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Asthma After A Cold Virus

My 13 year old daughter has suffered pneumonia twice in her lifetime. One time at age 5 and the other at age 8. Since then every time she gets a sniffle or cough it gets bad fast. She hurts in her chest and has the feeling she is breathing through a straw. She has always been treated with antibiotics, cough medicine containing codeine and recently she has taken Cataflam for the inflammation in her chest. She gets better after a week or so but we are concerned she may have allergies or asthma. Should we begin with our family doctor or go to a specialist to have this checked. We are concerned she will have greater problems the older she gets. Friends tell us to go to a specialist. What we want to know before hand is what are the symptoms/warning signs of asthma and allergies? Can you give us any suggestions?

Thanks.

Dave M.

Thanks for asking about asthma symptoms after viral infections.

Viral infections are the most common cause of wheezing in children and young adults. The viral infection induces an immune reaction inside of the lungs which often involves the allergy antibody response with IgE, the allergy antibody. [See All About Allergy]

Once sensitized to the virus, the patient will respond immediately when next infected. This clinically results in the symptoms of wheezing with the next viral "cold".

Allergy to other environmental aeroallergens is also quite common at the ages of 4-19 years of age. Allergy may begin at any age, however, and it is a good thing to make an accurate diagnosis of a patient's symptoms at any time by seeing an Allergy Specialist. Primary care physicians to a decent job of treating asthma symptoms, but they are unable to really get at the causes of allergy pateints' symptoms.

There is no reason to suffer today with allergy and asthma symptoms. With an accurate diagnosis, your daughter can have a nearly normal childhood including sports participation..

I hope this info is useful to you and your family. Be sure to check out Allernet's Helpful Hint section and the All About Allergy area as well.

Good luck.

Steve Kagen, M.D.
Allernet.com