Little Forrest Decker can’t catch a break.
On Thursday, country singer Jessie James Decker posted a photo to Instagram of her 2-year-old son Forrest in Spider-Man pajamas wearing a nebulizer.
"Went to the hospital again last night. 3rd time in 6 weeks," Decker captioned the post. "Every time he gets a tiny cold he starts wheezing and his oxygen levels drop and heart rate goes up. Ultimately I’m being told he has Asthma even though he’s pretty young to diagnose. It’s scary to watch his vitals drop, hear his grunting and see his chest struggling so much to take a breath. After he threw up for the 3rd time (I think from coughing so much) (no fever) I knew it was time to take him in."
Decker’s situation is not uncommon for parents of youngsters.
Dr. Jay Lovenheim of Lovenheim Pediatrics in West Orange, New Jersey, told TODAY Parents that it can be challenging to make a diagnosis of asthma in children under the age of 6.
“A certain percentage of kids have a viral-induced wheezing whenever they get a cold at a young age,” said Lovenheim, who is not treating Forrest Decker. “Under the age of 6 it can be very hard and scary for a parent, because a lot of us doctors use (the word) 'asthma.' We use 'viral induced wheezing.' The semantics kind of change, because nobody wants to put that hardcore label even though we are using the same treatments as someone with someone who has asthma.”
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Decker, who also has a daughter, Vivianne, 6, and a son, Eric Jr., 5, with her husband, former NFL wide receiver Eric Decker, also expressed her fear and confusion about what was happening with their youngest child.
“It can be common and certainly very scary (for parents) to see their child suffering,” Lovenheim said. “As a parent we feel helpless, because you can't give them Motrin or Tylenol to take pain away.”
Lovenheim explained that nebulizer treatments can help people breathe more freely.
“The small airways of the lungs are made of small muscles,” he said. “A nebulizer typically takes a medicine called Albuterol and particalizes the medicine so it goes directly to the lungs. The particles cause the muscles to relax and not spasm so much.”
It’s not the first time Decker has taken to social media to share Forrest’s medical woes. The youngest Decker landed in the hospital last year when a bug bite turned into a staph infection.
We hope everyone at the Decker house starts to feel better soon!
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