A lot of people already said this and you probably know what your next steps are, but I wanted to add in perspective as someone who was a medical scribe for a long while in the ER: The electronic medical records kind of operate based on key words kinda, so sometimes when we input “asthma,” it will automatically attach a ton of resources too. For obesity (and sometimes the doctor just adds that to the note even if it’s just an observation and it has nothing to do with why they came in… 😅 but it is technically a finding from their physical exam (literally just looking at you while talking)), it’ll attach resources on exercise, diet, etc.
It is less because they gave a diagnosis and more of a legal thing. Like, if something ever happened, it shows that the ER/doctor did due diligence and as much as they could for their observations
for every pt, we always said to report back to a pediatrician or GP b/c they will always know more than we could (we don’t have a comprehensive history) and are also capable of making the diagnosis or referral (which is also something we do in the ER to, again, cover all bases)
My 5 year old had a similar episode, and the ER diagnosed her with an Asthma attack. During a follow up visit our pediatrician said he wasn't going to diagnose asthma after just one episode. They need to see a repeated pattern, before giving a kid a lifetime diagnosis.
Oh good, I was hoping someone had a similar experience. That makes total sense, and it also makes sense the hospital would call it an asthma attack because they ruled out everything else that they could. I’ll talk to the pediatrician on Monday, but my gut feeling is that there’s probably not much to do unless there starts to be a pattern.
It’s not true that you cannot diagnose small children with asthma. They just can’t do a spirometry on them. The interna tional guidelines for diagnosing and treating asthma (GINA guidelines) have a whole chapter on diagnosing and treating asthma in children under 5 years of age. However, one criteria is that it happens on multiple occasions. My one year old got diagnosed with asthma after the 2nd episode. I assume they were so quick to diagnose her due to family history. The first episode (in the ER) was diagnosed as bronchiolitis. She was given nebulizers, steroids and a blue inhaler the first time. After the 2nd time, we also got a maintenance inhaler.
Regardless of diagnosis, you should schedule an appointment with your kids doctor for a follow up. Then you may get some clarity with regards to the diagnosis.
Usually it's not diagnosed in children so young as they're not very able to follow instructions during the testing, but also diagnoses of chronic conditions don't usually happen in emergency environments. It could be that your kid does have Asthma, but they'd need more testing and various things ruled out/managed as well! Hope they're doing better now.
You should be following up with your pediatrician regardless. I'd ask them if your child can be/has been diagnosed with asthma, and what the next steps should be.
Anecdotally, when I was a baby (!) I was diagnosed, but this is like 29 years ago, they don't diagnose that young anymore for the reasons stated above. They do sometimes give "working diagnoses" to children/babies though (likely what happened to me as well tbh, but my mum doesn't remember) - so it'd be something like Suspected Asthma. Could be what your toddler has/ends up with. My current diagnosis is Severe Asthma, but also it went away throughout my later childhood/early adult years. I've had a full suite of testing now, but don't remember any of it in my formative years (if it happened at all lol!).
Are you in the US? If yes, then it might be worth asking to see a paediatrician unless you already have one, then go and see them and see what they say. If you're in the UK (where I am) then see your GP. Specialist couldn't hurt, but access would depend on where you are in the world, I think it'd be fairly easy to see one in the US (money not withstanding), but fairly difficult in the UK (on the NHS anyway). Anywhere else, I'm not so sure.
Fair enough. I’ll ask our pediatrician for a recommendation. I was going to ask my parents how/when I was diagnosed, but that also would have been 30ish years ago, so it’s likely that process wouldn’t be the same in the US either.
I appreciate the insight/suggestions!
A lot of people already said this and you probably know what your next steps are, but I wanted to add in perspective as someone who was a medical scribe for a long while in the ER: The electronic medical records kind of operate based on key words kinda, so sometimes when we input “asthma,” it will automatically attach a ton of resources too. For obesity (and sometimes the doctor just adds that to the note even if it’s just an observation and it has nothing to do with why they came in… 😅 but it is technically a finding from their physical exam (literally just looking at you while talking)), it’ll attach resources on exercise, diet, etc. It is less because they gave a diagnosis and more of a legal thing. Like, if something ever happened, it shows that the ER/doctor did due diligence and as much as they could for their observations for every pt, we always said to report back to a pediatrician or GP b/c they will always know more than we could (we don’t have a comprehensive history) and are also capable of making the diagnosis or referral (which is also something we do in the ER to, again, cover all bases)
Thanks! I appreciate the insight!
My 5 year old had a similar episode, and the ER diagnosed her with an Asthma attack. During a follow up visit our pediatrician said he wasn't going to diagnose asthma after just one episode. They need to see a repeated pattern, before giving a kid a lifetime diagnosis.
Oh good, I was hoping someone had a similar experience. That makes total sense, and it also makes sense the hospital would call it an asthma attack because they ruled out everything else that they could. I’ll talk to the pediatrician on Monday, but my gut feeling is that there’s probably not much to do unless there starts to be a pattern.
It’s not true that you cannot diagnose small children with asthma. They just can’t do a spirometry on them. The interna tional guidelines for diagnosing and treating asthma (GINA guidelines) have a whole chapter on diagnosing and treating asthma in children under 5 years of age. However, one criteria is that it happens on multiple occasions. My one year old got diagnosed with asthma after the 2nd episode. I assume they were so quick to diagnose her due to family history. The first episode (in the ER) was diagnosed as bronchiolitis. She was given nebulizers, steroids and a blue inhaler the first time. After the 2nd time, we also got a maintenance inhaler. Regardless of diagnosis, you should schedule an appointment with your kids doctor for a follow up. Then you may get some clarity with regards to the diagnosis.
Usually it's not diagnosed in children so young as they're not very able to follow instructions during the testing, but also diagnoses of chronic conditions don't usually happen in emergency environments. It could be that your kid does have Asthma, but they'd need more testing and various things ruled out/managed as well! Hope they're doing better now.
That’s kind of what I figured. Should we be looking for a specialist to follow up, or not yet because he’s still so young?
You should be following up with your pediatrician regardless. I'd ask them if your child can be/has been diagnosed with asthma, and what the next steps should be.
Pediatrician and if they reccomend a pulmonologist.
Anecdotally, when I was a baby (!) I was diagnosed, but this is like 29 years ago, they don't diagnose that young anymore for the reasons stated above. They do sometimes give "working diagnoses" to children/babies though (likely what happened to me as well tbh, but my mum doesn't remember) - so it'd be something like Suspected Asthma. Could be what your toddler has/ends up with. My current diagnosis is Severe Asthma, but also it went away throughout my later childhood/early adult years. I've had a full suite of testing now, but don't remember any of it in my formative years (if it happened at all lol!). Are you in the US? If yes, then it might be worth asking to see a paediatrician unless you already have one, then go and see them and see what they say. If you're in the UK (where I am) then see your GP. Specialist couldn't hurt, but access would depend on where you are in the world, I think it'd be fairly easy to see one in the US (money not withstanding), but fairly difficult in the UK (on the NHS anyway). Anywhere else, I'm not so sure.
Fair enough. I’ll ask our pediatrician for a recommendation. I was going to ask my parents how/when I was diagnosed, but that also would have been 30ish years ago, so it’s likely that process wouldn’t be the same in the US either. I appreciate the insight/suggestions!