Hello, sorry to hear the trouble you have been having. My son was getting terrible chest infections from about 4 months old. At 1 year he was admitted to hospital with an asthma attack. He is 13 now and still has them, he has been to hospital twice this year.
Ok, all this is scary, I know. But Docs don't like to actually *say* yur child has asthma, I don't know why but I could never get a straight answer, even though we had to go to a monthly asthma clinic!
Wheezing isn't a sign of asthma alone but all wheezing must be taken very seriously. Steroids sound scary but in fact it will only be a 5 day course, once a day. Asthma is not a minor problem, it can be very serious. Steroids aren't prescribed for the asthma they are prescribed to help the lungs what ever the reason behind the wheeze.
Once he is well, talk to your Dr about preventative and relieving inhalers. That way, as soon as he starts to get unwell you can use the inhalers to hopefully stave off the wheezing or at least lesson it. You can get *spacers* to help young children get the meds into them. See if your practice have an asthma clinic.
Unfortunatly it's very hard to diagnose asthma per se. Some children have a couple of *attacks* then no more, some, like my son have it bad as a young child, then nothing for a few years, then more moments of bad breathing.
Please don't take this as a scare tactic, but I recently watched my son spend 5 hours trying to get his breathing under control (3 nebs worth) and without the steroids I know we would have spent longer in hospital.
Like I said, the steroids aren't for asthma, they are for the lungs to help them get over the breathlessness/wheezing whatever the cause, so please let him have them
I hope your son recovers quickly and stops scaring his parents!!
!]
