Hi Mamas, my son is almost 13 and has been dealing with shortness of breath for about 6 months now. We took him in for tests at the ER and at the DR's office as well as taken him to a cardiologist, They have run lots of tests and at first thought it could be diabetes but all of the blood work came back negative...for EVERYTHING. Now they are saying anxiety and he is scheduled to see a phsyciatrist in May. He is tired all the time and I am just not convinced that's what is wrong. Do any of you sweet ladies have any ideas or suggestions or have any of you been there with your own kiddos. I am so worried about him, he is doing well in school and oue home life is very average ie; working dad, SAHM, 3 brothers etc,...the only issue MIGHT be that we need a bigger home and he shares a room with his 15 year old brother. I just can't imagine that causing anxiety. Thank you in advance for any help you can offer{hugs}
ETA: The cardiologist did an Echocardiagram and an EKG as well as had him wear a monitor for 24 hours that he alerted every time he was feeling short of breath by pushing a button.
As far as when it hits him, it can be anythime. It;s not someting that occurs as a result or exertion though. He has not been to an allergist but it is something I will definitely be looking in to.
Thank you all SO MUCH, it's such a wonderful feeling to know so many mamas care{hugs}
Wow, I am overwhelmed by all of the responses and kind words, thank you all so much. I just wanted to add that he is NOT overweight at all. He is very active and healthy except for this. Also, as far as huffing goes, I realize that it's not something he would probably tell me if he was doing it but to be quite honest, we have a very open and honest relationship with our kiddos. We have talked about the dangers of huffing and I genuinely do not believe he would EVER do that. He has been tested for chemical exposure though. I am going to get a second opinion and hope that something else turns up. You all have wonderful things to add and I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to help us out =)
Is he overweight? Does he have sleep apnea? Is his heart weak? Any of those things can cause him to lose breath.
I don't know if it's the same type of shortness of breath, but my sister gets this when she has caffeine, or lack of sleep...
M.,
What tests did the cardiologist do?
Please give some more info. I am sure someone on here can help.
And please let us know how it turns out. We care!
Victoria
Has he been to an Allergist?
My best friend had fatigue like mad hit her out of no where.. she was having a reaction to mold that had built up in her apartment under the carpet in the bathroom. (Carpet in a bathroom is just asking for trapped water and mold to grow)
It might be worth looking into. Sorry I can't be more help. I also am a huge fan of WebMD -- you could check his symptoms there and get some more ideas.
http://symptoms.webmd.com/symptomchecker
If they did blood work, did they check for thyroid issues?
The key is when is he short of breath? Is he short of breath all the time, or during exertion, while resting, when upset? If you can't tie it to a specific activity and the psychiatrist isn't helpful, I'd keep checking with specialists. Sometimes people have rare disorders with symptoms that look like common illnesses, only to find that disease ruled out, then in the end it's found to be something that few people have.
I just saw something on Dr. Oz yesterday about children and cardiac arrest, and a common sympton is shortness of breath. I know you said you took him to a cardiologist but you may want to take him to another, just for a second opinion. Check out his website too, to learn more info.
I was also wondering as I was reading this, if he is overweight.
Hello M.,
Watch for the triggers of his "attacks" and then deal with it from a process of elimination. for example was he somewhere closed in,rushing, doing school work, I know that even an overweight person can e physically active and hea;thy and not have these troubles so don't let that get you away from the issue. I have these happen when I am in aclothing store from ll the chemicals on the garments, I can walk for miles and be fine then get near a certain flowering tree and I am a mess. I have found from astham that my throat starts to close and I have tought I couldn't swollow and start to panic. I hope that you willl son find the solution for the problem . I hope that you will hurry to see an asthma specialist or allergy specialist quickly. I learned from the Asthma care provider at Kaiser what to do and how to treat these attacks and was quickly able to get off the meds and be alert. My sister who has never had a allergy problem before moved to San Ramone Ca, and now is always having health problems as well for another who lives in the Central Valley .Good Luck, it is a hard thing to be a parent that is helplessly watching and not able to fix it for our child.
