Toddler asthma diagnosis

Any parents been through this? How old was babe and what led to the diagnosis?

We suspect my 2.5 year old has it. It seems he had his first attack last night.

Back story:

he was born at 27 weeks. Even with steroids and mag drip before birth, he obviously wasn’t fully developed. He was on oxygen for the first 5 months of life. His pulmonologist didn’t see anything overly concerning but did inform us he is high risk for asthma.

Fast forward to last July (21m) he was hospitalized for a week due to low oxygen. He had a virus that led to inflammation in his lungs. Then last month he had rsv and that was very very hard on him. He was hospitalized for 1 week and on oxygen for 2 weeks. Albuterol and fluvent is what helped get him off oxygen.

And then last night…he went to bed completely fine. He had the slightest runny nose that just started that day. No surprise as his sister has had a cold for the last 2 days. Nothing more than a slight sniffle. He then woke up at 9:45pm gasping, wheezing, and coughing. To me, it looked and sounded like an asthma attack. I did film a tiny snip of it to show his doctor. We gave him his albuterol and fluvent (doctor told us to keep it on hand for any future respiratory illness to hopefully avoid hospitalization). The inhalers did help slowly. We did have an ambulance come out to check him out just to be safe. With his history, the sound of his lungs, and the sudden onset, we all agreed he should be seen at the hospital. Thankfully, he wasn’t at the hospital long. They were thinking croup but panels came back positive for rhinovirus and that’s it.

So now I’m just trying to figure out what is next? Does he have to have a few more attacks before a diagnosis? I know testing for it is tricky with little ones. We will be doing a follow up with his pediatrician who is very aware about his history and I know she can answer my questions. I just wanted to hear from others to have an idea of what’s to come.

**we called an ambulance because the roads were icy and we didn’t know what was wrong so strapping him in a car seat and driving 30mins without being able to monitor if he’s still breathing seemed too risky..with his history…his lungs could’ve been failing for all we knew.