Two worries.... (long, but help appreciated!)

June 12, 2001

How would I know if DS is developing/ will develop asthma?

So far it seems certain that he has inherited DH's 'weak' chest

(whereas DD has my 'weak' ears, with lots of ear infections). Every

time he gets a cold, he breathes very heavily, swallows lots of flem,

throws up, breathes heavily again, etc etc. Some of you will remember

when he was 5 months it got so bad he was admitted to hospital for

nearly a week, and given lots of oxygen and fluids.

What are the first signs of asthma? Is there anything I can do to

prevent it? The main reason I am worried is that DH was very, very ill

when he was little, spent an awful lot of his childhood at home, in

bed, and away from school, and did not really improve until he went

away to boarding school at 13. They did have a cat at home, and we

don't have any pets, but I'm sure that wasn't the only reason.

Secondly, my little DD has not really been very happy for the last 4

months or so. It goes up and down, but the general theme is that she

'hurt her tummy', that she has difficulties doing poos, and recently

also that she hurts herself easily - or rather, that she makes an

awful lot out of it (she used to be so tough!!).

I'm tearing my hair out - I've explained it for so long with 'oh, it's

part of a cold' (well, she's had lots), or 'she just wants attention

because little brother is becoming more demanding', or 'she's missing

her day friend', or 'it's her diet', or whatever... And I've done all

sorts of things to try and rectify all of the above - waited for colds

to go away, given her medicines, changed her diet to include (even

more) fruit, given her mummy-days without little brother, taken it

seriously, 'brushed it off' and not made a big issue out of it etc

etc - everything to try to make her more happy and content and

easy-going.

If I was absolutely certain that it's just a toddler thing and that

she would grow out of it, then fine - I can live with it - but I'm

getting more and more worried that there is something proper wrong

with her - worms in the tummy? bad nanny? any other disease/condition?

Going to our GP is no point, unless I ask them to check for something

'specific' they never do anything at all.

Karina

Mum to Emilia (Oct 98) and Sebastian (Aug 00)

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