My Baby Has Asthma - UPDATE

Get him to a chiropractor. I started with one 18 years ago and it has changed my life- no more inhalers. Chiropractors can safely work on infants. I can recommend two-Dr Mark
Kennedy is in Long Beach near Seal Beach. Dr Khalsa is in the Fairfax area on San Vicente.

I would also recommend rubbing oil of oregano on his chest the first sign of cold. It is extremely strong and needs to be diluted down in a carrier oil. Jojoba penetrates the best and is found at Trader Joe's. You can also use olive oil. Oil of oregano is a natural anti-bacterial, anti-viral agent. Keep a humidifier in his room. Use a salt lamp in his room. When he is old enough, if he is still having trouble consider a salt pipe. Here's a link to tell you more.

http://www.portablesaltcave.com/children.html

Get a book on reflexology. THere are several in Borders or Barnes and Noble. A gentle foot massage can really make a big difference. The pad under the toes reflexes the chest and lungs. It's relaxing for him and creates a great bond for the two of you. THe toes reflex the head and sinuses and chances are his sinuses are the culprit.

Acupuncture works wonders.

Anything you can do to build up his immune system will benefit him. Start him on superfood-dehydrated greens. Wheatgrass, ryegrass, spirulina. You can add it to juice or applesauce. My grandson loves his "g'een juice."

Watch his sugar intake. Nothing brings down your immune system faster. Lots of water to keep him hydrated.

The ALbuterol and Pulmicort are ok as a emergency or to get started, but long term there are serious risks to the heart.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi S.,

My son is 2 1/2 now and was diagnosed with asthma several months ago.

When he was a little less than a year old he starting having problems with nasal allergies causing post-nasal drip that would trigger the cough, and we would try to control it with the humidifier and diffusing therapeutic oils. When it wasn't enough I resorted to the decongestants that would quiet it down so he could sleep through the night.

About 6 months ago he got a chest cough that wouldn't go away and the doctor diagnosed him with asthma. We started using the nebulizer and the inhaler and after a few weeks the cough cleared up.

One day my son INSISTED I take him to the acupuncturist. (We call the acupuncturist Uncle Dr. David; he treated me for pain control during birth and my son has been going along with me to my appointments his entire life).

Anyway, we got to his office and Ben (my son) insisted we take his shirt off and then asked "Uncle" Dr. David to rub oils on his chest and back. After a few minutes Ben said "shirt on" and "bye bye" and that was it. After that I started using the oils on his chest more than just in the diffuser.

He still coughs occasionally at night and I rub oils on his chest or Vick's Baby Rub. The eucaluyptus and other ingredients seem to help.

Also, I recently took my son to a holistic doctor who is giving him a homeopathic to support the bronchial tubes and lung function. The doctor also suggested I start eliminating dairy because my son has eczema,too and apparently there is a correlation between the dairy and eczema / asthma.

I will probably also start getting him to the chirpractor. I wholeheartely believe natural medicine is a much better route to wellness, but sometimes we need the Western medicine, too.

I realize your little one is much younger than my son, but maybe knowing what we are doing will help.

Best wishes,
R.

PS We discovered that using natural cleaning products has reduced his cough and allergies TREMENDOUSLY! Maybe that will help, too. Good luck

1 mom found this helpful

S.,

Stay on top of the nebulizer on time of administration... This will help your child... I wish I knew of herbal remedies b/c yes, they are too many medicines...

My son turned 4 today and suffers from asthma since he was 1 1/2 yrs old or so... Through the years he's gotten better and only suffers with the time change and the when he gets sick from the weather...

During the winter, I would recommend an air purifer and those machines that put moisture in the air (i forgot what they are called) but VICKs makes them...

Avoid the a/c or fans around the little one unless it's pointed into the room rather than in the room...

No cold drinks... My son eats an apple a day and also lots of yogurt and oranges or orange juice... The apple peel is has a component that helps with asthma, orange juice to help the immune system and also helps with the asthma... I believe it's the yeast in the yogurt that also helps...

My son also loves to pack his little lunch bag (snacks ) for school so he always packs the apple, yogurt, cheese stick, etc.

