How to Treat Bronchitis with Viral-Induced Asthmatic or Asthmatic

This happens all the time with my grandsons. Start the medication routine the minute he starts to show signs of a cold because if you catch it right at the beginning it won't get really bad. If you wait until the symptoms start then you'll be medicating him for 2 weeks.

Also get a rx for liquid steroids to go in his nebulizer. They will work better because he really isn't able to use an inhaler well at his age. With the steroids he'll need to keep his eyes closed but they work so much better.

The thing is, with a cough, steaming makes it SOUND worse, but that's because the mucus gets loose and easier to cough up.
Once it's coughed up, the breathing usually gets easier.
Can he use a neti pot yet?
Rinsing out his sinuses with warm (not hot) saline might help keep stuff from dripping down into his lungs.
Can you put a heating pad on low on his chest (over a shirt)?
People use to use mustard plasters on the chest but it's too easy to irritate/burn sensitive skin with those.
The Vicks vapor rub on the feet thing never did anything for us.
When I have a could I like it on my throat and chest.
Sometimes a cough just hangs in there a long time.
I had one a few years back that lasted 8 weeks before it finally quit.
I went to a doctor, got xrayed - it wasn't pneumonia nor whooping cough, etc - it was just one heck of a stubborn cough.
99.5 isn't a high temp - it's very low grade - but you know from experience what it can lead to - so you are wise to keep an eye on it.

I know where you are coming from. As a child, I had Bronchitis at least once a year and the cough was horrible for weeks...even when better. As an adult, I was first told it was asthmatic bronchits and later was diagnosed with allergy induced asthma. Anytime I get a cold or upper respiratory anything...right to the chest and the coughing starts.

My son has similar tendancies when sick thought not to the degree I had.

My daughter started with similiar, severe, occurences when she was about 3. At 3.5 she was diagnosed with allergy induced asthma as well. She is almost 8 and currently takes Zyrtec and a nasal spray in the am, Singulair in the pm. When necessary we have eye drops too. When sick, we also do the Albuterol nebulizer treatments. Sometimes there is a second med that is added to the treatment but that's rare and I can't think of the name right now.

My point is I get it and I've experienced it both as a patient and a parent. And you should hear the cough my mom gets...we sound like a family of seals barking (LOL!).

Viral anything will have to run it's course and the treatments may be working on the asthma but that bronchitis cough will linger. What we use to help is a vaoporizer (humidifies make us worse) with a little bit of vicks. Push the fluids as it will loosen the phlem and help get it out. If there are allergies or sensitivities, try to eliminate those.

He's most likely on the mend but will still sound bad for a bit.

Puffs for a 3 year old is not always efficient, I would see if you could get a nebulizer so that his treatments can really get in there and work. You need to see a specialist.

Get the doc to write a prescription for a portable home nebulizer. Ours runs off a battery, uses the cigarette lighter hole, and plugs into the wall to run/charge the battery.

We can use it at a soccer game, at home, at school on the playground, etc....

We use Xopenex vials for the kids and I use Albuterol vials. You crack the vial open then squirt it into the neb kit. Hook up the hose then turn it on and breath the vapor that comes out.

This gets the goo in the lungs moist and the medication in the vial opens the tubes up. He will be able to cough up the goo easier and do so much better.

They also have meds that can be added that stop the spasms in the lungs from stuff being irritated too.

Do you have a vaporisor? If not you cant get one at Walgreens, Target, etc. Add a couple of drops of eucalyptus oil to the top. Saline spray several times a day. Extra vit D & elderberry gummies for extra immune support. You can also use a diffuser during the day with eucalyptus & or thieves essential oils. Honey is great for coughs.

I agree with using a nebulizer if you are not doing so already. They used to have some cute dinosaur masks for little ones. When my daughter was on one at a young age, she had a special hand held game that she could only use during her nebs. Worked like a charm!

I also did quite a bit of chest PT (and postural drainage). When she got bigger (and even now) I have an electronic percusser (sp?) that was ordered by her pulmonologist, and covered by insurance. I found that a steamy bath, followed by some chest PT really helped with secretions.

Also, I hope you are using an aero chamber for his 'puffs', and you are letting him breathe deeply between them. If not, any doc can write an order for one.

Best!

My sister swears by YELLOW grapefruit juice for her bronchitis. It really works. How much to drink? As much as you can stand until your symptoms go away.

Give it a try is what I say.

Hope your little one is better soon.

This was my life for so long. Every cold went right into the chest for a 3-4 week bout of bronchitis. The coughing was so severe that I had a horrible headache - literally holding my head in my hands with each cough to try to stop the head motion. It was worse at night or when lying down, so I tried to sleep propped up, which just made for an comfortable sleep. Exhaustion made it harder to recover of course, since most healing occurs at night. It was a vicious cycle with 3 or more cases per year, sometimes as many as five.

With a child, it's even harder because you're limited with traditional cough suppressants like codeine. Neti pots are okay if someone has sinus congestion, although not every case of bronchitis and asthma involves head congestion at all. And doing a Neti pot on a little kid is pretty much torture for them.

I don't think the Vaporub on the feet with the socks does any good. Maybe it stimulates a little warmth and then some circulation, but I don't think the Vaporub people even claim that's effective at all. Consult Snopes.com - they say it's completely unproven and stems from an article in 2002 that just went wild. Probably it was posted by someone with a store that sells Vicks!

The multivitamin he's taking probably has practically no nutritional value - most of them don't have enough for what our needs are today. There are too few vitamins and minerals, and they are based on RDIs set decades ago that are relevant for malnutrition but not for immune system support. There are ways to boost the immune system but they are not overnight and they will not help with this current case, but only build for the future.

I work in food science and I must caution you against the suggestion to add a particular individual nutrient. You'll get suggestions for more Vitamin C or more vitamin D - completely unproven, first of all. Worse, that's not how the body works - it cannot metabolize an individual vitamin or mineral without all the other "partner" vitamins, minerals, trace elements, etc., that are required for that one vitamin to do its job. So it's a waste of money (even most doctors with any nutritional background will call standard multivitamins "expensive urine" because most is eliminated, unused). And if you look on most of those products, the FDA requires a warning label to "keep out of the reach of children"! Products like Airborne that advertised immune system support were heavily fined and required to change their TV commercials for unsubstantiated claims.

There are advances in epigenetics (my field) that improve damage to the cellular machinery so that cells function efficiently. This means that good genes are turned on and bad genes are turned off - basically restoring damaged cells to their proper or original functioning before they were affected by illness, trauma, toxins, pollution, etc. The DNA (the genome) is set, of course, but the epigenome is affected by outside factors. This can lead to any number of autoimmune issues. I think that's what's going on with your son. His most damaged cells (like mine) are in the bronchial/respiratory system. There is a sustained approach that can turn that around using a food-based approach and epigenetic repair - with both an immune system support and an anti-inflammatory action. That's what got me through my history of bronchial issues and I've been bronchitis free ever since. If I stop, the bronchial tightness and coughing is back within 48 hours.

But please do not try to treat a disease with a vitamin. You can upset the balance in the body. Even if someone is "low" in a particular nutrient, you can't just throw that nutrient at him. There's a reason he hasn't been absorbing it up to this point so adding more is fruitless. And toxicity is a problem when people take individual or isolated nutrients.