Depends what “this” is.
An asthma diagnosis doesn’t come easy during the very early ages, partly because flare symptoms can mimic other issues and partly because little kids just can’t tell you what’s going on inside their bodies. You can end up spending a lot of time and money carting your infant to appointment after appointment and ER after ER and trying prescription after prescription before figuring out, finally, what’s really wrong. And your total loss of free time and the strain on your budget of co-payments for medicines that don’t work are minor compared to the uncontrolled flaring your baby or toddler has to breathe through in the meantime.
Understanding asthma’s early warning signals in infants and toddlers can cut through a lot of the confusion. I probably could’ve saved my own child from months – possibly years – of more or less continuous flaring, had I not been a first-time parent whose inexperience with babies meant I just didn’t recognize the difference between her breathing and “normal” breathing.
These signs don’t necessarily mean your infant has asthma, of course, but they can. If you harbor suspicions, take them to your pediatrician. This disorder tends to be best controlled if it is caught early and controlled immediately.
Possible Early Warning Signs of Asthma for Babies and Toddlers
You’re looking for consistency here, a pattern of recurrent breathing problems, not minor, random symptoms that pop up out nowhere and then disappear.
Wheezing
This is a whistling sound you can hear when someone exhales. Newborns, especially, can wheeze for a variety of reasons, and wheezing is actually not the most common asthma symptom (coughing is), as stereotypes suggest. Meaning, keep an eye out for some of these other symptoms as well.
Coughing
By “coughing,” I mean coughing for no obvious reason, coughing that doesn’t stop or comes in regular spurts, coughing that lingers for an abnormally long time after an illness, coughing at night, or regular coughing during exercise. Coughing during a cold or the flu is, obviously, just as normal for little kids as it is for adults. And your child may experience a lingering cough after being sick even sans asthma. Again, you want to watch for a pattern of lingering coughs, not just an isolated incident.
Loud Breathing
If you can hear your kid’s breathing all the time, that’s not such a good sign. It might not be asthma and could indicate allergies, sinus issues, or even just a baby’s reaction to a cold, but mention any regular loud breathing to your pediatrician, especially if it occurs during the healthy times.
Fast Breathing
Learn how to count your child’s respiratory rate. While children and adults tend to breathe faster during illness, they should otherwise fall within the normal respiratory rates.
Recurring Croup, Pneumonia, Bronchitis, Bronchiolitis, Etc.
To give you an idea, I have two daughters and only one has asthma. As a younger kid, she was diagnosed with bronchiolitis once, bronchitis once, and pneumonia three times. Her non-asthmatic sister? None of them.
Subtle Signals
Excessive throat clearing, sighing, yawning, fatigue, or eye rubbing; snoring; and irritability can also indicate breathing problems in a baby or very young child. They can signify a whole slew of other issues, too, including colic and allergies, so if any of these symptoms appear excessive or noticeable enough to make you worry, make an appointment with your child’s doctor to talk about them – especially if you have a family history of asthma and allergies or your child has other risk factors.
——
Whatever you do, please don’t print this post out, bring it to your kid’s next appointment and say,
“It’s asthma, I JUST KNOW IT. See? The Asthma Mom told me so.”
That’s not what I’m saying.
What I’m saying is, keep an eye on things. Bring questions and symptoms to your pediatrician. Be informed, and be aware that asthma is a possibility.
Warning signals culled from my experience with my asthma kid, the comments section of this Asthma Mom reader response, and these sources:
Asthma and Allergy Federation of America
Mayo Clinic
WebMD
**Updated to reflect the comments.
I might add to the subtle sigals section – sighing, grunting and yawning (more than normal for a young kid). All of them are very subtle outward signs that I’m having trouble breathing, and my mom says I’ve been doing them since forever and she wishes she had figured that part out sooner.
I think the most important piece of advice if you THINK your child might be suffering from any respiratory issue…or any issue at all is to trust your gut. If you think there is something going on, it’s worth a call to the pediatrician. If nothing else, they can reassure you that everything is normal.
One thing I’ve noticed for me is that I rub my eyes more when I’m headed into a flare (and I used to do that a lot as a kid)… partly because many of my flares are allergy-related (and allergies make my eyes itchy) and partly because it’s sort of become a habit for me when I’ve got that vaguely unwell feeling that preceeds a flare.
Also, for subtle signals: Weight gain or loss (more than normal for the kid). I know when I was little, really bad flares would kill my appetite and I’d lose weight, and moderate flares wouldn’t affect my appetite but they would affect my activity, so I’d gain weight (this holds true today, too). Mind you, weight yo-yoing in a kid can signal any number of things, so again, it’s the “looking for consistency” thing.
Danielle – yeah! Sighing and yawning. Sometimes I wish people didn’t point that out to me. It’s like “Wait. I thought I was breathing fine. You mean I’m not?” If I’m only sighing and yawning a lot and I don’t seem to notice, just leave me be. If I’m having any trouble breathing, it’s probably pretty minor.
Great post. Unfortunately I didn’t find this blog till my toddler was diagnosed with asthma and I searched for asthma blogs. You need to get this post out there on other non asthma blogs so others can read it before getting a diagnosis.
My child coughed every day for 5 months before we got it properly diagnosed. She coughed at night, when crying, when eating and when really excited. She coughed till she puked. She has since had Croup and she whistles when she breathes out of her nose. I’ll have to tell the doctor about that.
Amen to throat clearing. The weird grunting, throat clearing sound was ever present when he was uncontrolled. Now he just does it when his allergies are flaring. I also remember him yawning a lot, but looking back it’s clear he wasn’t tired, just trying to catch his breath.
When he was 3 or 4, before he was officially diagnosed, he often complained of being tired when he was out playing with other kids. He’d come in and sit down for a bit — he wasn’t wheezing or coughing really, he was tired and needed to catch his breath. That should have been a big red flag for me.
Ooh, great additions everyone, thanks! I’m going to leave this up for awhile to see if anyone adds more subtle signs before I update it — otherwise I might end up editing it several times.
I think my neice who is four years old and my nephew is two years old have asthma but their pediatrition said they were too young to be diagnosed, she said they have to be nine beore they can be tested.But i guess thats not true since i just read on here that some of your toddlers have been diagnosed. They both have ecsema and athsma is associated with that and they have constant coughs. Can you tell me how you got your doctor to test your children and what tests they did to determine that it was in fact asthma.
Hi, Laraine. The fact i know is that, asthma in infants can diagnosed if you find a experienced doctor by their knowledge. But it is not recommended to do some tested on body to confirm it is true as they are so little and can’t bear the damaged like adult of us.
An attention-grabbing discussion is worth comment. I think that you should write more on this subject, it might not be a taboo topic however usually persons are not sufficient to speak on such topics. To the next. Cheers
My son never has problems breathing, runs all day long but about 3 times a year he gets croup and coughs and coughs all night long. I use the inhaler on him for his medication. His doctor says it goes away by 8 or 9, but if it is a problem i don’t want to neglect it. Can Croup, with really bad larynx flaring up, three times a year mean he has asthma.
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Another possible sign of asthma in infants is developing RSV a couple of times in a few months. My youngest got it 3 times in 5 months from January to may. Now that she is 2 years old, her asthma flares up in September, around thanksgiving or Christmas and in march for sure. Whenever the seasons change, she has a flare up; also the holiday stress (traveling) seems to irritate her asthma