My son’s asthma control

My son, now 6 year old, had been suffering for Asthma for over 3 years. He would build breathing issues as soon as he catches a cold or have a runny nose. Western medicines would just prescribe Albutrol (Xopenex) and Pulmicort (steroid) through nebulizer. I bought one at home. As time progressed, it had been taking longer to come out of asthma episodes; when he was 1.5 years, it used to be just 1-2 dose of Xopenex; at 4 it was Xopenex and Pulmicort for 3 days, he could not eat anything during these 3-4 days; and this has been occurring almost every 4-6 weeks. As a result, he was slow in catching up with a lot of things, speech delay, and other basic skills. We have to go to ER every 2-3 months, and I was really feeling helpless. I just could not accept that nothing else could be done. I started looking for alternative medicines. One of the OTC Homeopathic drug worked 2-3 months, but was not effective later. Finally reading few books, I came across certain things. Though I did not have the medicines prescribed in the books, however, I just followed few things, and since these minor adjustments, followed in last 2 years, we had couple of minor manageable-at-home asthma episodes, no ER visit.

1. Diet: We have reduced dairy based products. Though not completely eliminated them, he some times still eats pizza, but if he is having runny nose, we follow the guidelines strictly. There are other foods which the book lists out not to eat, but dairy is the main one. I remember, when we were not following these guidelines, and if he was having asthma episodes, and not eating anything, we would try to give him some cow milk to drink, and he would always vomit it. We used to think, it is just because of coughing, and on discussing with 4-5 different doctors, nothing came up. However, this book was very clear on impact of milk and vomiting.

2. As I know that most of the time when he had runny nose, he was not able to excrete the mucous and while he is sleeping, the mucous would go down and block the bronchioles, I thought we needed a good expectorant, but none of western medicine expectorant worked. We just started giving him ginger juice and honey mix (never refrigerate it), two to three times daily. We still give him almost every day. I think this is one of the biggest factor in preventing his triggers (runny nose) to build into asthma. This mix has been amazing. How to make the mix – Grate small piece of fresh ginger as you can not refrigerate the mix, it would work for 3-5 days on room temperature then its potency start decreasing. And just press the grated ginger, using your hands for ginger juice. Measure the quantity of juice ( say 3 tsp) and mix equal quantity of honey. Give half tsp of this mix at a time, 2-3 times a day. Try to give one just before the kid sleeps in night.

3. For milk, we have totally switched to Organic soya milk, and put licorice (mulethi), saffron, turmeric and honey while giving him in night. We have observed, some times if we do not give it to him, and if he had some runny nose, he would start coughing in night. Licorice tea helps when he is trouble breathing or coughing, the effect is immediate. To make Licorice tea, boil 1 tsp of licorice root in water for 2-3 minutes. Tea is good for 3 days, just take 1-2 sips every 10-15 minutes if child is wheezing.

4. No cold drinks (or ice creams) if he has runny nose. Even we give him warm water for drinking, he does not like it, but he understands. We have observed that some times, just giving warm water stops coughing in night.
Another thing I observed, when he used to cough in night, and it was not a productive cough (you have to hear it whether it is productive or dry); to stop such cough we tried chopped garlic clove, boiled in soya milk for 2 minutes, and then put some turmeric in the end, let milk cool down enough where it was drinkable. This worked for us all the time.

5. Warm water bath, almost every night (30 minutes), and if he has runny nose, I encourage him to blow his nose 10-15 times, continuously.

6. Massage with mustard oil on chest and back and neck, before sleeping or during sleep, if we find he is coughing in night. The effect of mustard oil massage is just amazing and immediate, he stops coughing/wheezing and immediately feels better.

7. Saline solution in nose is excellent way to help relieve congestion and help him breath better. You can make it at home.

Hope some of the things which worked for us, would help some of you too. Do not give up, keep trying different things.

Name of the book is ‘Complete book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies’ by Dr Vasant Lad