my daughter is 8 years old in has asthma the past 3 weeks shes been to see our gp 4 times as a result shes off school at the moment,she struggling to do things,like swimming going to school playing out,
shes coughing all the time,and feels unwell,all her gp has said is try 3 different stronger inhailers a day,if no better in a week he will phone the hospital for advice!
does anyones kids have asthma?have you any advice?

Hi I have athsma. Does your daughter have hayfever at all?

no,just asthma,been well for about 6 months now unwell,coughing all time

I get that alot. Never quite to this extent though, I have slight hayfever which causes my asthma to get worse in the times when the seasons are changing so I thought perhaps that could be a factor.

Ive had asthma all my life.. my youngest daughter too has asthma.... the stronger inhailers advice etc is a start... but they could be a underlining cause... like dust allergies, pet hair etc.. many things can cause asthma.... if shes coughing all the time, and feels unwell its good advice to try other inhalers etc, does she use a volumatic?? helps to get more of the good stuff in:suspect: try not to panic if her asthma gets worse just get her to hospital and keep her calm... im not trying to worry you its just that if she does have a asthma attack getting all wound up can make things worse..
tell her to take it easy until she finds an inhaler that suits ...

dust makes me ill, my daughter hates cold damp air.... i love cold air, many different things can effect people in different ways with asthma...

Thats true, warm air gets me

I hate to ask this, but did you finally succeed with getting a kitten? Although I'm asthmatic and have 4 cats with no problems, there are many others who have huge problems with animals triggering their asthma.

Personally my triggers are really cold air (and too many icy cold drinks), aerosols, propellant gases (including in inhalers- so powder inhalers for me), solvents and smoke.

Plus the usual- asthma worse in hayfever season and winter and when I have a cold, assume that I'm going to get bronchitis and empty an Accuhaler in 2 days.

Hi Julie. Sorry to hear your Daughter seems to have delevoped asthma. My eldest has suffered for the past 18 years now. I am surprised that your DR has opted for different inhalers without examining her more thoroughly. Has he done any "peak flow" tests? Has he provided you with the device and diary in order for you to monitor her breathing capacity? Has he properly shown you and her how to use the inhalers and also provided a volumatic (a device to attach to the inhaler in order for the stuff to reach where it should)?
The thing is not to panic but if you are unsure you could ask your DR if he could refer you to an asthma clinic. There you would receive proper support from people that know what they are doing. Our DR's has an asthma clinic attached to the surgery. In the past my Daughter was under the clinic at the NGH which were brilliant. Her weight/height were taken on every visit. Her peak flow was monitored and several combinations of inhalers were tried until a "workable" combination was reached. Just last week she developed a chest infection which caused her asthma to worsen. This was treated with antibiotics and a short course of steroids and she is now well again.
Certainly the changing weather conditions do seem to affect most asthmatics, and many of them also suffer from excema and hay fever. Unfortunately there are more and more children showing signs of asthma but it goes hand in hand with the "plastic and polluted" world that we live in.
Good luck anyhow and I hope it is soon under control for your Daughter.........constant coughing is very miserable and wearing for them.

Does anyone else wish that GPs weren't so incompetent that people can hope to get better advice from strangers than from their doctor?

I have mild asthma. Briconile (probably not spelt correct, but it is phonetically...) has always worked for me whenever I have trouble breatheing.

My girlfriend as Asthma, I dont know too much about it except that you find difficulty in breathing and that many many things can trigger it off, but anyone who suffers from it as all my sympathies. I dont think people these days realise how much a serious condition Asthma actually is.


http://www.hubbertwehaveaproblem.co.uk

I spent quite a lot of my time as a medical rep promoting asthma inhalers, and was appalled at the general level of knowledge about asthma in GPs.

If you aren't getting a coherent plan from your GP (that's helping the symptoms, rather than just making everybody more confused) do ask for an asthma clinic referral. They do such a great job on the education front that it really is worthwhile going to see them, and learning more about the topic too.

BTW I would be quite happy to discuss at length about treatments etc, so feel free to PM me. I speak medical so I can translate research papers and jargon.

