Comments on: Your Asthmatic Toddler May Be Flaring, Not Cranky – The Early Warning Symptoms

By: childcare

childcare — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:31:46 +0000

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By: Asthma Mom » A Sense of Direction

Asthma Mom » A Sense of Direction — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:42:55 +0000

[...] Flare Symptoms [...]

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:40:26 +0000

I have a 13 year old son with relatively well-controlled asthma. Unlike the first few years when almost every cold resulted in pneumonia and course of oral steroids, he makes it through most colds without severe trouble and just needs albuterol, rest, fluids, lots of steamy showers and addition of flovent to his maintenance routine.

We are now experiencing his first significant flare since he had HINI (and pneumonia) in May of 2009. He is now in that limbo phase where he does not have diagnosable pneumonia (mild fevers, I doubt anything would show on x-ray yet, and only wheezing audible by stethoscope) but I can hear his lungs getting junkier and I can tell by his energy, mood, and from experience where this is heading.

Wonder if others have advice on how to get through this phase and decrease the likelihood of pneumonia. Just moved and this is his first episode with new health care providers so they don’t now him and his patterns, yet. I feel as if I am just standing by and watching him get worse. Ugh!

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:49:35 +0000

Louise, I don’t think there’s any “should” about it–asthma is so, so terrifying in a kid, no matter how long you’ve been dealing with it. It DOES get easier, I promise, but I still worry & my kid’s almost 11. I think we’ll always worry, at least a little, and I think that’s normal, you know?

Anyway, the way I know my daughter is controlled–and illness is her worst trigger–is that she usually doesn’t end up in the ER or on prednisone when she’s flaring. Before we got good control of her asthma, just about every bad flare would involve acute care or oral steroids. Once we attained good control, we were able to help her recover from the flares w/out them.

Plus, when she doesn’t react poorly to a trigger, she’s in good health. When she wasn’t in good control, she had little tolerance for exercise–which normally isn’t a flare for her–and she’d flare all the time.

Hope that helps!

By: Louise

Louise — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:37:01 +0000

Hi Amy,
After 15 months of no prednisone and managing colds fairly well, my son is in the middle of a really bad flare right now. This one came on completely differently. Normally, he comes down with a cold and the asthma follows 3 days later. This time I noticed a slight asthma cough 5 days ago, increased his symbicort (which I have room to do because for maintenance he only takes 2 puffs twice per day – max is 4 puffs). Sore throat came on 24 hrs later and full cold 4 days later, asthma so flared had to go on prednisone. I used to think that if asthma was controlled with preventative medicines, flares wouldn’t happen. I know now this is not the case. But my question is, how do you know if the asthma is controlled if your child gets symptoms every time he/she has a cold? After doing ths for 6 years, flares still unnerve me to no end. I sleep in my son’s room with a phone by my side and a quick change of clothes in preparation for a middle of the night ER trip, my stomach goes into knots and I can’t eat properly for days. Ater all this time, I really should be used to this…. but I don’t think I ever will be.

By: Toddler activities

Toddler activities — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:16:27 +0000

Great article, I am about 3/4ths of the way through it. I will post some questions after I done. This is good stuff.

By: Asthma Mom » Friday Links - Fall Asthma Babies, Bush vs. National Parks

Asthma Mom » Friday Links - Fall Asthma Babies, Bush vs. National Parks — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:56:40 +0000

[...] the very least, be aware of this possible risk factor and all the asthma flare symptoms, should you ever find yourself with an autumn [...]

By: SOG knives

SOG knives — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:07:06 +0000

SOG knives…

Interesting ideas… I wonder how the Hollywood media would portray this?…

By: lpnmon

lpnmon — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:09:13 +0000

This is another one of those things that should be told to you as soon as your kid is diagnosed with asthma. I don’t know how many time outs DS got and how many play groups we left early before I figured out that he was calmer and less aggressive with a couple puffs of albuterol. (sorry son.) I felt bad that I was practically using it as a behavioural aide, until someone pointed out to me how hard it was to be well behaved when you can’t breathe.

By: Amy

Amy — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:20:26 +0000

Thanks, Charmaine. ITA w/you about knowing what’s normal. It’s catching those little signs and symptoms and recognizing the patterns that made a huge difference in my child’s health.