Hugs

Take her to the Doctor and describe your observations.

Croup is not asthma.

I have had asthma since I was a kid.
I don't know about 19 month old diagnoses for it.
I was older as a child, when mine was diagnosed.
It did not change my life.

But best to take your child to the Doctor and see.
Only a Doctor can diagnose this properly.

Asthma can be triggered by many things, and varies per individual.

With my son, it didn't happen until age 8. Looking back, it had always been around (always meaning from age 2 or 3) when he stopped singing/humming... And started chewing on his lips (bruising them, so we NONE of us (my family is chockablock with med pros) including his actual doctor, caught it.

It wasn't until he got a Nasty chest cold at 8. Nasty like pneumonia, bilateral pleural effusions, etc . Nasty that. that triggered uncontrollable bronchiospasms. PRIOR to that, he'd just run run run (adrenaline opens his airways AND causes them to shut down. It's quirky.). We spent Feb-June in and out of Children's Hospital. (Not the whole time. The longest stretch was 5 weeks, shortest was 1 week.)

So the meds saved his life.

He's VERY responsive to meds IF he gets them fast. If not, then it takes weeks to stabilize him off supplemental oxygen. (Most asthma kids take a day, tops, when things get bad... So no worries. My kid is quirky. Medically "interesting" :P He just starts going into respiratory failure.

But until 2 years ago when he got that cold... The only obvious side effects were blue lips and no more singing. (He sings all the time again, now!) we didn't SEE the blue lips until the first time on O2. I'd actually been snapping at him again to STOP biting his lips. O2 mask on = pink lips in seconds. Not. Bruising. After. All.

There was collective head meet drywall by surgeons, nurses, and research scientists on both sides of my family when that happened. It's why docs don't treat their own kids. Too. Close. To. See. And kiddo had -just bad luck- never gone blue during a doctors appt. so they missed it. His lips WERE bruised. They got numb when his 02 was low... So he'd chew. After adding 4L of oxygen, though, the bruises were in a pink background. Ugh.

2years ago and I'm STILL beating myself up over this.

He's on controller meds (that make him fat and give him insomnia), and uses his rescue inhaler 3-4 times a day.

So in addition to saving his life, its also changed our lifestyle a lot.

My 15 year old son just developed "exercised induced asthma" this year, well he could have had it last year, but is diagnose this year. He's always had allergies, but during football this year he said he was have lots of problems breathing and pains in his chest.

Talk to your doctor soon, don't just go off of what we are telling you.

My daughter was 17 months old when she was diagnosed after numerous upper respiratory infections, trips to the ER and oral prednisone. I will never forget the the ER doctor who said, "People don't like to officially callt his asthma when they're this young, but let's be realistic...this baby has asthma." She has been on daily medication since then and has her rescue inhaler. She is now three and half and medication has been a big part of her life for a while now. We finally got her a great pulmonologist after her second hospitalization earlier this year and **knock on wood** she has been controlled. Good luck!!!

My daughter was 4yrs old & had a persistent cough & was diagnosed with walking pneumonia. They put her on a nebulizer for a couple months. She also has seasonal allergies & enlarged tonsils. So they now have her on the inhaler. She is 6yrs old now & in the past year has only needed the inhaler a couple times a month. (November - March are her worst months).

I would definitely recommend taking her to a doctor. I'd start with the pediatrician and ask for a referral to a pediatric asthma/allergy specialist.

My son was 2.5 years old when he was diagnosed with asthma. We found out with a triple whammy all within a course of a couple of weeks. First we discovered he had nut and shellfish allergies (woke up wheezing), then he got pneumonia, and while in the hospital they diagnosed him with asthma.

Looking back he probably could have benefitted from being diagnosed earlier as he mostly (so far) has illness induced asthma and he would have lingering coughing after every cold.

The change to his life is that during the fall/winter (flu/cold season), he does a nebulizer (breathing) treatment once a day as maintenance. If he is sick, we do it 2-3 days a day. We will eventually switch to an inhaler type dispenser for his maintenance medicine but for now we do the nebulizer because we are better assured he is inhaling the medicine properly.
When we are out and about we carry an albuterol-like rescue inhaler just in case.

By far, the best change to his life having gotten diagnosed is that he is getting proper treatment and he no longer has lingering coughs when he has a cold or otherwise gets sick. This means he is sleeping better and he recovers from his illnesses quicker. Getting proper treatment for asthma is an improvement to quality of life. If your daughter has asthma, then getting her treated may mean that you have a small inconvenience of having to give her medicine once or twice a day, but imagine her being able to run around in the evening and never cough or wheeze.

I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping on top of treatment for people with asthma. I have asthma and as a child, I really didn't have any kind of regular treatment. When I got sick, I'd be wheezing all the time. Sometimes during exercise it would trigger and I'd have to stop. As an adult, I went to see an asthma specialist. I take maintenance medicine and carry rescue medication, but since I properly take my maintenance medication, I rarely ever need my rescue inhaler and that includes when I'm sick and when I do sports.

So in general, having gotten my son diagnosed with asthma has improved my child's life simply because he is getting proper treatment and doesn't suffer through illnesses like he did before. It doesn't keep him from doing anything that his twin brother or any other kid his age does.

It does take some learning on the part of the parents. I have an advantage that since I have asthma, I know what signs to look for and how to attack any flare ups. It's been an ongoing learning experience for my husband. But it's well worth it to improve the quality of life for my son.

My oldest was not diagnosed with it till he was about 1 1/2 but that's when I got Ins. but he was treated with albuteral before he turned 1. They try not to diagnose them early but sometimes they just have to. I think my little one was about the same age. My kids don't wheeze the bark. They cough and it sounds like a bark. So defiantly get him checked out.

Our pediatrician never called it asthma, just gave us treatments etc, until one time we had to go to the weekend pedi on call, he is the one that asked us, hasn't your doctor told you she has asthma? Our daghter was almost 2 yrs old.

We were so surprised.. He then explained she had a coughing asthma.. He gave us information etc.. Within a week I got rid of all carpets all drapes, purchased an electric filter for her room and cleaned the heck out of the house and her room.. We made sure to keep in top of her medications and now knew how to monitor her...