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Preventing Flare-Ups
We started him on Albuterol at the first sign of a cold Up until he was five or six, every time Evan got a cold, he would need to use his nebulizer. This made the mere sight of a runny nose on him become so stressful for me. I would see the symptoms coming on for a cold and know that we were in for trouble. Since he'd already been hospitalized twice, I always had that fear in the back of mind. Would we need to rush him to the hospital, how do we know when we should take him or when to call an ambulance? We would start him on Albuterol at the first sign of a cold? I would get up in the middle of the night and use the nebulizer on him while he was sleeping in his crib (and later, his bed) to make sure he didn't miss a dose.As soon as he starts sniffling, we're right there Brian's asthma is rather mild, and it in and of itself hasn't been a problem. However, if he gets a cold, and is exposed to the allergen triggers, the three of them will cause him to go into respiratory distress. And we're very on top of that. As soon as he starts sniffling, we're right there with the Albuterol, keeping an eye on him.Making sure he avoids triggers can be difficult Because Jason's allergies cause his asthma and he's only four years old, it's hard to make sure that he doesn't come into contact with all the things that could cause his asthma to act up. I mean, even him putting his fingers in his mouth could potentially cause a flare-up, especially if he just touched something that he's allergic to— he constantly has something in his mouth! There are times when he keeps his shirt in his mouth. What if he just brushed up against something he's allergic to when he was wearing that shirt? It can get difficult.Educating other adults your child spends time with I carry Tyson's asthma medicine everywhere. If he goes out to a sleepover, I pack his medicine which means the person he goes to has to know exactly how to handle it if Tyson has an asthma attack. I think you as a parent need to make sure the parents at the house he's spending the night at know how to handle asthma. I don't think you can really leave it up to your child no matter what age he is. I tell Tyson's grandma she should carry his Albuterol when she spends time with him, not the Flovent, because that's not what's going to help him if he has an attack. The Albuterol is going to help during an asthma attack, or if he starts feeling like he can't breathe. I read a lot about asthma, but I believe more that it was really getting to know my son and getting to know his asthma that actually made me learn whether or not he needs an increase or a decrease in his meds. You actually get to know what you child needs for medication, and if you forget a dose you can actually see it in your child. If you forget after a few days, and because I am a very busy mother I do forget sometimes that he does need his morning Flovent, I really see symptoms of asthma coming right back, and he gets ill. So I don't forget. You can't forget.Treat the asthma, not the cold When Tyson gets a cold, he has to increase his asthma medicines more because he can have asthma attacks when he gets a virus or the flu. If he gets sick with a cold they tell me I can increase the amount of Albuterol I give him and give it to him like I would give him Robitussin, every four to six hours. He needs the Albuterol because it is asthma which is underlying that cold. So you have to treat the asthma more than you need to treat the virus. It's a complicated situation— I used to think that having him take that much Albuterol was a lot, but because he does have asthma, he needs those doses to keep him progressively doing okay. Otherwise, he goes downhill and he ends up in the hospital.Now he tells me when he needs his meds Tyson did not want to take the things when he was a little boy, he didn't want anything to do with this air chamber or the medications. But as he got older, he was telling me that he needed his medicine. Now, at age four, he'll say, “Mom, you forgot to give me my pill last night,” and I'll be like “Ahh, my gosh, Tyson.”Telling him over and over so he knows what to do Tyson can tell you how to do his medication now. He actually can tell you that he needs two puffs of the orange-colored one, and he needs two puffs of the pink-and-gray colored one, and he'll tell you that he needs six breaths in between each puff. I tell him over and over and over, every single morning when he takes his medication, “OK breathe Tyson. You need to breathe in, you need to breathe out.” I still say that with him even though he knows the deal, so when he's not with me he knows what he needs to do.Maintenance medications are automatic For us, taking his maintenance medicines is automatic. I think part of that is because I have asthma, too, so I am programmed to doing the inhaler. It is not anything that is new to me. When Toby was on oral medications I had a much harder time remembering that, but I'm pretty attuned to the inhalers. I think the bigger thing that I worry about is that, because I titrate the medications depending on how he's doing, making sure I'm not giving him too much or too little medication. Even though he's only four, I have been educating Jason about his allergies and his asthma. He's known since he could talk what he's allergic to, so if he does go somewhere he'll ask if there will be anything he's allergic to there. Even if he's with someone else, he'll ask. So that keeps me feeling like he's a little bit safer. So he'll be like, “Oh, does that have peanuts?” And my seven-year-old nephew, when he's with my son, will say “Hey, he can't have that!” So, the education part has helped. And constant reminding.
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Hospital Boston Department of Psychiatry. All Rights Reserved. The information on this website should not be taken as medical advice, which can only be given to you by your personal health care professional. Updated: June 5, 2007 |
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