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Wish I had 6 acres of land!! Living in NYC we are on top of each other.

I may need to try the Singulair again. It was at a stressful time at DS's old school for him, and may not have been it at all. But I read lots of comments on the web about it. Our allergist told us that it was safe as well; but he also mentioned something about how some claimed depression and suicides because of it in teens. I looked up the comments; and they of course scared me.
DS will not tell us if he is wheezing, I can hear it. He becomes a little more short of breath, and then I ask him to take a deep breath and cough. If it is productive, then I know for sure. I am usually right.
I did not know that about cooling the airways. I was always told that we should take him outside on a cool moist night when he was little, and that it would help.
I will get the peak flow meter. I didn't realize that I could. Thank you!

Cool moist air doesn't apply to kids w/Astha.
If a kid has the croup they tell you to go outside in the cold but NOT for a kids w/asthma and Dr forget to add this.
I dk how many drs we saw b4 finally one of them told me that anything that cools the airways is bad.
The peak flow meter the kid blows and there is a danger zone so if it is in the danger zone then you know you have an emergency. Most of the time a little wheeze doesn't affect the breathing too much. But we have to treat it so it doesn't get worse and close more. But it does relax us. And it took many drs to tell us about the peak flow meter too!

It has been great for our DS to be able to run around. He probably has better balance because of it, as it is slightly sloped.

My DD7 also has asthma and we tried a bunch of stuff. She seemed to do o.k with medicine only when she had a respiratory illness which happened 2 or 3 times a year. We tried albuteral both liquid and through the nebulizer. It made her very jumpy. We tried it when she was between 1 and 3 years of age off and on. We then switched to pulmicort and xopenex both through the nebulizer. I loved them - no side effects whatsoever. When she started school she seemed to get sick more often and even got pneumonia. We then tried Singular for daily use to prevent attacks. The Singular gave her night terrors. We tried both the 4mg and 5mg and she could not tolerate either dosage. I have heard about this happening with other children as well. We also got an albuteral inhaler for emergency situations and it seems the albuteral does not make her as jumpy now as it did when she was younger.

As she got older the nebulizer really got to be a pain to use so now we have switched to Pulmicort Flexhaler which I really like as well as the Pulmicort delivered via the nebulizer. As many people have mentioned the Prednisone really works great when you have an emergency, but there are a lot of side effects of oral steroids. When she first took the oral steroids when she was younger they made her very emotional everything would cause her to break down and cry, she was really mean and demanding as well. I no longer notice this problem as she has aged. It is really just trial and error finding something that works for your child. The older they get though the better they are at helping find something that works for them. I hope you find something that works for you.

Sorry to hear Singulair gave your DD nightmares.
Albuterol does make them hyper.
We use Xopenex too.
I hope all of our kids will grow out of having Asthma.
It is really scary.
We had 1 emergency where DS could not breathe, could not talk we had to call 911. It was SCARY!

Thank you; all this info is helpful. My DS(almost4) is prone to night terrors/mares, but we think he is feeling safer now that he is co-sleeping - hopefully it is temporary - the co-sleeping. He was feeling unsafe because of three new unruly boys at his old school. The allergist, who I trust, told us that it didn't matter what time it was when giving DS the Singulair, as long as it was the same time every day. The med directions say to give it before bedtime; but we were giving it at breakfast so we could see if there were any reactions. Maybe that's what caused the night terrors for your DD7??

Ironically our allergist said give it at night so they get a good nights sleep LOL!

Singulair has less side effect than oral steroids. If adding Singulair means using less steroid and having less asthma attacks. I think it's a good thing. Oral steroids should be avoided unless he has severe asthma.

Xopenex is an isomer of albuterol. However, Xopenex has less palpitation side effect than albuterol. My ds has xopenex, but his hands still shake after the treatment.

In general, inhaled steroid + albuterol or xopenex (Short acting beta agonist) are the main treatment for asthma. It's important to have both. After that, the doctor should add Singulair or a long acting beta agonist like serevent if age appropriate. Cromolyn can also be added on. Oral steroid is the last resort.

Singulair gave my ds a 24 hour fever. I remember seeing his fever came on about an hour after taking Singulair and the fever was gone exactly 24 hours later. Nothing is said on the drug information of Singulair about nightmares. However, it does cause <1% of agitation, insomnia and a whole list of things. All drugs have side effects. It depends on whether the side effects shows up on you or not.

If pollen is an issue, does he have allergy medications, like Allegra and a nasal spray?

I have actually heard with asthma drinking cold water can really help. I know it has with me. I had severe asthma growing up, I spent most of my childhood in the hospital before 4 with continous double pneumonia, etc...anyhow, I grew out of it. I now take my inhaler maybe once a year. Soo...I am hopeful our little ones will get better as they grow older.

I have read that inhaled steroids don't really cause side effects, and I am sure it is rare...but I really think it did with DS. No doctor ever said it wouldn't, they just said that since it's inhaled it shouldn't be as bad as oral steroids. That makes sense.

And DS took swimming lessons in the summer and was fine...for some reason this time he is scared. We will try again later. We have a pool at home that he loves to go in. And he is quite an active boy. His asthma doesn't seem to be effected by running around. So that's good.