1 mom found this helpful

Dear S.,
Try taking up all carpets and never allowing your pets into the same room where he is, especially for sleeping. This is a hassle but if you have pets in the house, be prepaired to clean every surface fanatically. If you find a good new home for your pets, it might take about 6 months for the dander to leave the atmosphere.Cats are more often the culprit than dogs for other people I know with asthma.
I have had asthma since age 7 and my parents spared me the psycological damage of putting down the pets.
Having no carpet, bedsheets that didn't shed fibers, and no pets in my room made the difference of not having emergency visits to the hospital, but I needed an antihistimine with an inhaler on a frequent basis. The condition did not keep me from running and playing. Open air is better for most people with asthma regardless of season.
Good luck!!

1 mom found this helpful

Hi S.,
I have allergy and cold induced asthma. I found that using saline nasal spray every day helps me to keep my colds and allergies to a minimum. The kids don't like it much but it is natural and can't hurt them. A cold air humidifer and air purifier in your son's room can also help. I also go for acupuncture to keep my asthma under control but you would have to wait until your child is older or find an acupuncturist willing to work on children.

My son just spent the weekend on the nebulizer so I know how you feel. Good luck! I hope this helps.

Hi,our daughter gets asthma also with every cold!I agree with not wanting to put so many different medicines in their little systems!I would love another alternative.I hope you get some great advice from someone!

Hi S.,
If you are interested in Chiropractic care, you can visit
www.icpa4kids.org and search for a doctor in your area who works with children specifically!
Good luck,
C. Tanaka, DC
www.naturallifechiro.com

My child was diganosed with asymptomatic asthma and had symptoms very similiar to what you have discribed. I also did not like the Albuterol medicine. After trying many different medicines and about to give up hope. I tried the oldest thing on the shelf, Vicks vapor rub. It comes in a cream form now and that with dimeatapp and her inhaler(only given just before bedtime was the wonder combo that changed our lives.

this happened to my son when he was two. he is now 30 and has always had bouts with it. he now has no pets in his life and has improved greatly. keep all dust, pets & old things like old books & old clothes away from him. most of the time my sons asthma is brought on by a cold and that is hard to avoid unless he lives in a bubble. hot steaming showers help. just sitting in the bathroom while the water steams helps. drinking a ton of water also helps. it is awefull when they are tiny & we watch them go through this!!! good luck.

I have asthma, my daughter has seasonal asthma, and we both use Albuterol. I also have daily meds, but luckily, my daughter doesn't. Yet. I agree with S H that asthma is incredibly serious, and you need to give your son the medicine he needs. My doctor makes a point to tell me every time I see him that the death rate from all other diseases are declining, but not from asthma. They're going up from asthma. Don't think of it as pumping so much medicine into his body. Think of it as helping him breathe. Good luck.

I have the same problem with 2 little ones. What I have done is as soon as I see a runny nose, even clear, I give them an cold or allergy medicine, like Robitussin or Little Noses. They take some in the am and, if necessary, later in the afternoon and I have found that when I slow down the cold in the very beginning sometimes I don't even have to use the albuteral or the nebulizer at all. I give them significantly less of the big drugs these days. Also as my kids are getting older, the asthma is definetly decreasing! Kay will always need an inhaler, but we use it less and less. Yeah!

Acupuncture is your best bet. before he gets sick again. your best choice is to find a practitioner who practices 'classical 5-element acupuncture', don't settle for just 5-elements acupuncture, which every acupuncturist claims to use.
good luck
L.

My son is 24 mo and we've been dealing with the same situation since he was around 3 mo as well. My husband was the same way as a child and totally grew out of it, so I'm not too worried. When my son was about 15 mo old I took him to an ear, nose, throat specialist. She took him off the albuteral/pulmicort nebulizer routine. She and I both felt the side effects of those steroids weren't worth the risk in his case. We instead started him on Singular, the allergy med., 4mg daily. Our lives have changed. My boy used to get sick all the time. He rarely does anymore. We are planning on slowely lowering the dose and weening him off the meds here in the next few months. Hopefully, he'll stay well. Either way, I feel better about the Singular than the pulmicort. If you ever figure out a more natural approach that works I would love to hear about it. Good luck!

