Albuterol???

[Mawood]

Does anyone know more about this drug given to an infant? I looked it up online and it seems like a rather strong medication with side effects. My daughter is not really sick but has a wheezing sound while taking deep breaths in for a week now. I saw the ped yesterday and he prescribed albuterol. He said it was odd that she had the wheezing breathing in as it would usually be breathing out. Also she doesn't seem sick, bothered by it. She eats, sleeps, plays just like always. I think I want to wait on that syrup as it only deals with the symptoms and does not help the "desease". It does sound like bronchies to me which the ped agreed on. He said her lungs sound fine and she is passing air fine as well. I was wondering if it could be our cat even though our daughter is 10 months mow and never seemed bothered by the cat hair. However I would connect the onset of her wheezing with the start of the heating period. It has been really cold for the past week. Maybe the dry hair plus the dust and maybe cat hair that gets passed in the air more while heating??? I don't know. Did anyone experience changes in breathing or so during heating periods? We have a gas heater in the living room and an electrical heater as well as a humidifier in our bedroom.

Thanks for any thought!!!

[chattyprincess]

My dh is a severe asthmatic and our 1st dd 4.5 has reactive airway (asthama only when sick). We use albuteral quite often in our household so to us it doesn't seem as scary as it might to someone not used to it. But our  choices were use albuteral or get pneumnia so yeah...lol. We do not do the liqued we do the inhaled through a nebulizer though.

If you are truly worried then I would call your ped and present your ? to him. I do NOT mess with lung problems nor do I think anyone on this forum can give you advice to give your child the prescribed meds or not. This isn't like should my child get motrin for teething or not. Asthma and breathing problems can become VERY serious faster then you can imagine...

If you ped still has no answeres I would ask for a referal to a pediatic pulmotologist. Peds are only taught a small glimpse of dealing with asthma and asthma symptoms and sometimes a specialist is needed. We love ours and he has given us a very detailed "action plan" for when dd gets sick which really helps us do what she needs to have done to assure that she stays healthy.

[Mawood]

Thanks for your thoughts. I guess we felt reluctant to give it to her as the side effects sound much worse than what she is having now and the ped didn't seem very concerned at all. He said she would pass air normally and didn't even mention asthma as the potential sickness. He gave the prescription to give as needed. Of course we do take our daughters health absolutely serious and do not rely on internet advice on it!!! 

[yippiehippie]

DS has been on albuterol w/an inhaler for over a week now and hasn't seemed to have any side effects. I'd been sick, coughing for 5wks before I agreed to take antibiotics and it went away. He seems to have the same thing and this is what they prescribed. His cough does seem better. The side effects listed include jittery/tremors and restlessness, but he hasn't been effected. I think it's pretty common for infants to get this as opposed to other antibiotics, but I'm definitely no expert (I just say that bc my infant niece was prescribed the same by a different doc).

[beccabus]

I totally hear you on the hesitation to use albuterol.  My second got RSV at 5 weeks and ended up hospitalized because of low oxygen levels.  We had to use albuterol and I hated it every time we used it.  It definitely made his heart rate increase and made him jittery.  That said..  if it's needed, it's worth it.  It helped our child to breath when he couldn't.  AND this morning he woke up wheezing and was having a hard time breathing from some sort of viral thing.  We used the albuterol and quite quickly he was able to breath easily again...so I can't say don't use it, but I use it very sparingly.  Today was the first time we used it since he was 5 weeks!