FYI...fishie mask.

My little Caleb has run into more random injuries, illnesses and conditions than I thought a healthy little boy could eek out in his measley (not quite) 3-year existence. We've run into a NASTY urinary tract infection, which was apparently due to a condition called urine reflux. He had a procedure about a year-and-a-half ago to take car of that. He has cracked a knee cap (don't ask, I have NO - honestly - NO idea how it happened), multiple black eyes, speech delays, and I've performed the Heimlich maneuver on this little one half a dozen times. The current issue is viral asthma. The poor kid has had "bronchiolitis" 5 times in the last 4 months. We do breathing treatments (fishie mask) every 3 or 4 hours and they seem to eventually go away, sometimes sooner than others. EVERY time he gets sick he has trouble breathing and coughs incessantly. We just came back from the allergist today and there was good news and bad news. Good news: he doesn't have any allergies. Bad news: he has viral asthma - not bronchiolitis. That means that every time little Caleb gets sick, it goes right to his lungs and his asthma kicks in. He coughs so much at night I'll sometimes go in while he's sleeping and do 2 or 3 breathing treatments. You'd think, especially knowing my Caleb, he'd fight tooth and nail to prevent this inconvenience. Amazingly, it works so well, he ASKS me for fishie mask. 

I wish I had known more about allergies and asthma to understand my options months ago so we weren't fumbling through this condition. If your child coughs and coughs every time they get sick, he/she may also have viral asthma. I wouldn't have found out if I hadn't asked my pediatrician about asthma (moms know WAY more than doctors). So, there's your fyi...