Nebulizer treatments - any experience with them?

Hi there -

My little Lauren had a terrible cold about a month ago, just before she started daycare and when I went back to work. It was a ton of congestion and coughing up mucus, she was tired and didn't eat much for over a week. Finally saw the Doc and even though it was not an ear infection, he said it was most likely another "secondary" infection and they put her on antibiotics. It worked great - within 48 hours her appetite came back and within 4 days her cough was gone and she was sleeping much better at night.

So after the antibiotics she did great, although I never thought she was 100% back to normal - she still sounded a bit congested from time to time (not all the time). She was always a little congested, even since birth, which I read was normal for some babies.

Late last week she started coughing again and had a runny nose over the weekend and a little difficulty breathing - nothing major just took some time for her to catch her breath after a coughing fit. My sister-in-law and father-in-law both convinced me to take her to the doctor's on Monday and sure enough, the doctor was concerned about her breathing as well and put her on a nebulizer. So far it seems to be working, she is still coughing but did much better last night sleeping.

So I have 1000 questions now about nebulizer and thought I'd stop here first, before I call the Dr tomorrow AM.

Has anyone else had to use a nebulizer on a baby? Did it work? Did the breathing issues clear up quickly?

Should I be concerned that she is using this and is so young? She is just 4 months...

Should I be concerned that it could be asthma? The doctor did throw around that word, and honestly I dismissed it but then did some reading last night from my medical reference book and it does sound similar to what Lady Lauren is going thru.

Thanks in advance!

 

Has anyone else had to use a nebulizer on a baby? Did it work? Did the breathing issues clear up quickly? I am an asthamitic, all my kids are asthmatic and my brother is, so yes I have experience. It does work and you should see an improvement fairly fast.

Should I be concerned that she is using this and is so young? She is just 4 months While it is concerning that she is so young, my brother was 6 weeks old the first time he had a neb treatment and I have a good friend who just recently went through a nasty cold with her little girl, also 6 weeks old and was on nebs as well.

Should I be concerned that it could be asthma? While an inital diagnosis of asthma takes more then just one episode of needing a neb, if she does seem to hae issues breathing while laughing, coughing and eventually when she starts moving around more, it could be, but at her age I would lean more towards a nasty cold that never fully cleared up. I would just watch her when she gets a cold from now on and journal what her breathing is like to give you somethig to do on, if asthma were to be mentioned again.

Hope she feels better soon

 

Our daughter was just over 2 when she had her first "episode" and needed a neb. She got a bad cold and pneumonia and was in the hospital 2 days and came home on a neb. It worked great. Although the Dr. would not say asthma at this point even though her breathing was not just that of a child with pneumonia. She had another attack 3 months later (a cold or severe weather changes brings this on) at this point they did diagnose asthma and called in medications and we keep them at home with the neb. As soon as we see signs we give her a treatment and it works very well. The good news.... The Dr. said that many times when children are diagnosed with asthma at this young age they outgrow it by the time they turn 5! We are hoping that is true for her, having you child labor to breathe is not fun! Also, a note of caution... watch for any reaction to the medication they have her on. In the hospital they were giving our daughter albuterol and her heart rate went so high it was awful. I was afraid she would have a heart attack. We started to refuse the treatments since it seemed to make things worse. (the respiratory therapist agreed because of the high heart rate) They switched her to xopenex. We use that at home. Good luck!

 

My boys have had neb treatments as early as 3-4 months old. It does work fast and helps SO much. We have had to use it off and on until they were about 4yrs old .. but haven't had to use it since and they are 7 now. Luckily mine outgrew whatever problem's they were having .. although they both have terrible allergies .. it no longer seems to affect their breathing/lungs.

Good luck .. i hope she feels better soon.

 

We have used the nebulizer several times (two to three times a year). My girls have issues with colds, always have, they just can't seem to get rid of them, and fairly quickly will develop into severe congestion. The nebulizer works wonders for us. I try not to use it unless they get bad, but we will do about three to four treatments a day when it's needed for three to four days, and there is always a huge improvement. We started around 2 as well. We have not been diagnosed with asthma, but I also have not taken them to a specialist. My son and my mom have severe allergies, and i assume this is the bulk of their issues.

 

My ds has used a nebulizer everytime he has had a cold since he got RSV at four months old. He just isn't able to fight off colds and respiratory illnesses without the help of nebulizer treatments. It has gotten better as he has gotten older, but more often than not we have to do treatments for a week or so (along with steroids, which I hate) to help him get rid of the cough and congestion and wheezing whenever he gets the slightest cold. He has been diagnosed with asthma, but he has never had an episode not associated with an illness. He was recently put on daily zyrtec during allergy seasons and it is helping a lot!