Looking for a great pediatric asthma specialist (Dallas, Plano: house, allergies)

[jfstil]

Hi Folks -

We are new to Dallas and are looking for a excellent pediatric asthma specialist or a pediatrician who focuses on asthma. Any suggestions? Our son is 3 and his main asthma triggers are colds and seasonal allergies. I am interested in as holistic approach as possible, though I realize that may be hard to find.

Many thanks in advance!

[BoxCar Willie]

Originally Posted by jfstil

Hi Folks -

We are new to Dallas and are looking for a excellent pediatric asthma specialist or a pediatrician who focuses on asthma. Any suggestions? Our son is 3 and his main asthma triggers are colds and seasonal allergies. I am interested in as holistic approach as possible, though I realize that may be hard to find.

Many thanks in advance!

Medical City Children and http://www.childrens.com/ Don't know about holistic but thesae might help you.

[PlanoGirl]

We use Dr Bloomquist with AirCare and we like her. She is not holistic, but very thorough and really listens to your concerns and works with you. I think she would be accepting and willing to work with a patient that wanted to go the more natural route...but you may want to call her office and ask a few questions first to be sure.

[EDS_]

Pediatric Pulmonary Doctor | Plano Dallas | Lung Doctor for Children | Texas

My son had severe - well I thought it was severe until I met kids who suffered repeated hospitalizations due to asthma - exercise induced asthma.

If by holistic you mean berries, herbs and medicinal candles look elsewhere - these guys are serious pros who work with kids who need help not parents screwing around wasting everyone's time.

If instead by holistic you mean covering all possible bases these guys may be for you.


Regarding our son's asthma, between the docs and a nutritionist/environmentalist and a nurse who had severe exercise induced asthma they recommended:

Home
1. Removing carpet from his room - and from the entire house if possible - we did
2. Getting rid of any cats (we did not have cats)
3. Getting rid of certain dog breeds (can't remember which ones)
4. Installing the best possible air filters or conversely using cheap filter but changing them weekly
5. Leave HVAC fans ON all the time
6. Have ducts cleaned
7. Have all remaining carpets STEAM cleaned at least every six months
8. Removing cellulose insulation from attic - that gray looking crap
9. No smoking in your house or any of your cars ever
10. Store any valuable rugs outside the home
11. Any carpets over a certain age had to go
12. No spray fragrances in the house ever
13. Soaps, shampoos etc. with little to no fragrance
14. No aromatic plants - no plants at all if possible
15. Odorless laundry soap and using very little soap - works great
16. Storing or selling old upholstered furniture
17. No fragrant candles in the house ever

Food
1. Stop eating or severely limit corn and dairy for a month see what happens
2. Then stop eating or severely limit gluten proteins for a month or more
3. Try eating very spicy foods - hot peppers etc.
4. At a minimum limit dairy

Other things
1. Take great pains to never expose kid to (liquids nor the vapors) wet paint, aromatic hydrocarbons and related things (gasoline, diesel fuel, toluene, WD-40, greases, GOOP hand cleaner etc.)
2. Be very careful with exercise when it's cold

Physical
Unless the kid is very young or medically cannot do so get your kid into the best possible physical condition. This helps greatly. It's also extremely difficult when exercise can kick off attacks.

Learn that during an attack when the kid thinks he can't inhale.....he actually isn't exhaling effectively. Calm the kid down and tell him or her to focus on exhaling deeply and slowly and completely. They always seem to want to drink lots of water as an attack subsides. The docs told us to allow water but only a little.


Our son's pre-game and pre-practice hockey routine was really tough
1. Get dressed
2. Take dose of Max-Air (Maxair?) wait five minutes
3. Work up a very big sweat - run, ride a stationary bike very hard whatever until he felt weak then take another does of Max-Air
4. Wait five minutes if he felt perfect that was it - if not he would take a dose of albuterol (sp?) through an ultrasonic nebulizer
5. He also took Advair 50-250 or 50-500 every morning for a couple of years

He did this religiously for years and never once had an attack - playing what might be the toughest sport for exercise induced asthmatics to play - hockey is like extreme interval training in a cold environment while constantly taking physical shots to the chest/torso.



I'll try to find some of the printed material from them and post anything else appropriate.


When we took our son to these guys I was prepared for his ice hockey playing days to be over and for is life to be quite limited - he was quite sick. After a couple months of being hyper-judicious and using four medicines carefully as prescribed my son was not only able to continue his ice hockey but his overall health and sports stamina improved greatly.


Best of luck - this is a difficult situation we've been there. If there is a rap on the docs I linked it is that they tend to medicate and medicate very hard. Medical people thought we were nuts to give our son Advair 50-500 - but it worked. He is now 20yo and take no medicine regularly - he uses his inhaler 1 or 2x per year.

[Type O Negative]

Dr. wasserman Dallas Allergy Imunology

[kjackson227]

Originally Posted by jfstil

Hi Folks -

We are new to Dallas and are looking for a excellent pediatric asthma specialist or a pediatrician who focuses on asthma. Any suggestions? Our son is 3 and his main asthma triggers are colds and seasonal allergies. I am interested in as holistic approach as possible, though I realize that may be hard to find.

Many thanks in advance!

Dr. Robert Sugerman, MD at Medical City is GREAT. He also practices in the same office as Richard L. Wasserman, MD.