Cup of Coffee for my Asthmatic Child

This morning I woke up to find that my six year old boy had gotten the coffee ready for us (him and me). He didn't fly solo though, he took instructions from his dad and followed them to a T. He measured and poured the water, scooped four tablespoons of grounds into the fresh filter and had it all ready so all I had to do was flip the switch when I came downstairs. My sweet boy hadn't done that yet because he wanted to wait for me. 

He started drinking coffee around age two. Calm yourself... It is only half a cup, once a day and has hazelnut or french vanilla liquid creamer added to it. How it all started, you ask? One morning way back when, he wanted a sip of what his mommy was drinking. I gave him some and he wanted more. While most people would have said "NO," I said "sure!" 

I had heard that coffee can be beneficial to anyone with asthma and that children under the age of twelve can experience an opposite effect to caffeine and Benadryl. How caffeine effects him is hard to say. I wouldn't say he is any more wild because of it. On the other hand, we have noticed that when we've given him Benadryl, which knocks me out cold, he becomes absurdly hyper. But that's a topic for another time. Anyway, you can see I had given the caffeine and coffee quite a bit of thought before he ever asked and I agreed. 

I did some further research on caffeine before I let coffee become our little ritual and as it turns out, coffee is indeed good for the airways. It can never replace a prescribed maintenance medication but it can give a little extra help for the lungs, especially when asthmatic symptoms flare-up. LIVESTRONG had a good article describing the beneficial effects of caffeine on asthmatics.

Now, Calvin was diagnosed with asthma at the tiny age of five months old and he has earned the status of “SEVERE” asthma on his medical file. There is nothing regular about his case and never has been. I knew in the early stages of his infancy there was something not quite right about his breathing. He would grunt a lot, choked on milk at almost every feeding and he wouldn’t take a pacifier or his thumb. He slept best at an incline on my chest or in his vibrating seat. He was constantly getting colds that would turn into pneumonia, turning into hospitalizations. Getting a doctor to listen was next to impossible, that is until he almost died from a bad case of pneumonia. 

Being a parent to a child with asthma is more than hard. The fact that I found something to make it a tiny bit easier is magic. I share a cup of coffee with my boy almost every morning. It's our special time, our thing, just my baby boy and me. It smells good, tastes good, it's warm and helps him without being an expensive-toxic-chemically-enhanced pill, a cumbersome breathing machine, or inhaler. In fact our favorite place to go together, our happy place, is Caribou Coffee. This isn't normal, I am fully aware of that. I would never dream of giving my healthy daughter coffee. However, our life has never been nor will ever be "normal" when asthma is star of the show. 

Ultimately, Calvin loves coffee and I know it benefits his condition. I will gladly supplement my child’s asthma regiment with coffee any day than have to use the rescue meds more frequently. Some people shake their head at me but I shake my head back. To these people I say... you don't know me or my child, or what we’ve gone through. You haven’t been there when harsher forms of treatment are used. When I’ve had to watch every limb of my child’s body shake. When I’ve had to try and tame the wild beast on an ADHD+PMS like roller-coaster, who used to be my sweet child. When I’ve held him helplessly in my arms and felt his heart pounding so fast it seemed as if it were going to explode. Then dealing with the aftermath of using a systemic steroid, seeing how it weakens the immune system so for months out he is sick with illness after illness. 

What I have described are the side effects of using rescue meds like Albuterol and Orapred (systemic steroid). Yes I use them when I have to and I’m grateful for them, BUT only when they are absolutely necessary. If I can get away with managing his asthma on a low dose of Flovent (an inhaled steroid maintenance medication), a dose of Singulair and some coffee, well then, I consider us lucky. 

If you take anything away from this post, it should be... When you have an asthmatic child, giving them a small cup of flavored coffee is a treat, as well as a treatment. People argue that caffeine is harmful to children. I argue that the drugs, the steroids in particular are of much greater harm than a little caffeine could ever be.