Hi Shilpa, I appreciate your concerns. Your child seems to be having multi triggered wheeze (it is too early to label as
asthma).
If she has
cough for so many days like you described, your doctor was right in starting her on these puffs to decrease her cough and improve her quality of life.
Fluticasone (flohale) is safe for children >4 years old, and
levolin is safe even for infants so nothing to worry. It is much better to give her these puffs than getting unnecessary antibiotics or multiple cough syrups each time.
Montek Lc is also safe
Few things to keep in mind:
1. Use flohale and levolin puffs with a spacer and baby mask to maximise the benefits
2. Use them daily and don't skip or stop the puffs once she gets better as the cough will come again if you stop ahead of time
3. Maintain an allergy/wheeze diary where you note her symptoms each day, and when you go for checkup 2 months later it will help your doctor decide whether he can reduce or change the medicine. (search asthma diary template in Google images)
4. Avoid triggers like smoke, agarbattis, coackroaches, perfumes, face powder, and wash bedsheets, curtains regularly. Do wet mopping and not sweeping especially if your child is around. Clean AC filters once a week.
She will most likely outgrow this once she is about 7 to 10 years of age (unless there is a strong family history of wheeze/asthma) , so life long medications will not be needed. We have seen many children requiring flohale or
budecort for about two years only. Levolin puffs can be used whenever she has increased cough/fast breathing/wheeze.
Follow the above advice correctly and she will do well. Wishing her the best and good health.
Regards,
Dr. Vaishnavi