What to do? My unvaxed dd has asthma now

[jillybeans]

My 2yo dd just diagnosed with asthma. She had pneumonia twice in a month, was hospitalized the first time. None of my kids are vaxed, and my preschooler will be going back to school in a couple of weeks. We are also taking in a foster child any day now as well.

I'm really scared about what will happen if she were to get a serious illness. Before this happened I had my ducks in a row so to speak of how I'd deal with each disease. But I had healthy kids then! These last bouts of pneumonia came from MINOR colds! Just a cold! And this last one brought a fever of 103+ in a matter of about an hour. THAT was scary. Add to that the breathing issues and the constant wheezing and now I'm really scared.

Does anyone have advice? I don't know if I should consider vaxing for certain things (such as pertussis because of the respiratory indications) or just cross my fingers and add a bunch of immune boosters. I stay home with my kids and the younger ones aren't really around a large group often (just a moms group twice a month) but are around their sister, who attends preschool.

HELP! Blue lips and wheezing are really freaking me out.

[heathergirl67]

I can't imagine how scary that must be!! What does her doctor recommend?

[CrazyCatLady]

I have bad asthma. I was barely vaxed as a child and my dd is unvaxed. Every year from age 4-12 I got one bad flu or case of pneumonia. You could almost set your watch to it. I was often pretty sick (very high fevers, lethargic, severe coughing), sometimes needed a trip to the ER for hydration (was too weak to sit up and drink). But after a week or two I was always back to normal and it stopped when I hit my teen years.

I had pertussis once when I was 16. I was really sick, it sucked, but I never did need a hospital trip. Now that I'm a parent my dd has caught all kinds of things and I rarely catch anything from her. I teach exercise classes and go-go dance for extra money. Sometimes that will earn me a puff or two from my inhaler...but that's to be expected!

My parents also smoked around me my whole life and I smoked for many years myself. I may have been even healthier with out all that smoke around me constantly. I honestly think that having an immune system free of vaxes (especially flu shots) helped me to stay as healthy as possible despite my asthma.

I just wanted to share my experience to let you know that asthma of course is worrisome and requires some extra health attention...but does not automatically equal a death sentence or needing to run out and vaccinate.

Take your time making a decision, don't panic, and I hope you cvan figure out something that you're comfortable with.

[zebra15]

I would educate yourself on asthma. Asthma is a breathing issue. My son has asthma and while its controlled with a daily med and a rescue inhaler he still has times of the year where he has what seems like continual bronchitis and pneunomia. We do spend time then at the dr's or Er. Dr was vaxed up til about age 4 then we stopped.

What you need to do is figure out what triggers the asthma. Is it exercise induced, allergen induced, is there mold around?? There are lots of different variables to asthma.

Treatment can be tricky to figure out as well, daily meds, breathing treatments, different inhalers.

My son initally went to a ped. pulmonologist and now is just seen by a reg MD. The ped. pulm. was very helpful.

[karika]

read up about dairy. milk from a species other than human is not meant to be ingested by us. IMO (and I am not a professional) eczema, asthma and many other maladies can be traced to the foods we ingest. Go GFCFSF (and organic (NO GMO, HFCS, food colorings, msg, etc...., mostly vegan) and in 6 months it will probably be totally gone... most people report that as a side effect of going vegan, all the allergies disappear.... gluten, dairy and soy are not good for humans IMO. Food is what makes our health what it is, because, you are what you eat.... http://www.naturalnews.com/012330_he...ck_system.html

[xmasbaby7]

The latest research shows that asthma is caused by the absence of certain beneficial bacterial strains, so risks of getting asthma get higher and higher with each round on antibiotics a child takes.

It sounds like your kids might not have the most robust gut flora. Probiotics every day, less sugar, less dairy will help. Flax oils. Is your child exposed to smoke?

I liked the book Super Immunity.

Good luck with this.

Focusing on overall wellness from any more difficult viruses or bacterial infections is much more important that focusing on the few illnesses vaccines might help with.

[mkmoro311]

Just get your childs immune system up to snuff! Probiotics & vit D daily! Keep your household clean. Get chiro adjustments, research homeopathic treatments for vaccinated diseases!

[Sileree]

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/310/6975/299

Although many asthmatic patients got whooping cough, it did not seem to exacerbate asthma. Indeed, during and after whooping cough asthma was less troublesome and often remained so for many months.

While I'm not going to counsel you to get your kid vaccinated or not, I hope that eases your worry for that disease at least.

[CrazyCatLady]

Just wanted to echo what these other wise moms have said. Getting rid of dairy, taking my probiotics, and going to the chiro when I start to feel sickly have all made HUGE improvements in my overall health and especially with my asthma.

[WestCoastDiva]

My son had severe RSV when he was a baby and it developed into asthma. He's not vax'd nor are his older sister and brother. I second what PP's have said, boost his immune system, probiotics and know what his triggers are. For mine it was dust and really windy days (aka super dusty days). I up his vitamin D in the winter and homeopathics at the first sign of a sniffle make a HUGE difference.

HTH.