One more thing to think about - I had a tight chest and shortness of breath for years and it was anxiety related, but it was also triggered by silent acid reflux disease. So you might check on that.
Hope you guys can find it...and that he's well.
I don't know if this will help, but I used to have anxiety attacks, with shortness of breath and just a terrible feeling of panic. What I finally found out was triggering mine was that I had a chronic sinus problem. The only thing I found that helped that was using a saline solution to irrigate my nostrils until I finally got all that cleared out. It took several months of doing the irrigation several times a day, because the congestion was deep in my sinus cavities. You might have them check specifically for something like that. BTW, I found a homemade saline solution worked best because it doesn't have any extra chemicals in it. I make mine of sea salt and baking soda dissolved in boiled water, then let it cool to room temperature.
Hello,
My daughter had a HORRIBLE asthma attack when she was 14. It was her first one, and she hasn't had one since. She was in the hospital for 5 days and really didn't return to complete normalcy for a couple of years.
The reason I bring this up is that she had continuing chest pain and went to every specialist in the book. She had 2 full days of testing at CPMC and nobody could tell us what was going on.
Finally, an asthma specialist put her on over the counter medication for acid reflux and it did the trick. She had been tested for acid reflux at CPMC and those tests were negative, so it was surprising that the medication worked.
I had never heard that acid reflux can cause asthma-like symptoms and tightess in the chest, but that's part of what was going on for my daughter.
Just another option to consider for your son...
Good luck!
Did they do an echocardiogram? I had shortness of breath after having my twins 8 yrs ago, and they did numerous tests to find out why. The last test they did was an echocardiogram, and that is how they found out I had Postpartum cardiomyopathy.
I'm sure the doctors would have mentioned this, but is he overweight?
Have they checked him for any chemical exposures? Kids this age have been caught sniffing or huffing all kinds of things. Just a thought & I hope this is not the case, but if it were he's not going to tell you. Just a thought. Hope it all works out good.
I had that as a kid, they ruled out everything and it ended up being anxiety or somewhat of a panic attack. It has been happening to me again recently and I'm 24 years old and it is definitely anxiety/a panic attack.
I wish you had a better Doctor. My son had this and it has been a few years so I don't remember what it is called but it has to do with the inflammation of the linning in his chest wall. My son's Doc knew exactly what it was with no test. It was nothing to worry about but did take months to get better. She said it has to do with growing and straining. Her advice was to take it easy. My son stopped running and playing on our trampoline for a few weeks and it did get better. Eventually he stopped talking about it and we all forgot about it. He was about 15 at the time. My son has always been active so I think it was more a growth spurt. Besides all these test trying to find out what's WRONG with him would stress anybody out and cause some anxiety too. For both him and you. Tell him to relax when this happens and I do remember our Doc telling us to give him Motrin if it was really bothering him. I think we only did a couple of times and it did seem to take the edge off so he could relax. Best wishes!
I am sorry this is happening to your son. I went through a similar situation with my son last year (who is 14 now) he went through every test possible. They thought it might be so many horrible things and then went to psychological. Then we found an amazing dr. in Berkeley she found out he had a severe allergy to grass (in the air) it has been a year and when it came time for the season again he is struggling but not as bad and with the treatments he will someday be managable. Check his euciniphils in his bloodwork and maybe see an allergist. I hope this helps some and best to you and your son.
No sure if anyone else has suggested it, but wondering if he has any sort of obstruction from tonsils (which would probably be visible and found) or adenoids - which I understand can cause mouth breathing and difficulties and are very difficult to see. A good ENT workup would probably figure that out, so I'm thinking maybe to ask the doc you trust the most if they think an ENT consult would help rule anything out, etc. Or just get one if it's covered.
My son (younger than yours) complained of "not being able to catch his breath" often. His tonsils were obviously enlarged, so there was no mystery there, but he also breathed through his mouth a lot during this time, and I learned this was more of an adenoid problem, and the difficulty in visualizing such.
