Miss Lindsey 11:33 AM 12-16-2010
My newest dcb is 6months old and has asthma...they give him nebulizer in morning with steroids, and another treatment in the evening with steroids. But he wheezes all day while he is here. I worry about it! I told mom he was wheezing loud enough to be heard across the room at times, but she said thats pretty normal for him. Anyone else have experience with babies with asthma?
Abigail 12:00 PM 12-16-2010
I was born with Asthma. It didn't affect me too much though as my sister was the one in the hospital with it. I would talk to the parents more and ask more questions and be open asking them if they will share anything with you that will help provide him with the best possible care. Tell them your concerns about his wheezing and let them know you just want to learn more about it. Lastly, ask if it's alright to call his dr. (you should already have his number anyways) to have the dr. explain things to you. This should make you feel much better!
DCMomOf3 12:45 PM 12-16-2010
I would think that he needs a treatment or two while in your care. When my son needs neb treatments he needs them every 3-4 hours. I'd tell his mom that he is wheezing and talk it out.
Good luck!
nannyde 12:51 PM 12-16-2010
Do you have documentation that he has a diagnosis of ashtma? That's really hard to get in the under five crowd.
If you didn't have a diagnosis from a MD I would just treat him as an acutely ill child and have the parents pick the child up if he is having breathing difficulties.
Daycare_Mama 01:09 PM 12-16-2010
My daughter was a preemie and has asthma (although Dr.'s won't technically give an asthma diagnosis until they are older).
If you can hear him across the room, he definitely needs at least one treatment while he's in your care or he needs a different medicine.
My daughter does a neb in the morning and evening too and usually that is enough, but if she is wheezing in between, we most definitely give her another treatment.
Tell the parents that you don't feel comfortable with his breathing, ask them if baby sees a pulmonologist (he should be if he's that young and needing 2+ nebs a day). It could be that he is not on the right controller medicine.
I would tell them you need a Dr.'s note telling you that he doesn't need a treatment during the day when he is wheezing for him to be in your care all day without a neb treatment. Otherwise, you will have to send him home when he is wheezing....(Tell them that because no Dr. is going to give them a note that says it's okay for him to wheeze during the day without treatment).
When my daughter was little, she was on albuterol nebs as needed. Then she started wheezing every night, so we did albuterol every night. Dr. said that was too much albuterol (it is more of a rescue breathing treatment) and she needed to be on a controller medicine. So we switched to pulmicort (a controller medicine) and she was on that once a day for a year. Just recently, she started wheezing more and now her pulmonoligist has bumped up her pulmicort to twice a day, which is doing the trick.
Sorry if that's confusing, but bottom line, either this baby needs a different medicine than what he's getting or he needs more treatments. You shouldn't be able to hear him all day long. With that said, you will probably hear him breathe a little louder than a normal kid (without asthma). When I'm close by my daughter and daycare boy, I can hear her compared to him. But you shouldn't be able to hear it from across the room.