H1N1 has mostly passed and now we are about to enter the RSV season.  This post is meant for Smart Parents who want to learn about and understand RSV before their children get sick.  Attempting to rummage through these posts while your child is sick, or just before heading to the ER, will not be helpful.  For most kids, RSV is not serious.  In fact, many times you barely even know your child is sick, much less sick with RSV.  For some kids, (especially small babies) it may be a bit more problematic.  Mostly supportive therapy (nasal suction, plenty of fluids, lots of rest, etc.) are the pillars of successful treatment.  Rarely is a medication of any kind indicated.

Contents

• Understanding Bronchiolitis

• Breathing Treatments for Bronchiolitis

• Steroids and Bronchiolitis

• Treatment Guidelines

• Staying Informed

Understanding Bronchiolitis

Educating Parents

This section is for the truly Smart Parent that wants to avoid doing things that are unnecessary, wasteful, and perhaps even harmful to their child.  Bronch-iol-itis is different from bronchitis.  One of the primary differences is that bronchiolitis tends to affect young children and bronchitis tends to affect adults (especially smokers).  It is generally not serious but there is a shocking amount of misinformation out in the community.  To make matters worse, it seems to me that many doctors do not keep up with the current medical literature and treat their patients with all kinds of things that have clearly been shown to be of NO benefit…  Read More…

Breathing Treatments for Bronchiolitis

Do they help?

When kids are having an asthma attack they generally have wheezing.  This asthma-associated wheezing can be treated with a breathing treatment that has a bronchodilator medication (Albuterol or Xopenex).  Since the breathing treatments make the wheezing better in asthma, some doctors have concluded that they might also help with wheezing in bronchiolitis.  Even though this sounds rational, there is absolutely no evidence that this approach has any benefit at all.  In fact…  Read more…

Steroids and Bronchiolitis

Do they work?

The fascination with steroids is second only to the fascination with antibiotics.  In other words, if antibiotics are the most overused medications in kids, steroids come in a very close second.  As with antibiotics, steroids definitely have a critical role in the treatment of certain illnesses, like asthma.  In fact, countless lives have been improved by short courses of steroids to control severe asthma symptoms.  More, I am sure countless lives have even been saved by steroids.  However… Read more…

Treatment Guidelines

What I do in the ER.

So now that I have gone through what is NOT helpful for bronchiolitis, you might be asking, “Is there anything that is helpful if my kid has bronchiolitis?” The short answer is YES and the good news is that most of the things can be done at home without a prescription or visit to the doctor’s office.  Read more…

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