How do I know if albuterol nebulizer is working in 15-month-old?

[sunwise]

Hi all,

My DS recently saw his pediatrician for a routine WBV. At that visit, she listened to his chest and noted that he was wheezing. (He has been recovering from a cold he caught before Thanksgiving.) She asked us to start giving him albuterol treatments with his nebulizer twice a day, until his cough is gone. (For the record, we own a nebulizer because he got pneumonia in April.) We did start giving him treatments after our appointment, but only once per day, not twice.

I don't have a lot of experience with wheezing and what it can mean, but I don't want my son to having breathing difficulties. He has (as far as I can tell) not been particularly affected by the cough/wheeze - he has not been acting or sleeping differently, and his blood oxygen sats were 100% when they were taken over Thanksgiving. (We were at an urgent care for an ear infection that was caused by this same cold!) The cough is only occassional and he doesn't wake up from it at night - for instance, last night I heard him cough about three times all night long.

So I have been doing some research on the use of the nebulizer because I don't think I fully understand exactly what it is supposed to do for him. From what I have read, I am definitely going to continue the treatments and try my best to start doing them twice per day. But what I don't understand is what effect I should see from the treatments - they do not seem to affect his cough at all (it is just as frequent with or without) and it doesn't seem to make him sleep better. Is it possible that albuterol is not working for him? Or is he too young for me to be able to know whether it is working? Should I be able to notice a discernable affect from the meds?

Thanks for your help and advice!

[heatherdeg]

You SHOULD notice a difference.  In fact, you should notice it relatively quick.  It could be that the problem is just not something that Albuterol will address.

Maybe someone with different experience or more extensive experience with it will pop on.  We only did the nebulizer stuff minimally and opted out when they diagnosed our son with Reactive Airway Disorder at around 2yo (he had a collapsed lung at birth, pneumonia from the PCV-7 shot at 4mo, and chronic croupe until easily 5-6yo... he'll be 8yo in January).  But without fail, the nebulizer treatments showed an immediate response.

I realize that when you're on it in "maintenance mode" that may not be the case--but yours has a wheeze.

I would get a second opinion from a pulminologist.  I'm sure the ped has the best intentions, but Albuterol treatments might be overkill if he was already recovering from a cold with this wheeze.  :(  Can you get in to see one?  They're generally pro-meds anyway; but they might be more attuned to the nuances of your child's condition.