[becca_howell]

Hi, I have asthma and my unvax'd DS was diagnosed with asthma after a rough cold/flu season (we all had H1N1 and DD and DS had RSV). When we went to the pediatric pulminologist, he had a fit. He went through all of the vaccines and told me that I needed to get him at least the DTaP, Prevnar, and flu shot, including the H1N1 shot (this was after we had already had H1N1 and the season was almost over). When I told him we weren't going to vaccinate, he said to keep him on probiotics, avoid stuffed animals and carpet (yeah, we live in an apartment... everything except the bathrooms and kitchen are carpeted), and to keep him on pulmicort during the winter months and if he gets sick during the warm months. He also said to avoid crowds at the slightest sniffle during the winter months. We took some of his advice, still didn't vax, give probiotics occasionally (I forget), and avoid crowds when he's sick.

[dakotablue]

I had severe asthma as a kid. I know I had many ER visits and at least 4 hospital stays. Every year without fail if I got sick it would settle into my chest. I always went to doc as soon as I got sick and got steroids which We believe kept it from getting worse.

So HUGE thing that has CHANGED my life. I stopped eating processed foods and more importantly all gluten. I was tested for gluten allergy and celiac, both came back negative, but there was no denying that I went from 3 heavy meds and still having attacks 1-2 times a week to no meds and attacks 2-3 times a YEAR. It may be mold in wheat that I'm allergic to. either way I am doing SO much better. After I started this diet I got a cold and for the first time ever it went away without needed steroids/ missing school (work) in my life.

It may not help your daughter, but I really really advocate trying, it changed everything for me. I can now exercise and walk past smokers!

Best of luck :HUG

[JessicaS]

Moving to H&H since this seems to be more about Asthma than Vaccinations

[JessicaS]

I have asthma, I would see a ped. pulmonologist. Asthma can cause lung scarring which can be extremely dangerous. It is really better that you know everything you can in order to deal with the illness in the most effective manner.

If she is having blue lips, that is a sign that her blood oxygen levels are low.

It is true that some dairy issues can affect allergies and asthma, if you want you might schedule an appointment with an allergist. I wouldn't just start treating an undiagnosed allergen without knowing for certain that was the cause. It could be something much different triggering these reactions.

I do think it would be good to see the pulmonologist first and they can help guide you through the process of finding the causes, triggers and what might help.

[Delicateflower]

When I was gluten dairy and soy free for my nursling for over six months I still had asthma.

[JessicaS]

Originally Posted by Delicateflower

When I was gluten dairy and soy free for my nursling for over six months I still had asthma.

Some asthma is related to food allergies. Both can mess you up pretty badly if you have issues with them, it is surprising how damaging an undiagnosed allergen can be. I am allergic to dairy and going dairy free didn't affect my asthma either but it isn't completely outside the realm of possibility


I wouldn't bother with any sort of elimination diet as an asthma cure without knowing for certain there were issues with those foods which involve testing. I don't think it would be safe to cease asthma meds in favor of an elimination diet.

There can be lung scarring for which there is no cure IMO it would be good to know what is going on.

[stik]

Blue lips and wheezing are pretty freaky.

I initially used a delayed vax schedule with my younger dd, but when she caught pneumonia three times in two months and was diagnosed with asthma I caught her up on all her vaxes for respiratory illnesses. 98% of the time, she's a happy healthy kid, but when she gets sick, she gets really sick.

Too many food restrictions can make it hard for a kid to eat, and that's not really helpful to the immune system.

I can't make your decision for you, but I can tell you that a traditional allopathic medical approach to my dd's asthma has kept it very well-controlled since she was diagnosed.

[JessicaS]

I do have my children vaxed for respiratory issues as well. My nephew has a serious chronic lung condition.





What are they currently doing for your dd's asthma? Are they giving her anything?

[Marnica]

Originally Posted by stik

Blue lips and wheezing are pretty freaky.

I initially used a delayed vax schedule with my younger dd, but when she caught pneumonia three times in two months and was diagnosed with asthma I caught her up on all her vaxes for respiratory illnesses. 98% of the time, she's a happy healthy kid, but when she gets sick, she gets really sick.

Too many food restrictions can make it hard for a kid to eat, and that's not really helpful to the immune system.

I can't make your decision for you, but I can tell you that a traditional allopathic medical approach to my dd's asthma has kept it very well-controlled since she was diagnosed.

True however eating foods that a child is sensitive too in the first place is not good for the immune system either. A child who s on a very resticted diet, but eats foods that work WITh his/her body not against it will still have a healthier immune system than one who is eating wider range of foods that they may be sensitive too.

[stik]

True. If a child has an allergy or a serious reaction to a food, eating it will not help their immune system.

From time to time, the recommendation I see on MDC for children with asthma is simply that they should stop eating just about everything. One poster earlier on this thread, for example, recommends that the OP's child cut gluten, soy, dairy, and most animal products. And at that point, there simply are not many options left. Lots of fruits and veggies, but very few proteins or fats. The research on the connections between diet and asthma is not strong enough to support the adoption of such a severely restricted diet, and, as another poster points out, there is no guarantee that doing so will ameliorate the symptoms of asthma.

I'm all for using food to improve your health, but I wish the idea wasn't so often taken to extremes. It seems like 80% of the time a mom says her dc is sick, a dozen people show up to suggest that she should work to make the kid both sick and starving.