When I was 25 I was competing in running races all over europe. Whilst I was in Germany for a year I started to develop breathing difficulties and soon my fitness levels dropped.

About 2 years ago I was studying for my degree in electrical engineering but found it hard to concentrate and thought I must be still having problems.

The doctors checked me out for alsorts with blood tests galore. I was feeling pretty desperate at this and so after completeing an aromatherapy course i was looking through Holland and Barret.

They had a food alergy test so i did that which cost a bit but I found i was sensitive to potatoes.

soon after i was ok

Traffic fumes tend to make my asthma worse, and fur.

hi,i am taking my daughter back to see a different gp this evening she has gone to school today,i have sent a note to inform her teachers of her condition,
she does use a spacer for her inhailers,
she has been like this before we got our kitten,i no i cant rule her out completly,
im in the process of wiping walls and skirting boards for dust at the mo,lol,
ill let you no how she gets on later,thankyou for eveyones help so far,

My asthma has got worse recently, due to getting a dog, getting a cold/flu and my GP prescribing me the wrong inhalers!

I get fed up with going to visit my GP's and constantly getting different advice. They don't seem to really know anything about asthma, especially if they send you home saying if you don't feel better in a week to go back!
I believe asthma should be brought under control very quickly using strong medication and then slowly decreasing the medication to find a balance - not the other way around...

I'm on my third different type of inhaler now so we'll see how that goes - otherwise I'll just be asking for a referral to the asthma clinic as mentioned earlier.

Good luck! :thumbsup:

i too have asthma but mine is mild and is controlled by inhalers my mum is also a asthma sufferer hers is bad she has breathing difficulties and has heart problems beside that she has diabeties all these together cause her sometimes to have an attack and she'll be in hospital and i worry i dont know what advice to give you apart from keep giving your daughter her inhalers.:(

Originally posted by Briano
My asthma has got worse recently, due to getting a dog, getting a cold/flu and my GP prescribing me the wrong inhalers!

I get fed up with going to visit my GP's and constantly getting different advice. They don't seem to really know anything about asthma, especially if they send you home saying if you don't feel better in a week to go back!
I believe asthma should be brought under control very quickly using strong medication and then slowly decreasing the medication to find a balance - not the other way around...

I'm on my third different type of inhaler now so we'll see how that goes - otherwise I'll just be asking for a referral to the asthma clinic as mentioned earlier.

Good luck! :thumbsup:

Well said that SFer!

The British Thoracic Society guidelines for the treatment of asthma state very clearly that properly controlled asthmatics should not need to use their reliever inhaler (the blue one) except to open the airways prior to taking other inhaled medicine and very infrequently to treat bronchospasm. The 'treatment' that will actually prevent the asthma occurring in the first place are the 'preventer' inhalers (usually brown or orange, or yellow in children) which not only prevent the asthma attacks (fast phase), but also the chronic lung inflammation (slow phase) which is the part that causes the irreversible lung damage (very small patches that you don't need right now but add up over the years and can become significant).

I have had several friends with poorly controlled asthma and have repeatedly sent them back to their GPs to request changes in medication until they have better control. The level of accumulation in the body of inhaled steroids is really low even if you take a high dose so it's much better to treat it aggressively and then gradually reduce dose then to never get proper control by only ever using weedy doses.

The speed that even a well controlled asthma chest can go downhill is alarming and needs to be considered too. I got proper flu (not just a cold) and went from fine to coughing up blood in 2 days, and it took antibiotics, and oral steroids, and doubling my inhaled steroids, and adding salmeterol, and 3 months to be stable enough to be back to my old doses.

Moral- flu and pneumonia jabs!

hi, taken my daughter to see our gp,he did allsorts peak flow,
listerned to her chest,showed him her inhalers,
asked about an asthma clinic,he said they dont have one,where they cannot help asthma sufferers,they reffer to hospital,
anyway he said there are "crackles no her chest"and has prescribed penacillin,and said that should sort her out quickly,so i am hoping so
thanks everyone