Here's the history of what we're going through. At the beginning of September, my 4 year old son came down with a cold. We all thought it was just a run of the mill cold. Nothing to really worry about. My husband and I both work full time, and my mother watches the kids while we work. We kept him home from school that day, and went to work as planned. Long story short, while we were at work, he started having difficulty breathing. He was wheezing, and my mom said he was breathing from his stomach and his chest wouldn't move. She was very concerned that he might have pneumonia. She called my husband at work and let him know of her concerns, but he brushed it off as overprotective grandma stuff and reassured her that he was just sick and he would be fine. Unfortunately I do not have the ability to take phone calls at work unless it's an emergency, and although my mom was very concerned, she didn't think it was at that point so she never called me. When I was on my way home from work I called her and she told me what was going on. As soon as I walked in the door, I took one look at my son and knew I needed to get him to the hospital immediately. He couldn't complete a full sentence he was so out of breath, and his neck was pulling in with every breath he took. It was so scary. Long story short, he was admitted to the hospital that night and had breathing treatments all night long. The next day his breathing had improved, so they discharged him with an inhaler and a prescription for prednisone. We kept going with it for the next couple weeks after that, and his breathing gradually went back to normal.This was the very first time he had ever had any sort of difficulty breathing like that. The pediatrician told us that it looked like asthma, but because he had never had anything like that happen before that he didn't want to rush into a diagnosis. He said that if it ever happened again, then we would look into it further. He told us to keep the inhaler, and if he ever started to have similar symptoms to go back to using the inhaler again and to call him.Well now the boy has come down with another cold. He was coughing quite a bit last night, so my husband and I decided to give him a couple puffs from the inhaler in hopes that it would prevent what happened last time. It definitely cut down on the cough, but at about 3am he woke up coughing and wheezing, and his chest was tight. I immediately gave him 4 puffs from the inhaler, and within a couple minutes the wheezing and coughing stopped and he was able to go back to sleep. He seems fine this morning, but I plan on continuing to give him 2 puffs from the inhaler every 4 hours until I can get him into the doctor's office.At this point, I'm convinced that we're dealing with asthma. What does this mean for his quality of life? I am so worried about my little guy.I'd just like to know if it is asthma, what it means for my son's quality of life and his future. Should he be on an inhaler even when he's not experiencing symptoms to prevent an attack? Do you know of any resources where my husband, mother, and I can learn a bit more about the signs of an impending attack and how to manage this? I've been trying to read up as much as I can, but I really still know next to nothing about asthma. I would love to have some advice from people who have actually lived with this condition, or parents of children with asthma. If anyone can give me any words of wisdom, I would love to hear it. I just want to make sure my son stays healthy, and I don't want him to ever have to struggle to breathe. I can't imagine how scary it must be. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2f2kkOo
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