Not the treatment plan I had in mind
Logan has had a terrible cough for the last week. It's been thick & rattles when he breaths in deep. It sounds horrible when he wakes up & he has a hard time catching his breath when he coughs after a tantrum. I'm afraid he's developing asthma.
My poor baby. He has egg, garlic, yellow food coloring (not tested, but obvious to me) allergies, environmental allergies, vaccination reactions & eczema. He has a family history of food allergies, eczema & asthma (on both sides, including both Bill & myself). It was just a matter of time before he developed more hypersensitivities & weakened immune system responses.
I've been pretty stingy with the medication for him, usually only giving him Benadryl for his hives when they get bad (that still pop up fairly regularly). The Doctors have been telling me to give him Claritin for a while & I held off on it until I really felt like Logan needed daily medication - which is now. He's been taking Claritin for a week & a half & it hasn't helped at all. We're now going to switch to Zyrtec & see how that goes.
I took Logan to the pediatrician this morning to have him checked out & see where we go from here if he is developing asthma. The Doctor prescribed Flonaz in addition to Zyrtec (& Benadryl for hives) & said that if things aren't better in two weeks, we would re-evaluate & start talking about Albuterol (a heavy steroid).
This goes against the grain of my health care beliefs. I cannot accept that my two year old is going to be on three if not four daily medications to suppress his immune response. We are not a pill popping family & this treatment plan feels so very wrong to me. He's being over medicated & drugs aren't always the answer. While this is the treatment plan for now, I'm looking into other options & opinions. I'm getting back to my chiropractic roots to see if I can fit it in our budget (because let's face it, we're not going to be able to get blood from a stone). I'm meeting with a Doctor next Monday. I know this is going to be a better plan than drugging up my child.
Our Roots
- Kristin
- Colorado
- I married my soul mate 10 years ago. We got married very young & we are very thankful that we did despite what other opinions may have been. It gave us a chance to grow up together & learn how to ride life's roller coaster ups & downs as a team. We had some good friends & adventures in Vegas when we started out. Then we hit a fork in the road & moved to Portland, OR so I could go to school & pursue a career in chiropractic. That's where we learned that sometimes life has plans for us other than our "perfectly mapped out" one. Bill got a promotion that moved us out to Colorado, somewhere he's always wanted to live, but a place where my thoughts of chiropractic school would die. Marriage is all about compromise, so we made the move to bigger & better things. As we continued to be successful at work, it felt like there was something missing. That's when I started to think about having a baby. As a stay at home mom to Logan, life was everything we wanted it to be. Then we were crazy enough to do it again & soon added Carter to the family. This is our adventure raising two boys in the Rocky Mountains.
Branches
9 comments:
My daughters' pediatrician is a highly regarded and well known pediatric allergist. Kendall does not have bad allergies, like Logan, but she takes a claritin every morning and although I was a skeptic and it didn't work right away, it has been our saving grace for a year a half now!
I have a naturopath that I really love here. I haven't seen her in a while because most of my health issues can be resolved with basic good nutrition and common supplements. But with not-as-common ailments, she has helped me tremendously AND she has given me suggestions for things to try with Alex. Many naturopaths treat children as well. Mine does, but because of the Mr.'s skepticism of naturopathy, I don't take Al to her, but I DO use her suggestions and advice for him with excellent results. I will email you her email address, and maybe she can refer you to someone in your area.
BUT,as much as I hate to admit it, daily Zyrtec got Al through the allergy season without an ear infection.
i don't have personal experience but I've heard that Chinese herbs can help.....
I wish it would take just one pill to take care of all of this, but sadly, that's not the case for Logan. I really believe a combo of Zyrtec, Flonaz, Benadryl & Albuterol is just way too much for anyone let alone a 2 year old. That's just crazy.
We're going to start doing saline nasal washes every night to clean out the gunk from his nose (it's pretty swollen & irritated with lots of sticky mucous - hmmm, wonder why?). The Dr. also said that he may be shoving stuff up his nose all of the time because his sinuses are bothering him so much (makes complete sense).
The coughing is from post-nasal drip (which can turn into allergic asthma). So, if his sinuses are so bad, his neck is screwed up (which wouldn't surprise me).
I really hope we can fit the chiropractor in our budget since it's not covered under our insurance plan.
At least Logan is getting older, also. There's at least a half chance that he'll progressively grow out of these allergies/asthma-like stuff. I myself don't officially have the seal of "asthma" on me but with the allergies I do have, I have asthma symptoms. But I don't take anything regularly, just a healthy diet now and staying on top of the dust (and there's no dander now since we got rid of the kitty) and that did do the trick.
But because I'm an adult it's easy for me to say that. lol
I wish you guys luck with this new doctor you'll be seeing next week. And hopefully, his symptoms will subside soon.
smurfett, I second you. Chinese herbs and acupuncture work wonders.
Kristin, either way you chose, I am sure you will get through it!
I think the daily allergy meds might help, we don't have any luck with Claritin but Zyrtec has worked for both my mom and husband. I think Flonaz seems a little harsh, but that's just my opinion. I would think the saline washes like you're doing would be better??
If he does have to go the route of albuterol, at least that's a very mild medication. I have an albuterol inhaler for when my asthma acts up. It also helps if I've got a bad cold and can't quit coughing at night. A couple puffs helps settle my lungs down.
Hopefully you can get some second opinions that suit your family better other than just filling him full of medicine. I do think drs are so quick to prescribe meds these days when a lot of time things could be helped with other treatments. Good luck with everything, and hopefully Logan doesn't develop asthma.
I say albuterol is very mild...I mean very mild compared to most other asthma meds. :)
Poor Logan...I hope that things get worked out soon! And that does seem like a lot of medication for a child so young.
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