Previous entry: 
Next entry:
Does my toddler have asthma?
My daughter Ana Isabel had a cold last week. She seemed to be getting better but she had this persistent cough. Ana, at three and half, has had these cough before at the tail end of a cold.
But this was different. From one day to the next, the cough seemed to get worse.
At one point, she was coughing almost nonstop. My wife called the pediatricians' office. They told her they couldn't do anything for a cough. Don't bring her in. Give her cough syrup. We had already done that.
When my wife put Ana in the bath, she gasped for air. "Mommy, I can't breathe," Ana said. It hurts just writing that sentence. Her breaths were shallow and short.
We raced her to the doctor's office. They saw her immediately, examined her, took X-rays and put her on a nebulizer treatment. She improved right away. The color came back to her face.
It's too soon to know if the diagnosis is asthma, the doctors said. But we got the drugs and equipment to treat someone with asthma.
It's common. The American Lung Association says asthma is the leading serious chronic illness in children.
Here's an article about toddlers and asthma.
It runs in the family. So we're not surprised. Still, it's been my scariest parenting episode so far.
Gretchen Day-Bryant has a son in high school and a daughter in middle school. She’s lived to tell about the struggles of juggling little kids and work...
Joy Oglesby has an infant daughter and a sister 13 years her junior, whom she babies to the now-adult...
Cindy Kent Fort Lauderdale mother of three. Her kids span in ages from teenager to 20s...
Rafael Olmeda and his wife welcomed their first son in Feb. 2009, and he's helping raise two teenage stepdaughters...
Lois Solomon lives in Boca Raton with her husband and three daughters...
Anne Vasquez is the Online Editor in charge of overseeing SunSentinel.com. She is the mother of a 5-year-old boy and a newborn daughter.
Georgia East is the parent of a five-year-old girl, who came into the world weighing 1 pound, 13 ounces...
Brittany Wallman is the mother of Creed, 13, and Lily, 6, and is married...
Chris Tiedje is the Social Media Coordinator, and father of two boys and a girl all under the age of seven.
Comments
Our daughter was offically diagnosis with Asthma when she was 3.5 also, after years of colds leading to bronchititis - starting with her first attack at 5 months. I've rushed to the doctors and one 4am trip to the ER with the same scary knowledge that my child could not breathe.
Today, she'll be 5 in April, she is on a daily pill - Singular - and it has had an amazing effect. She got through her first cold last week which was nothing but that - a bad cold.
The downside is that before she only had flare-ups when she was sick, but in the last 6 months she has had sudden attacks when she is very active. 5 minutes on a trampoline set her off a month ago.
It really is amazing how common it is today, and you just have to wonder what the cause is.
Posted by: Erin | February 26, 2009 5:37 PM
Erin, I don't remember asthma being such a big problem when I was kid. Who knows if it's what we've been pumping out into our atmoshpere. Some may say that's it. Best of luck.
Posted by: Luis Perez | February 26, 2009 5:44 PM
Luis is right...It didn't used to be so common. I had asthma ever since I could remember. I started out taking pills for it. Then when I was in elementary school, I used the nebulizer machine every day. I had to report to the office, to use my abuterol pump before recess. I was the only person, I knew that had asthma (especially this bad). We joined the ALA, so I could be around other kids with it. I controlled my asthma better when I hit middle school, and carried the pump with me at all times (just in case). I'm 27 now and when I get sick, I have to go out & buy a Primatine Mist pump (on extremely rare occasions). I think i've come a long way from that doctor who told my mom "She probably won't live past the sixth grade", over 20 years ago.
Have faith...your kids will make it through this! I'm proof of that!
Posted by: Nikki | March 3, 2009 12:34 PM