Diagnosing Asthma?

[StantonHyde]

DH and I suspect DS has mild asthma--lots of coughing, excema (sp?), worse coughing/breathing when he exercises. Our pediatrician is the sort who would go with our suspicions and give us an inhaler. DH is an MD and is reluctant to use inhalers on a 4 yr old unless absolutely necessary. Has anybody had their child "tested" for asthma? Did you just use a peak flow meter? Did you go to a specialist? Would like to hear other's experiences.

[newmomto3kids]

We took Lily to a pediatric pulmonologist at Comer Children's Hospital. She had an unrelated birth defect but they wanted to rule out asthma as a contributing factor to her breathing difficulties.
They did a peak flow meter, O2 saturation and some other really simple testing and decided that she did not have asthma after all.
I know for myself and my youngest child, asthma was diagnosed solely on the wheezing heard on exam as well as with diminished peak flow values.
Good luck.

[saschalicks]

DS2 is 15 mo old and is having allergy/asthma issues already. To make a very long story short he is on daily Pulmacort (via nebulizer) and we have the Albutoral (sp?) just in case. Before we started Pulmacort he was using the Albutoral way too much. The Pulmacort has been a life saver.

How it was diagnosed is that he was sick (infection) then 5 weeks later infection again. He was on antibiotics for 15 days on day 16 bad cough was back again. The doctor suspected allergies/asthma and put him on Pulmacort. Since then he has been doing better. The kids are getting blood draws on Sat to make sure there isn't anything they're allergic to that we aren't aware of.

I say go w/your gut. I was sure that it was allergies but one of the peds in the practice (over the phone) said it was too soon. I insisted on an appt and sure enough the other ped said (before I could ask) that he thought it was allergies.

Good luck and sorry my response is so scattered. I guess I'm on overdrive today. ;)