Reply to side affects of asthma meds (inhaled steroids)?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hi, OP, in my experience with a child who had asthma problems since birth (almost always triggered by colds), if your kid is having a severely hard time breathing -- that is when they give you the liquid/pill prednisone, and it isn't long term. do they only have you on it for a few more days? If so, I would stick with it. They tend to do the job quickly.

Do you have a nebulizer? That helps to get the medicine deeper too, when the airways are so constricted that a regular inhaler with a spacer doesn't do anything.

I hope you keep up with the specialist afterward to make sure the asthma gets under control as much as possible. We've had great experiences with the Institute for Allergy & Asthma (locations in Wheaton & Friendship Heights).

There is definitely some weighing to be done between the potential or actual side effects of a drug v. the need to make sure your kid can breathe. I understand that studies show that kids who grew up taking preventive inhaled steroids ended up being a half inch shorter than their peers... that's a little concerning, but more concerning to me is when my kid is having an asthma attack daily and needing albuterol on a regular basis.[/quote]

+1. This is almost exactly how I would respond. DC started having breathing issues at 4.5 months and now at 13 months I think we finally have found a regime that works. It's Pulmicort through the nebulizer once per day and Singulair through food at night. The Singulair (which comes with it's own interesting potential side effects) has been fantastic for us, though some kids do not respond well. Unfortunately, at this age, it really is trial and error. When DC really is having trouble breathing, we add in Albuterol every 4-6 hours through the nebulizer. We also saw the study that came out a couple of months ago about kids on inhaled steriods being 1/2 shorter than their peers. But like PP, we need our child to breathe so he can grow up and have have peers.

As for the liquid steriod, we were told that really only should be used when your child is very very sick. And you'll know when that it is. I used to think people were crazy when they would give me that ambiguous line, but it is so true. We've once used it for a 5 day stretch, twice per day. Then, it goes right back into the cabinet. Good luck figuring it all out.

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