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viral induced asthma maintenance meds for toddler

post #1 of 5
Thread Starter 
My 2 yo DS basically has viral induced asthma. His dr is still calling in RAD because he hasn't yet fit the "book definition" (whatever) of asthma yet, having only 3 exacerbations since the end of June; all requiring neb treatments; two requiring oral steroids; one requiring an overnight stay in the hospital.
I am working on a treatment plan with his doc that includes rescue medication (albuterol neb and prednisolone, which we already have at home) and she suggested perhaps putting him on maintenance med such as Singular or Pulmicort just for the winter. Much of the research I have done seems to suggest that maintenance medication helps for chronic asthmatics but doesn't seem to be as helpful for children with intermittent asthma.
So here is my question: has anyone found either of these meds helpful for their LOs that have an intermittent pattern of viral induced asthma? I am on the fence, but if these meds could help I'm all for it since I am an hour away from medical care and I don't want ds to have many scary trips to the ER or having to nebulize and give oral steroids all winter long.
post #2 of 5
Thread Starter 
post #3 of 5
My son was on Singulair for his asthma. It did help, he didn't come down with as many colds or other illnesses. I finally decided I didn't want him taking it for the rest of his life and took him to a chiro. We worked with her to wean him off the meds while he got weekly adjustments, we eliminated dairy and he now takes clo and probiotics as well. He's doing great and hasn't even been sick. I do wish I'd tried a chiro before jumping onto the strong meds.
post #4 of 5
Hugs to you mama. It is really hard to have such a small one with serious asthma symptoms because they can't talk to you yet to tell you what's wrong. My DS was diagnosed with viral-induced asthma at 1.5 years. That winter he had pneumonia 3 or 4 times and ended up in the hospital for four days while we were on vacation.

We did pulmicort in a nebulizer after that and it helped alot. I really would recommend a preventive not just rescue medicine. So we did that for 2 or 3 years. Even at age 3 it was easier than trying to get him to take the inhaler correctly or use the spacer. Now that he's 5 he's great with his inhalers. We do flovent as maintenance therapy during October-April.. so far so good. He has not had serious asthma since that first winter.

ETA: When I have experimented with stopping the Flovent, he always starts up with the asthma cough tho. That's why we've continued using it during the winter months. I haven't investigated alternative therapies much yet tho.

Good luck!
post #5 of 5
My youngest is the same as your son, we are also contemplating trying singular. We have other reasons though, she has a cleft palate that needs surgury in Jan. and has has couple other surguries on the books for this fall/winter all with General anethetics. We have to keep her as healthy as we can so they can do these in the timeline they are looking at.
If it is severe attacks (ie turning blue ect) that he has and you are an hour away from any hospital I would certainly give it a try. But as the PP said it can help reduce the number of colds, and depending on if your son has other complications (like ear infections) then it may be even more worth a try.
We also do chiro, probiotics, CLO and AS but she has a physical annomalie that makes her very suseptable to viral infection.
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