In Wheezing Infant With Toddler Sibling-Consider Foreign-Body Aspiration

I read with interest Drs Ha and Wilson’s “What’s Your Diagnosis?” case of an infant with a history of wheezing and dry cough ("History of Cough in an Infant and a Toddler"). In a setting such as this, one should also consider the possibility of foreign-body aspiration, which can result in recurring wheezing and pneumonia.

Figure – This infant's chest radiograph showed a right middle lobe infiltrate and peribronchial cuffing in both lung fields; these findings were consistent with the final diagnosis of recurrent respiratory illness manifesting as acute bronchiolitis and right middle lobe pneumonia.

I read with interest Drs Ha and Wilson's "What's Your Diagnosis?" case of an infant with a history of wheezing and dry cough ("History of Cough in an Infant and a Toddler") (). In a setting such as this, one should also consider the possibility of foreign-body aspiration, which can result in recurring wheezing and pneumonia. The fact that this infant has a 2-year-old sister makes it quite possible that the toddler had shared food and other small objects with her younger brother, who at age 6 months would be developmentally capable of grasping his sister's offerings and putting them in his mouth. It's too bad a lateral chest radiograph was not available for assessment of this possibility.

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