Reactive Airway Disease, asthma...or What??

I think you are doing exactly what you should be doing. Getting a second oppinion and getting him into an ENT. We can all speculate and offer suggestions, and that's great, but he needs to see an ENT and I think you are smart by getting a second opinion. Hope all goes well.

I had similar problems with my son. The doctor had him tested for allergies. Now he is on allergy meds and is doing much better.

Ahh...13 months...did he just begin to drink milk? You might have him checked for cow's milk allergy (or other allergies).

The very first thing you should do is take him off cow's milk if that is what he is drinking. The second thing is to take him to a respectable chiropractor. My kids have been going since they were born and he has kept my son's asthma under control. My son has allergy induced asthma so every spring and fall we do extra things to keep him from having an asthma attack. When ever one of my children had an ear infection we went to the chiropractor and he would adjust their necks then the infection would drain out properly and they would get better. Without pain or antibiotics.

O.K., you asked for any advice....
So many antibiotics are not good. It depletes their bodies of good bacteria. Has he been given any probiotics after antibiotics? Probiotics restore good bacteria found in the gut. Bad bacteria can overrun and weaken our immune systems. This happened to my grandson. His first 3 years he was very sick over and over and over again. He had so many antibiotics, cold medicines, albuterol...Have you checked out what is in this stuff? I would be sick too. Most doctors treat symptoms, not the cause. It could be food allergies. This was our case. We had him tested for food allergies. He had many. We also had his flora tested. He had almost no good bacteria and had alot of yeast. He was given probiotics to restore his good bacteria and get rid of the yeast. We avoided foods he was allergic to and also stay away from processed foods. Go organic if possible. We also give him supplements to build his immune system up. It worked. He has had maybe 2 small colds in 3 years.
One more thing, at 13 months, I know your baby probably has a vaccination coming up, please make sure he is really healthy before vaccinating. Even if he has the sniffles I would wait.

This is a terrible sest up for a hampered immune system (ABT and steroids) for years to come. If you are breast feeding I would increase the feedings because what he needs for immunity is contained in the breast milk and only there. Do not feed him any dairy or grains, as they are very allergenic and depress immunity. Give him plenty of alkaline foods as bacteria cannot grow in it. alkaline foods are fruits and vegetables. Meat, grains are acid producing foods. When he gets the nourishment that god intended he will be fine. I would juice with carrots and other veggies for concentrated nourishment also. One garlic clove in the fresh pressed vegetable juice would be helpful as it is antibacterial. The reason your doctor does not seem concerned is that it is a common problem but that does not mean it is not serious. Doctors become immune to what they see every day. You intuition/gut is telling you it is serious and you are correct. Your baby also needs a good probiotic from the health food store for children. The good bacteria that are intended to fight infection in his body have been destroyed ty all of the aitibiotics thus he can never get well. This is extremely important.
B. S. RN CCM

Hello A.. I am sorry to hear about you son. My son had ear infections alot when he was younger. He is almost four now. He had to have tubes put in his ears. That stopped his ear infections. That may be what your son needs. My son did have a case of pneumonia when he was about 1 1/2. We had to keep him inside and away from smoke and all that. That is good that you are getting a second opinion. I also would like to let you knwo that some cleaning products used in homes are bad for you and can lead to breathing problems. I know alot of cleaning products and products we use in our home on a daily basis have bleach, ammonia, and formaldehyde in them. I know since I have found this health and wellness company we feel alot better and dont have ezcema anymore. If this is a route you would like to look into also I would love to get you more information on safer products. I really hope your son gets better. Good luck and if you ever need to talk let me know.

S. T.
Proud to be part of CEO MOMS
www.always4myfamily.com

A.,
My son who is 21 now was a severe asthmatic. he started out as you have described upper respiratory infection, pneumonia more times than I can count. He was in and our of hospitals for the first two years of his life, i went to see a respiratory specialist and he told me he had asthma and put him on dialy medicines and a updraft machine for his bad days. he started doing much better after that. he handles his asthma with a inhaler when needed now.......so there is a rainbow at the end if you get the right help. We were very blessed we found a christian doctor who helped us.

FIND ANOTHER DOCTOR!!!!!!!!!!!! My grandson(4) was having to take B12 (that stuff is nasty and it stinks), he was having his blood drawn every 2 weeks. He was sick one day and she was gone for a week, I called another pediatrician and she told me to cut back on his milk. He hasn't taken B12 since. I think doctors like that should be banned from being a pediatrician. Sorry, I got off key there. Go to a pediatric pulmonologist. Your dr. should have sent you there in the first place. Your child's health is the most important thing in the world. It could be something simple that is the problem and you are both suffering.

