Other Stories

My son was a baby when he had this, i took him to the dr twice and was told it was just a cold... eventually i took him to the GP clinic, and luckily enough the dr on duty had just finished doing research on it and new what it was!! he was ok after sessions in the bathroom with hot steam and baby vics, but if it hadnt been diagnosed and i left it..who knows!!!!
Georgina (Bristol)

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If we can catch it early its great news. Thanks for the Tips and hopefully this will help others

There must be some way we can get to the GP's.

My son was born with a heart murmur which in most cases would be controlled with medicine but Ryan's unfortunately couldn't be.
He developed bronchiolitis at 8 weeks old and again I was told it was a cold. Within 6 hours we were in the Childrens Hospital because he wasn't breathing properly.
Its sad that babies are dismissed by Doctors when there is obviously something wrong!
Ryan has just had it again now aged 13 months. And once again we were dismissed by Doctors being told it was just a cold!!! Even with Ryan's history of respiratory and Heart problems they still failed to diagnose the problem and help him quickly. Instead we had to watch him deteriorate rapidly in the space of an hour and had to dial 999 where the paramedics put him on oxygen etc.
Lets increase awareness so babies and children get help they need before things get too serious!!!

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Its shocking to here thats happended to you twice. We hope that this awareness can go nationwide and put a few Doc's to shame.
I hope you little one gets better but please keep us advised on our forum at www.breathtaking.org.uk

Hi, after reading your stories i realise how lucky i am to have my doctor...at 5 weeks old my daughter went off her feeds, wouldnt wake up properly and had trouble breathing, my mothers instinct told me it was more than just a cold or chest infection so i took her straight to my surgery where my doctor straight away told me he was 99 percent sure that Caitlin had bronchiolitis and phoned Bristol childrens and told them i was on my way. Caitlin was straight away given oxygen and had her airway sucked out, it was a very scary and upsetting experience but it could of been alot worse if my doctor wasnt so quick in recognising the signs. Caitlin is now 3 and unfortunetly is asthmatic, apparently this is common in children who suffered from bronchiolitis...i am hoping with age she will grow out of it .

Kate Thorne

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I`m glad your doctor got there in time and it shows that Doctors do know what they are doing and maybe it's just pick up the signs a bit more. I think it is common for Asthma to take over at an early age but we are looking into this.

iam sat here in tears ive only just found this site ( www.breathtaking.org .uk and face book Awareness of Bronchiolitis )
3 weeks ago we almost lost our now 13 week old daughter
we went to hosptial on fri by abulance whi said it was just a got came home and with 10 house my daughter was struggling to breath she was on oxgen for a week and we were told to expect the worsed
but thankfully she is now on the mend.

My grandson was given 12 hours to live .. this came about as my daughter had her 6 month old son to the doctor 3 times in a week and was told on the last visit to get over it .. it was JUST a cold and she was costing the health system to much money with 3 visits in week ! On the 4th visit to the doctor baby was going in to a coma.. he was then rushed in to intensive care and put on a c pap machine to fight the fight of his life ! He was in ICU for 3 days then the childrens ward for nearly a week. It was one week I would hate to see anyone go through. My daughter was starting to doubt herself and had to be encouraged to return with the baby on the last visit, had she not the baby would have just slipped in to a coma and died, as it was by the last visit he could not be woken. During all these visits to the local medical she saw a number of doctors and not one of them picked up the problem till the last visit.

My little boy had it too. He was 7 weeks old and I was told it was a cold several times. One doctor told me I was over-reacting as a first time parent, less than two hours later my son was in hospital with tubes everywhere. He got very bad and needed oxygen, tube feeding and a lot of horrible procedures to remove 'gunk'. He was really weak after the week in hospital, and alwyas has to go into hospital when he getscolds as he gets them really bad.

Hes ok now though, but we had never heard of Bronchiolitis before.  Marianne Lobby

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We need to make more awarness, this is such a common problem. However scary it may seem we can only thank god that the pull through. The gunk, "Mucus" is a build up and the tiny airways cant handle it.