Preventing asthma

One son MAY have asthma. when he gets a cold it gets pretty bad and the doctors have prescribed a steroid and a ventolin to treat it. Im looking at ways to prevent it.

Especially non medicated ways. The thought of giving him steroids on a frequent basis makes me really really upset.

Any thoughts?

 

That is how my oldest DD is, every time she gets a cough it goes right to her chest. She does not get a steroid every time only if her inhaler does not do the trick. We have an asthma treatment plan, first when she gets the chest cough we do the inhaler. If that doesn't work, than we add singulair and flovent to it, then if that does not work then we add the steroid to it, so the steroid really is a last resort and I think we've only had to use one 2 times in about 4 years.

Luckily she does not have any of the breathing problems associated with asthma. One thing we were told is to vacuum often and wash her sheets in HOT water every week.

I don't know if it can really be prevented, if they have asthma, they have asthma, but there are ways to help lessen the effects of it, talk to your ped. about it.

 

Jaydon has what doctors refer to as "seasonal asthma". He gets a cold then pneumonia. Other than trying to reduce allergens in the house (pulled up our carpet and put down wood laminate floors and bought an Ionic Breeze for their bedroom), all of our prevention is what you would consider medical. He gets flovent on a regular basis then steriods, albuterol, antibiotics, and mucus thinning meds when he actuall gets pneumonia.

 

Hi motheringtwins.....first of all let me tell you that I have asthma as well. In regards to my daughter Chaeli, she had pneumonia in November '06 and was hospitalized on March '07 for the same thing. I diagnosed my child in November but it wasn't until March that she was officially diagnosed with Asthma and currently is being followed up by an allergy specialist. Both times she was prescribed Pulmicort and Ventolin. Now we are down to Pulmicort once a day. Besides the medication what I did and still trying to do are the following to prevent a flare up of the asthma:
- We have wood floors and tiles.
- We clean the house once a week - dusting; we also hired a cleaning lady that comes once a month.
- We don't have any pets.
- We wash their beddings once a week in hot water.
- We use the air conditioner & keep a low humidity indoors.
- We try not to take her out when the pollen is high, on windy days or if it is hot outside.
Like you, I also have misgivings in giving my child steroids. However, I knew she needed it in order to get better. The specialist explained the side effects but I decided that the benefits is the only thing that matters at this time. Beside the medicine, the preventive measures that we took helped Chaeli in her recovery. Hope it will help your son as well, and hang in there. PM for other questions.