Asthma/wheezing

[holly116]

I'm on the fence on whether or not I should take my 18 month old to the hospital.

He's had a wheezing, retracting cough all day but it's responding to his albuterol inhaler. But two-three hours later, he's right back at it. When I talked to the pedi at two this afternoon, he said that as long as the he's not needing it more frequently and that it seems to be working to just keep giving it as needed, even if it's every hour. And if he needs it more frequently, to head to the hospital. I dunno though. I feel like these things tend to get worse overnight so if I'm going to have to take him, I'd rather do it earlier rather than later, kwim. But what will the hospital do? I doesn't feel like an emergency emergency, why do these things happen on Sunday?!?

We already have an appointment for his 18 month well check in the morning.

Fwiw, I just gave him four puffs 20 minutes ago and he hasn't bounced back to normal quite the way he was earlier after treatment.

[karinothing]

I would probably just go to urgent care. Sounds like he may need some steroids to give him a boost

[holly116]

My dads on the way over to watch the older two and we're going to take him in.

[Deleted]

I have lifelong asthma and I call the doc if I am needing albuterol more often than every 3-4 hours. It's a clear sign the asthma is uncontrolled. You're making the right call, hope he is better soon.

[momof2boys]

Definitely making the right call by taking him in. My son has asthma too, but it only flares when he's sick. He is prone to pneumonia and has had it approximately 10 times over a two year span. He has had to go to the ER several times for it and was once hospitalized for four days.

[vtdiamond]

Another asthmas sufferer here. The hospital should be able to give him a nebulizer treatment which should help a bit more then just the inhalor. Steroids will probably also help. Any time I've gone to the ER with asthma issues they always see it as an emergency so don't worry, especially with a toddler they should hopefully see you right away.

[jeaniebueller]

Glad you are taking him in. Keep us posted.

[holly116]

Thanks guys. We're at the hospital and were seen pretty much right away. They did an oral steroid and consecutive nebulizer treatments about 20 minutes ago. We're waiting to see how he is after an hour, fingers crossed we're sent home.

Kid fought the breathing treatment ferociously. Good thing he's cute.

[holly116]

Well, we're being admitted. He went downhill again before the hour had past.

[Brie]

Mar 15, 2015 20:50:40 GMT -5 holly116 said:

Well, we're being admitted. He went downhill again before the hour had past.

Oh no. I'm glad you went in. Take care.

[sjh722]

Mar 15, 2015 20:50:40 GMT -5 holly116 said:

Well, we're being admitted. He went downhill again before the hour had past.

Oh man, I'm sorry. I'm glad you went in. Hope he is on the mend quickly. 

[holly116]

All settled in our room. DH went home to take care of the older kids.

It's asthma. They can't officially diagnose it till he's older and can cooperate with the test but he has no signs of bronchiolitis or any other infection and he's responding to the albuterol. They're treating every hour and will space it out when they can. Once we get to four hours twice, we can go home, hopefully by tomorrow night. He slept through his last treatment and is looking really good now that he's not thrashing around so fx we have an uneventful night.

I wasn't planning on being admitted so I'm sleeping in jeans and just washed my face with baby shampoo, but oh well. I'm just thankful to have the close monitoring while we figure out how to handle it all going forward.

Thanks so much for the good thoughts.

[barefootcontessa]

hugs holly. I hope you had an okay night.

[holly116]

Mar 16, 2015 10:58:10 GMT -5 barefootcontessa said:

hugs holly. I hope you had an okay night.

Thanks so much. We had a very good night, thankfully, and we're already home. He was overall a pretty joyful kid through it and if you're going to be in the hospital, just getting breathing treatments isn't all that bad at all.