Quarter of all children have asthma

Elfanie wrote:


Nope...
she never had any steroids or anything...then at the hospital they
gave her steroids and many breathing treatments. Since then she only
had albuterol treatments as needed (her asthma mostly kicks up if
she's getting sick or something irritates her airway).

she has "pretty bad" asthma not in the frequency...but in the
severity. What I mean is..she can go a month or two without an asthma
attack..once she STARTS, it lasts and lasts and lasts and we can
struggle with her breathing for days, even a week sometimes. She has
no inhaled steroids..just a rescue inhaler (that we only use if we
have to in order to get her home and get her nebulizer) and her
nebulizer.
her attacks aren't accute in that she doesn't all of a sudden stop
breathing...her attacks are such that she starts wheezing (but not an
emergency), then she's coughing and wheezing (hours later) and can
struggle with a wheezing cough for a long long time....

Is she monitoring her peak flows? I guess what I would be
concerned with is that albuterol does nothing for the underlying
inflammation, nor does it prevent the airways restructuring that
can occur over time as a result of that chronic inflammation.
If she were mine, I'd want her peak flows monitored regularly
in order to be able to treat *before* an attack, and if she
were in her "yellow" or "red" zone on a weekly basis or more,
I'd feel that the albuterol alone wasn't enough to really
preserve her lung function for the long haul.
Some doctors don't think to do this sort of monitoring
in a 5yo, but when my son was five he was perfectly capable
of doing this, and it provided a lot of actionable information.
Ideally, this would allow you to head off those attacks before
they happened so you didn't have to deal with the long term
coughing. If you're dealing with this every few months, then
her asthma is *not* well controlled and I would be very concerned
for the day that there *is* a serious attack with little warning.
There are lots of possibilities out there for
maintenance. Inhaled steroids are one possibility, but
cromolyn sodium (e.g., Intal) works for some (and is one
of the least toxic drugs out there for asthma). Leukotrine
inhibitors like Singulair can also be helpful for some.
But if those don't do the trick, inhaled steroids can be
very effective (and have much fewer side effects than
systemic steroids).

Best wishes,
Ericka

"Sarah Vaughan" wrote in message
...


Actually, come to think of it - even if it could be proved that vaccines
did cause asthma, I'd consider it a fair trade-off. I have asthma and
hay fever, and I can tell you that I'd far rather have those problems
than suffer from diptheria, or whooping cough, or polio, or see my
beautiful son damaged by in utero rubella.

Not sure about your health choices considering Diptheria died out with
poverty http://www.whale.to/a/diptheria1.html

In ,
Sarah Vaughan wrote:

*What you're not taking into account is that, over that time, doctors
*have become much more vigilant about diagnosing asthma. A lot of
*children with chronic cough who would have been dismissed by doctors -
*or not taken to see them in the first place - if they'd been born back
*in the '70s are now being diagnosed with asthma, because doctors are
*much more aware of mild symptoms. There's therefore doubt over whether

Although, when I talk to pediatricians, I hear them telling me stuff like
"I don't put 'asthma' as a diagnosis, too many problems with insurance
companies or even career choices [they can never be pilots or
something?]." Apparently they put "reactive airway disease" instead of
asthma in the bulk of cases! Obviously this does not hold true for ALL
pediatricians or ALL asthma cases. But still.

--
Hillary Israeli, VMD
Lafayette Hill/PA/USA/Earth
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is
too dark to read." --Groucho Marx

In article ,
says...

Not sure about your health choices considering Diptheria died out with
poverty http://www.whale.to/a/diptheria1.html

I'm sure poor, inner-city people struggling to make ends meet, and
starving people in developing countries will be thrilled at your
statement that they don't exist.

Michelle
Flutist
--
Drift on a river, That flows through my arms
Drift as I'm singing to you
I see you smiling, So peaceful and calm
And holding you, I'm smiling, too
Here in my arms, Safe from all harm
Holding you, I'm smiling, too
-- For Xander [9/22/98 - 2/23/99]

"Michelle J. Haines" wrote in message
. ..
In article ,
says...

Not sure about your health choices considering Diptheria died out with
poverty http://www.whale.to/a/diptheria1.html

I'm sure poor, inner-city people struggling to make ends meet, and
starving people in developing countries will be thrilled at your
statement that they don't exist.

they still have poverty you moron!

In article ,
says...

"Michelle J. Haines" wrote in message
. ..
In article ,
says...

Not sure about your health choices considering Diptheria died out with
poverty http://www.whale.to/a/diptheria1.html

I'm sure poor, inner-city people struggling to make ends meet, and
starving people in developing countries will be thrilled at your
statement that they don't exist.

they still have poverty you moron!

Then per your own statement, diphtheria still exists, since poverty
hasn't died out. Thank you.

Michelle
Flutist

--
Drift on a river, That flows through my arms
Drift as I'm singing to you
I see you smiling, So peaceful and calm
And holding you, I'm smiling, too
Here in my arms, Safe from all harm
Holding you, I'm smiling, too
-- For Xander [9/22/98 - 2/23/99]

"Michelle J. Haines" wrote in message
. ..


Then per your own statement, diphtheria still exists, since poverty
hasn't died out. Thank you.


Cracking shot. Two points to you. Diptheria has died out where poverty has
died out.