I don't have sick children. I have strong, healthy, never sick kids. I pride myself on this fact. Don't know if it has to do with breastfeeding them as long as I could, strong genes or just a healthy environment. Whatever it has been it has worked...until recently.
For close family and friends, I am not talking about the stomach virus that the Carroll Family seemed to pass around to the greater Sacramento area - I swear, it was like the movie Outbreak and we were Monkey #A. No, I'm talking about the cold that Little Man cannot shake. Pictured at your left, he's a happy, healthy little crazy kid. (Seriously, I am on my feet chasing after him ten times more than I ever chased his sister.) Not even a cold will keep him down, but for some reason, whatever he's got going on will just not go away.
It started about three weeks ago. (Well, actually, it started about a year ago, but more on that later.) He woke up in the middle of the night barking like a seal. It was croup. Have you ever heard a child with croup cough? It sounds awful. Here's a sample. He also was struggling a little bit with stridor. I call it Darth Vader breathing. Here's what that sounds like. Both are pretty scary if you haven't encountered them before. I knew that steaming up the bathroom, taking him out in to the cool air and turning the humidifier on would help, and also knew that his symptoms weren't severe enough to call for an ER visit, so we just managed it at home that night.
My biggest concern was that he might have RSV again. RSV was what put him in the hospital last February, and I sure didn't want to go down that route again. So..a doctor's visit that afternoon cleared up my concerns. it wasn't RSV, just a cold. Some steroidal cough syrup and Mommy time were all that was needed. His croup-y cough cleared up and the breathing improved. We were on our way to "better." Still coughing a bit here are there, but improving.
Fast forward to New Year's Eve. The croup cough and the stridor were back. Darnit! Twice in three weeks?! Again, we didn't freak out. We knew the drill. Humidifier, steam and cool mist - repeat. A call to the advice nurse even had me giving him a breathing treatment with the stuff we had leftover from RSV in February. But I still didn't like the fact that it was back so soon. While they weren't severe, any time you can really hear your child breathing is not fun. I haven't slept much lately because the monitor is turned all the way up and I lie awake just listening to him breathe (see - new mom stuff, right?)
Now to the doctor's appointment this morning. Ears are clear, lungs are clear (thank goodness) but the wheezing and the cough are ever apparent. She didn't like it (thank goodness, not just crazy, overly concerned Mom.) So we started talking about treatment options. Twice in three weeks signified a problem. Kids get colds - no big deal. (Well, up until now, I didn't think my kids did, but...I now know differently.) But kids who get colds and can't shake them, or kids who have them rear up again so shortly after, means that they're not battling them well enough. Something is making them linger. And in Andrew's case we think that thing may be asthma.
Ugh, asthma? My kids don't have asthma. I don't have it. Steve doesn't have it. There is no history of it in our family.
The doc and I talked about this. It's not an actual diagnosis. He's a little young for that. But it does answer some of these questions. While he doesn't have any of the other triggers for it (he was not premature, he's big and healthy, was breastfed, no one smokes, etc.) he did have that nasty bout of RSV. That could have been the thing that opened him up to this nasty stuff.
So, now we just put our action plan in place. I have a little mask for his breathing treatments. Because he's not super sick, we'll just do the inhaled steroid and rescue medication twice a day for now. It will help him quit wheezing (we did it on the office today and there was a huge improvement) and will help the cough go away. And then...when he comes down with a cold again (because I'm learning, that unlike his sister, he's going to be more susceptible to this stuff) we'll immediately start the breathing treatments so that we can head the nasty stuff off at the pass.
We'll also watch it. He's little, so we don't know what all his triggers may or may not be. Will he now have problems with allergies - triggering the asthma? Will he have problems in the warm, dry months? Will it just be around cold and flu season and snotty little kids are all over the place? Who knows?
You may feel as though I'm overreacting, but this is a big deal to me. As I have mentioned over and over again. I wasn't a sick child, I don't have sick children. But now, I just have one that has a few breathing problems when he gets a cold. Scary and intimidating, but this Momma's all over it. He's my Little Man and its my job to make sure that he grows up big and strong. So what if every now and then he wears a mask that's shaped like a fish? He's adorable no matter what and I'll make sure I'm doing everything I can to help him feel better.
So...do any of your kids suffer from this kind of stuff? How do you manage to keep them well and keep their symptoms managed? Will he grow out of it? Will it get worse? What should I expect? Am I really overreacting?
Thanks for the help (and for listening).
~Becky
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