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Respiratory Disorders  (Expert Forum)
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coughing and wheezing in kids
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MedHelp Member's Question

coughing and wheezing in kids

by pauli1, Apr 24, 2005 12:00AM
My son is 6and 1/2 months old. A few months ago we all developed a cold in the family. Steven my baby got better with the cold but he started wheezing and coughing. We had taken him to er for several times and he was diagonized with bronchities. He was given nabulizer and his doctor also instructed us to use the nebulizer machine at home. We did that for about a month and half but the wheezing goes off and on. Last week steven was seen again by the doctor and he said we be back in 3 months. Well steven keep on wheezing and a little coughing. Asthma was ruled out after having  two x-rays. The doctor does not really know what is wrong and he even suggested that steven had whooping cough. We are confused what do we do now. Steven seem to be happy and not have any pains.

Please advice.
Doctor's Answer

by National Jewish, Apr 28, 2005 12:00AM
From the information you have presented, asthma is still the most likely diagnosis.  You do not make a diagnosis of asthma or confirm one with an x-ray.  It is also possible that your child is still having the effects of a viral infection. This can last for a few months and looks like asthma.  If the wheezing and coughing are persisting there are medications to treat this and the best bet is to discuss this with your physician or see a Pediatric Pulmonologist.

Please read the information on the National Jewish Medical and Research Center’s web site at http://asthma.nationaljewish.org/ for more information about asthma.

Member Comments (5)

by yusimiv, Apr 24, 2005 12:00AM
Hi my baby hads wheezing and coughing and the dr. give her a nebulizer as well but what she has is bronchomalacia.but she is doing well my comment to you is talk to your dr about bronchomalacia that what my be that he has.

by Oxygen7, Apr 24, 2005 12:00AM
To: Pauli1
since your baby is 6 1/2 months old, he is too young to rule out asthma or say he has astma...usually they don't label a kid with asthma until their a toddler because they can't be sure until then.  I would not say he doesn't have asthma from what you talked about, but at the same time I wouldn't say he does have it.  Sometimes after a baby has a cold, they will continue to cough for weeks afterwards.  I would keep doing the nebulizer if he is weezing and maybe ask your dr. for a corticosteroid like flovent or pulmicort respules, they help with imflamation in the airways wich can cause wheezing.  Sometimes that's all you need. I hope this helps

by bactitech, Apr 25, 2005 12:00AM
Two questions: has he been tested for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) or had a culture and/or DFA (direct fluorescent antibody) test for Pertussis?



We run these all the time on children your son's age in our microbiology laboratory. Are you in the Columbus, OH area? There has recently been an outbreak of Pertussis (whooping cough) there. I'm in NW Ohio, and we've seen an increase in requests for pertussis cultures.



Not all labs can perform these cultures, as they require special media for growth, and they usually need to be collected in special transport systems, which your doctor can request from his laboratory. Most larger labs do testing on nasal washes for RSV. It's a rapid test now - takes about ten minutes once we have the specimen. We do them for kids on the floors and in the ER all the time.



Whooping cough produces paroxysmal coughing and the child can hardly catch his breath. When I was in college I saw a movie in our pathogenic micro class of a child a bit older than your son with this terrible illness. Believe me, he was NOT happy. The poor baby just coughed and coughed and could hardly breath. He was blowing mucus out his nose and mouth. Many times the children vomit up all their food and can't gain any weight, which is when they become dehydrated and end up hospitalized. It's very dangerous for young children, which is why we have vaccines for this. Not sure where your son is in his DPT sequence. If you'd ever see a movie of a child with this, believe me, you wouldn't even think about not having your child vaccinated.



This would be testing I'd ask your pediatrician about, as RSV is much more common than pertussis.



Good luck.

by littlevicko, Apr 30, 2005 12:00AM
To: pauli1
hi,my 9 year old daughter has had chronic coughing since december with excessive amount of mucuc/phlegm,doctos treated her for cold,sinus infection,asthma,never got better,got dehydrated in december spent 1 night at local hospital,they kept pumping steroids and antibiotics in her,nothing worked,got so bad she started coughing up blood and having blood in her stool,finally had enough of these doctors sending us away with no answer i took her to lebonheur childrens hospital in memphis,3 hrs away and they admitted her right away,there she spent 2 weeks-they done cat scans,xrays tested her for whooping cough,pertussis,tb,cyctic fibroise,lupas,scoped her lungs,done a upper and lower gi-she has gerd(acid reflux)sinus disease,and candidal esophogitis(infection and fungus on esophagus)she may have to have some sinus sergery,oh also found out her adenoids have grown back(she had toncils and adenoigd removed last july)so you would be suprised what can make a cough and wheez and mucus,that was her systoms just got so bad for so long the blood most likely came from infected and irrited esophugus,and she was being treated by local drs for the wrong things and the steroids had a part in her illness and made her esophgus bad-she dont even have astha,makes me so upset because the steroids made her puffy and gain 22 pounds in 6 mnths,but she is doing better,not 100 percent but were working on it,they did homebound her the rest of the year due to her immune system done got so low due to illness and lord she doesnt need to catch anything else right now.hope you find your answers,littlevicko
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