Asthma in 2 1/2 Year Old and Behavior Issues

I too am an asthmatic w/ allergies (in fact, my asthma is allergy induced) and have to use Albuteral. Claritin and Singulair can sometimes affect sleep...some get drowsy but others (like me) experience a slight increase in the heart rate which although not harmful it can disrupt sleep. I have to take it in the morning or no later than lunch time or I get very little sleep.

If you are interested, I would be more than willing to tell you about some household changes that could help reduce environmental factors that could contribute to his conditions.

Hi C.,

My little girl has had asthma since she was 2yr also. She has acute asthma that is triggered by the weather. She is on Singular Granules at night that she takes right before bed with a glass of juice, and we give her a nebulizer treatment once in the morning and once at night. The inhaler never really worked very well for my daughter. I know with Claritin it does make you jumpy, so maybe try a different brand of allergy medication and see if his behaviour changes. Also you can ask your doctor if you can have him on Flovent inhaler as a preventative. Our doctor tried that on Caitlyn thinking her asthma was triggered by allergies. If you want I can also give you the name of our pediatrician that is awesome since you like in Milwaukee like we do. Let me know.

lack of sleep can cause behavioral issues, and steroids are notorious for amping up any bad behavior. all i can say is try hard to be extra patient as you navigate the murky waters of finding that perfect balance of meds. be consistant with rules/boundaries/punishments, but realize that some of it is the meds - hope you can at least wean him off the steroids soon. good luck!

My oldest went through this. Asthma is not a fun road. Neither is allergies. I suffered with allergies as a kid, and I can speak first hand that it just make you miserable. Your sniffling, sneezing, itchy all over. And for me and my son it makes us tired. Then you add on allergy meds, and that can add to your fatique and just feeling "cloudy"
And when my son was put on the albuterol at about the same age it was MISERABLE for quite some time. Albuterol is known to make behavior problems worse, or cause them to arise where they werent before. Try to be patient and understanding, I know first hand how hard it is for you as a parent, but remember he is feeling terrible and that makes anyone crabby!
I would suggest to you trying some natural rememdies. Mainly because I went the medical route when my son these last 14 yrs and nothing has seemed to help him. But I started give him raw honey, and his allergies are already improving. Definately do you research, or seek someone out who is trained in these fields. Dont go into blindly. But I would suggest it, we've had a miserable road!! Good luck!

Try a pediatric chiropractor. I would never have believed it, but Mine got my daughter off all her meds in a month's time and she has never had a breathing issue since! The neb meds did horrible things to her! She had to have them every three hours!

Google Singulair and childrens behavior. I had my daughter on it for asthma and allergies and she literally went wild. I read up no it and chose to take her off it. COmplete turn around. I went the natural way of dealing with her asthma and making alot of household changes. She has flare ups when she is sick or running alot but other than that we have kept it under control. HTH

milk allergy. ill bet you anything.

try eliminating any and all dairy. its surprising how so many people have this problem are actually allergic/intolerant of dairy.

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First Albuteral will make you have the jitters and can cause all sorts of sleep issues, I would call your Dr and see if there is something else you can put him on. You didn't say if he is napping at all, if he is taking long naps I would try and shorten them so that he can sleep better at night. Have you also tried a sort of air cleaner in his room so that maybe his allergies and asthma can be helped at night when he sleeps, also if you are using a fan in his room I would stop that as that can put more allergians in the air and cause issues. Some of the issues maybe just age and adjustment to growing up. Look for all possibilities including allergies to laundry soap and fabric softener. Good Luck!

When children don't feel good they misbehave more. My youngest son also had asthma and food allergies at a early age. Once we got those under control the behavior issues got better also. You may want to see if he has some food allergies that is adding to the problem. A pediatric allergist told me to keep a journal on him of everything he eats. If he starts showing signs of asthma or acting up, check the journal for foods in common during the last time he acted up. Sometimes he would show a problem with a food by saying he didn't like it or it made him have a tummy ache. Some would cause dry spots on his skin, especially around the inside of the elbow and on his back. He also had the skin tests and we took him off about everything, dairy, beans, peas, nuts, corn, peanuts, wheat. The list went on and this was when he was a year old. Bleached white bread was fine so we had to check if they used the bleached white flour in pancakes and everything else for a while. He did out grow most and the only things he had trouble with when he got older was bananas, nuts, peanuts and chocolate.

If your son is allergic to peanuts watch the Albuteral inhaler. My son kept complaining that his asthma felt worse after using it and when the doctor checked into it she found that there was peanut oil used in the off brand. That was years ago so they may have changed that now though.

My son is or has been on all the meds you mentioned, but has had no behavioral side effects from them.

There's a book called Healing the New Childhood Epidemics that you may want to check out. Here's the amazon.com link for it:

http://www.amazon.com/Healing-New-Childhood-Epidemics-Gro...

Hope this helps.

My son also has asthma. We went to Children's Respiratory & Critical Care Specialists and saw Stephen C. Kurachek a Pediatric Pulmonogy. He was great. He took us step by step to get our son on the right meds. Also on what changes in the house we should make (as long as we could afford to make them)
He also belives that parents know their children best, so we would have all the meds on hand to treat our son and an action plan for when he had an attack so we wouldn't have to bring him into the DR or the ER. He was is call 24/7 and gives out his cell. If I every doubted what I needed to do him or his staff where just a call away.
I would guess his behavior is caused by the meds. Alot of asthma meds are stimulants. It sounds to me his meds need to be "tweeked" so he can be on the right meds.

Super nutritional supplements were the answer for my friend whose children had severe issues with asthma and allergies. Plus it has helped kids with other issues too! If interested, I can connect you to her. Email me at ____@____.com. --R. H.