Asthma question

[Mrs Bear]

Hi Ladies,

Just wanted to pick the brains of you ladies who know more about asthma than I do.

Sam suffered a severe attack last week (it was his first) but I did not recognise it for what it was at first as he had a bad cold. Last Monday night I used Vicks, Olbas, had a humidifier going, gave him medised but still he wheezed all night.

By Tuesday morning he was worse so I took him to our local Walk-In Centre. They took one look at him and said it was asthma. His sats reading was only 88%. They put him straight onto Ventolin telling me that they were going to call an ambulance if he didn't respond immediately. Fortuntely he did, but I now officially hold the title of Bad Mother 2008.

He was seen by a doctor and put on steriod tablets for 3 days, together with ventolin every 4 hours. He saw the asthma nurse on Friday and was prescribed the steroid inhaler as well as the reliever one. He is much better now thank goodness but I go cold when I think what could have happended owing to my ignorance.

Now, here's the thing: we noticed that whilst Sam was on the steroid tablet he was really hyper. I remembered my mum saying when she was the steriods she took for 3 days following every chemo she could not sleep at all and thought maybe Sam reacted the same way.

He is now on the steroid inhaler twice a day and seems calmer BUT the staff at nursery mentioned today that he was quite hyper today and not at all like he usually is. Has anyone else found that the steriod inhaler has made their child a bit hyperactive or more restless? I will ask the asthma nurse when he goes back on the 17th, but in the meantime was just wondering...?

Any advice or thought much appreciated as I am currently on a very steep learning curve where asthma is concerned and feel pretty clueless right now.

Thanks in advance