Allergist wants to pump her full of drugs!

672 Views 6 Replies 7 Participants Last post by jenoline, Jun 13, 2005

darwinphish

Discussion Starter · Jun 2, 2005

I took my 5-month old to the allergist yesterday. She has had congestion in her lungs/sinuses since birth and is now choking/coughing all the time from mucus.

It was terrible. She screamed through the skin-test and it all came up negative (which, I now know, is no suprise since she's not even a year old!). This doc is now having her do a barium swallow (HOW do you get a 5-month old to swallow barium, I wonder?) and rule out GERD and structural abnormalities. How scary.

I'm all for the barium swallow, but I have SO much trepidation about the meds he prescribed:

Pulmicort, morning and night. It's a nebulized corticosteriod and the rx says for use in children 6 and older.

Duoneb, every 6 hours. Ipratropium and albuterol. We've already tried albuterol with no results.

My instinct is telling me to NOT use these medications. I have such a bad feeling about doing this at her age. Her oxygenation levels are fine, so I wonder what the risk of not treating it is...

By the way, this allergist *really* got on my case for not vaxing her yet. Even though her ped and I agreed we were NOT going to vax her while she was having respiratory problems. I'm not sure I want to vax at all... but that's another post entirely!

I'd been taking her to a pediatric chiro and the congestion had totally cleared... two weeks of no treatments and it's back! But with the chiro costing $100/visit I REALLY can't afford to take her there weekly. I've already spent over $1000 I don't have taking her there. Heck, I can't afford to take her there monthly right now.

What do you think I should do?

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AdoptChina

· #2 · Jun 4, 2005

my first thing to suggest would be for you to go on an elimination diet (if you are BFing her) and see if any of the mucus/congestion goes away. The allergy testing isnt all that accurate at 5 months, so this would be one way to see if she is reacting to things you are eating

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rainbowmoon

· #3 · Jun 4, 2005

can you find a holistic pedi. in your area? (one that specializes in allergies)

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Trishy

· #4 · Jun 4, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by rainbowmoon
can you find a holistic pedi. in your area? (one that specializes in allergies)

I would also try to find a holisitc ped or just a holistic doc in general. Have you tried any homeopathics?

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moneca

· #5 · Jun 10, 2005

If the chiro made her so much better and kept her drug free I would try to find another peds chiro who is less expensive. My dd's peds chiro only charges $25.00 per adjustment and we're temporarily living right above Manhattan. I would suggest searching
http://www.icpa4kids.com/
for another peds chiro. The elimination diet sounds like a good idea too. Good luck and go with your instincts as a mama. Don't let that doc talk you into anything that you're not comfortable with.

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Chanley

· #6 · Jun 10, 2005

That sounds like dairy to me.

I agree about the elimination diet as well.

Are you formula feeding? If so, I would definitely look into a different formula. If you are breastfeeding exclusively, I would nix the dairy from your diet.

Diet before Drugs.

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jenoline

· #7 · Jun 13, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by darwinphish
Pulmicort, morning and night. It's a nebulized corticosteriod and the rx says for use in children 6 and older.

My DD (4yo) uses pulmicort inhaler for allergy-induced asthma. One thing I would be concerned with in an infant is thrush. One of the siide effects is oral thrush - my DD has to rinse/spit thoroughly after taking her med.

I'm not sure what else to tell you, but I wanted to be sure you had that piece of info. If your baby is breastfeeding, thrush is a prety big concern.

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