hi S.,

at two months my son developed eczema and allergies, which quite often leads to asthma.
i did not want to go the medication route, and was fortunate to find an MD who practices holistic/alternative methods.
My son is so much better now - she identifies and treats conditions that result in asthma, allergies, and other sensitivities.
her name: Dr. Van Nguyen, www.doctorvan.org ; ###-###-####

I hope whatever you choose to do works well for your son!

hi my daughter is on the same asthma meds. she got put on them at about 10 1/2 months old and gets the same way when sick. now from what you are saying is that your baby only gets these meds when hes sick right? the pulmicort is an asthma symptom preventor didnt your babies dr tell you that? what i have to do with my daughter is give her the pulmicort once a day to keep her asthma controlled then when she is sick or is coughing too much (i use the rescue inhaler) i give her the albuterol 4 times a day and the pulmicort 1-2 times a day (i was told to double dose the pulmicort if she was really bad). i would highly reccamend giving him the pulmicort everyday even when he isnt sick it will help in the long run when he gets sick again. it helps my daughter a lot. i dont know too much about the natural route aside from using a cool mist humidafire in the babies room and keeping the room cool (cool air is great for inflamed tissues). good luck i hope this helps any other questions feel free to write :)

My son had asthma and was on the same meds as your son. I was also very worried about the meds. I worked with several MDs - one in Florida and one in San Diego to figure out a natural way to manage my son's asthma and he is now symptom free. There are MANY studies on Rosmarinus Officinalis(just look on pubmed) and it's effects on asthma. Also the MD in Florida worked with asthmatic patients as well as patients with emphasema (sp?) and he recommended using mesosilver in his nebulizer. We did this when my son was 4 and he is now 8 and doesn't have asthmatic symptoms any longer. The link to where I got the mesosilver is: http://www.silver4life.com/silver_Asthma.html. Talk about it with your MD of course and do not make any changes without their okay.

Hi S.,

You mentioned chiropractor care as a possible solution for your son......I would absolutely look into it.

I have a chiropractor that is extremely knowledgable....He should be able to answer some questions for you. His name is Dr. Jamie Kaszer ph ###-###-####.

Best wishes

I dont know if this will help but...My daughter they believed had cold induced asthma because every time she got a cold it went into her lungs. So we too had all the nebulizer and drugs. Then it occured to me that we ran a air purifer in her room for white noise and i also figured it cleaned the air. It also dryed out the air and messed up I believe the ions. So i stopped using it and got a white noise machine instead and she wasnt sick for 7 months and she has had 2 colds since that never went into her lungs.

S.,

Please stop all vaccinations with your baby. The same thing happened with my daughter and it got worse. You will want to stay away from dairy and soy in most cases as these aggravate the symptoms. In my daughter's case it was also eggs and corn but we did not find it out until she was 18 months old and had tubes in the ears already and had been on antibiotics so many times, too many to count.

Please look into a good probiotic for babies, and you. And most importantly looking at both sides of vaccinations. There are studies and information at:

www.909shot.com
www.generationrescue.com
www.tacanow.org

One of my good friends has a child with asthma... she said her symptoms were dramatically reduced when she switched to toxic-free cleaners in her home. I would be happy to share more with you if you are interested.

As far as the congestion when he gets sick, I use a vaporizor in my son's room and add either a couple of drops of tea tree oil or ground cloves to the solution of water. Great for clearing up congestion!

C.
www.ToxicFreeFamily.net

Both of my children had asthma as infants and toddlers and did grow out of it with no side effects. We used the nebulizer often. I've heard that eliminating dairy can help some children, you may want to look into lactose free or soy formula. Is your child in daycare? If so, look at the cleanliness and think about changing to a home environment. I work at a preschool and babies get sick a lot-tons of germs going around.

Hi:

My grand daughter had a similar experience, and was pumped full of antibiotics, antihistimines etc., over and over and over. We took her to Dr. David Karaba at the East West Medical Group in Fullerton, and found the cause of her getting sick was allergies, which he CURED. She no longer gets sick all the time, is happier, healthier and her primary care physician no longer claims she has asthma.

Best wishes,

M.