My ex son in law refused to stop smoking and his son was having devasting problems like your son. He didn't smoke around the baby...it was on his clothes!

Let me know what happens. Hope this helped.

My 12 month daughter has been through all of this aswell. She has had to stay in the hospital twice with pnemonia and has had broncholitis about 4 times. Every month the eposide starts up again always with a cold she catches from someone. The peditrician had her tested for cystic fybrosis and it was negative. I didn't think our peditrician has been very proactive though. I found a pulmonary specialist on my own and we went there yesterday. The specialist said she has reactive airway disease. I guess it is kinda like asthma for young children. They can't say she has asthma until she is older. Since all this has started she has been on albuteral as needed for wheezing and cough. Pulmicort for 2 weeks until it goes away and lots of various other meds to help with ear infections. The last time she was sick, a month ago, the peditrician wanted her to stay on pulmicort until the rest of the winter. She still got sick.... When we went yesterday the specialist put her on claritin, singulair and Qvar. The last one is to replace the breathing treatments. It is an inhalier that is much easier to do and supposily just like the pulomcort.

So, I am just going to see how this works out. Best of luck to you. Any insight please send to me aswell.

Also, we will have to get a neck xray to see if her adenoids are infected. The dr. said that if they are infected all the time, this could be the problem.

Also, the generic for pumicort is what we used this last month. I'm sure it is cheaper. Budesonide.
Loratadine is the generic for claritin.
Also, the specialist gave us a $20 coupon for singulair.

What are your sons triggers?

AT 13 months the usual testing for asthma cannot be done (pulmonary funtion tests or spirometry- most kids aren't able to really follow the directions until they are about 5yrs). Testing for allergies would be a logical next step, getting him checked out by an ENT is also a great idea. You are doing what you need to- admittedly your pediatrician could be a little more agressive when looking for a cause. I audit medical documenteation- and have recently done an asthma clinic- this sounds like what they would reccommend initially- but please doen't take that as medical advice- just that you are heading in the right direction.

We've got the same problem. Our son is 16 mos old now and we are still going thru the same thing. When he was born, he was a month early (by c-section) and stayed in the NICU for a week because of breathing abnormalities. He was doing this slight weezing sound when he would breathe. At about 9 mos old, he started showing signs of seasonal allergies. We used Zyrtec on him, which was fine till about 1 month into daycare when he got sick. He got sick every Fri for about 5 months. With the colds and the Zyrtec, it would dry up all the drainage, but on the inside, so it made him even more sick and he had to go on breathing treatments and steroids. We've been thru 3 different rounds of that, plenty of antibiotics, our first round of croup that sent us to the emergency room this past weekend. Our doctor and the ones in the hospital when he was born have all told us that little boys are more susceptible to these type things, especially caucasian boys. He hasn't been classified with asthma, b/c of the age I guess, and since he only shows signs of breathing trouble about 50% of the time he gets sick. They have also told us to leave a humidifier going to help. We've used the Little Allergies stuff that you put under their nose when the season changes and try to limit the Zyrtec b/c it makes him groggy, at the request of the daycare. So, all that to say, I can't help you much, but we're in the same boat. Oh, and ours has been to an ENT also, but he wanted to give us more antibiotics, not as strong as the 3 rounds we had just had, so that may not be the answer either. If I find out anything else, I'll post it on here. Good luck.

I would get a second opinion just to make you feel better if nothing else. I also can tell you that asthma can be control if you can found a Dr who can help you found out what is setting off the attacks. My parents went thought it will me and tow other sisters. My one sister when she was nine had be in the hospital and she was ten. My patents were told to move to a dryer climate because we were allergy to mold and the like it do help. Asthma is scary but if this is the problem your child can live a happy safe life.

I had pnemonia lasy year 5 times. There are a lot of chemicals inthe home that cause that problem. I started using allnatural products and now I feel so much better My kids asthma is in better control. My son has eczema and thats doing better there is so much.
about me-IM a 30 yr old mom of three who works from home with the best health and wellness company. I love to help others!!!!

Have you checked into allergies? My son and daughter had many of the same symptoms and we discovered that a tree in our yard and mold in the basement were the culprits fortunately we were renters and could move they are better now but take meds for seasonal allergies. Just one possible solution check it out L.

A., I am a respiratory therapist that is studying to become an asthma educator. Reactive airways disease is just another way to say asthma. For some reason doctors are hesitant to use the term asthma with small children, I suppose because it has such a negative stigma attached to it. One of the reasons that additional tesing has not been ordered for your child is because the way asthma is diagnosed is with testing called Pulmonary function testing. Unfortunately, children under the age of 6 can not perform the testing manuver properly, so they can not be tested until then. Also, because of the nature of asthma which can be an episodic disease, other things like chest x-rays are not diagnostic. In children younger than 6, a chronic or recurring cough and problems with allergies and other upper respiratory illnesses are what is used to diagnose asthma. I would say, your child has asthma. Now, here are some things you should know. Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease. That means, it never goes away. You must be very mindful of the dangers of asthma which kills about 4000 people a year in the US. If your child ever has a blue or purple tint to his lips or nail beds, get him to an emergency room immediately. Other signs that he is in distress: If he is struggling to breathe, if he stops playing or talking, if you see the skin around his throat, ribs or abdomen being pulled or sucked in with each breath. Do not mess around with these signs. Since you have a nebulizer, when you do notice any difficulty with his breathing or coughing, give him a treatment. If you do not see definate improvement within fifteen minutes of the treatment, get him to a doctor or hospital. I don't want to scare you, but I do want you to be aware that asthma is a serious disease and you should be very careful. You should also try to become as educated about asthma as you can. You can go on-line to the American Lung Association website (google it) and you will find all kinds of valuable information there. Lastly, do not become discouraged. Your sons asthma can be controlled, and he can live a mostly normal life. You just need to find out what his triggers are so you can reduce or eliminate them, get him on a good medication regimen. If you would like more information, you can e-mail me directly at ____@____.com Good luck. D.

Kylie is right. Kids can't follow the directions for asthmas (spirometry) testing until around age 5, so until then it is caused "reactive airway disease". Great idea to see an ENT. Allergy testing is a good idea too, however it's not always correct at this age, so keep that in mind. There's not much they can really do about finding a cause, most of the time there isn't one. All you can really do is make sure the triggers are minimized (keep him AWAY from all smoking, avoid cats (a lot of people with asthma are allergic to them), vaccuum often with a good vaccuum with a HEPA filter, try to avoid heavy fragrances and lots of chemicals in your household cleaners, sunscreens, and soap/shampoos, etc...organic is best if you can afford it.)

Have you seen an asthma/allergy specialists? Not sure where you live but both of my boys have had similar problems and went to see Joe LaRussa at St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, AL. They both take daily meds to keep their "asthmatic bahavior" under control - it makes a huge difference in how sick and wheezy they get when they do get a cold. Also, sounds like he would benefit from a set of tubes from the ENT - that was one of the best things that ever happened to me was my youngest getting tubes. Also, probably wouldn't hurt having some allergy testing - all this problems are tied together and need to be checked out - and don't let your pediatrician tell you he is too young to get allergy tested - its not true I have found out the hard way :)!! Anyway, that will tell you if he is allergic to anything that may be causing his lungs to act up. Anyway, Dr. Larussa was a pediatrician before he became a asthma and allergy specialist - he is very good at thoroughly checking every little thing. His # is ###-###-####. This is something you can do something about and something you can get under control - my first pediatrician would not refer us to anybody and kept saying my son would "outgrow" his problems - but he was wrong and could have caused me some serious problems if I had not gone ahead and changed dr's and gone to the asthma dr. (we ended up discovering my son is severely allergic to peanuts and has to have an epipen among other things). Anyway, sounds like you are on the right track with the ENT - your son will really be so much better if you can get him on some maintenance meds for his "asthma" symptoms - I promise!!

Yes! You would be wise to do so with the second opinion. Just to be on the safe side of it. My step daughter is 14 fixing to be 15 and she is very active in sports. She suffers from High blood pressure. Thats just to young to suffer from that. We took her to one doctor and he didn't seem a bit concerned about it. So I do no how you feel. Yes we got a second opinion. Of cousre now she does have to take a low dose of bloodpressure medicine, she seems to be doing just fine.

I would change doctors if you haven't already. Have you goten your 2nd oppinion yet? I would..

You have every right to be concerned.

Thanks

T.

I think I would change doctors is your doctor a childs doctor ? that could be your problem cause when I was a child they didn't have a lot of children doctors and I had asthma but they didn't tell my mother that and I found out I had it when I was expecting my first child I was 4 month a long and my doctor was chinise he turned white and almost lost me so keep on top of it get a second opinion take him to a doctor that handles the lungs good luck