For Parents of Kids With Asthma

[Christine]

My DS (9) has been diagnosed with asthma since he was about 6 years old, although I'm sure he's had it since he was about 2.

We have not had much luck using inhalers due to what I would call my son's "immaturity." He does have ADHD and, I swear, most of the time act like a 5 year old instead of being 9 1/2. His problem is that he doesn't do the inhalers well enough and, therefore, is not getting enough medication in his lungs. So, while he does not have asthma attacks, his breathing is never as good as it should be.

For the last two years, we have been using a pediatric lung specialist. We have been instructed several times on the proper use of the inhalers. We have been through Advair (diskus), Pulmicort (Turbo-Inhaler), and Flovent (regular inhalers). We are now back on Advair after a one hour session of trying different inhalers at the doctor visit. We have an Aerochamber, but my son doesn't seem to want to sit still long enough to take the required breaths. I stand there with him while he does it but he laughs, moves around, etc. For the Turbo-Inhaler we were given the "practice" inhaler. If it whistled when he inhaled, we knew we were doing it correctly. Well, it whistled, yet after 2 weeks on this medication he begged me to go back to the Flovent because he felt that he was getting worse. I swear, the medication is just going in his mouth.

During this last visit, the doctor and respiratory therapist *felt* he was doing best with getting the Advair in. I'm not convinced.

Anyway, my question is for those of you with young children on inhalers, how do you explain to them how to get the medication into the lungs rather than into the mouth and swallowing it. For me, it's like I need to teach him how to smoke or something?? It's like he just can't get the "inhale" part of it.

 

[ElizK]

My daughter was 4 (nearly 5) when she started using an inhaler. We were given an Inspirease to chamber the medication (sounds similar to the Turbo-inhaler that you talked about... it whistles when the medicine is inhaled). I held her nose to help her learn to inhale correctly, and told her to take a big breath.

Albuterol comes in a liquid form. Have you tried that?

Hope that helps. Good luck!

 

[debster812]

We had some horrible winters from the time DS was about 1 and a half to about age 5. He slowly seems to be growing out of some of his respitory woes. When he was that young, we had to do preventative nebulizer treatments. Not sure how that would go with you guys.

 

[atlnewf]

The nebulizer might be an option. Unfortunately, it takes longer to do than a regular inhaler. The nicer thing is that all he has to do is sit and breathe. The mask will sit on his face and if it's anywhere near his nose/mouth he will get most of it into his lungs. The problem you will have, though, is getting him to sit still. I have to set up cartoons to get my guys to sit.

Ashley

 

[KarenC]

When my son was young, we gave him his medicine through a nebulizer. We didn't know it at the time, but he has ADHD too. I can remember holding him on my lap, with my leg slung over his, to keep him in place...not a happy time.

But it was so much better to give him the preventative meds, rather than have him get sick to the point of needing the rescue meds. Nothing like an ADHD kid on loads of ventolin and prednisone.

We finally had success with the aerochamber. Get him to take the same deep breaths he uses when the doctor listens to his lungs with the stethoscope.

Good luck to you...it will get better!

 

[HollyJoy]

My youngest daughter, 4, uses an inhaler and doesn't have a problem with it. She's also a great swimmer, so she knows how to hold her breath. That came in handy when teaching her to use the inhaler. Before we left the office, the staff made sure she could do it. They even gave her this neat little device to help her see what she was doing. It has a balloon type thing that deflates when she's inhaling correctly. She's currently on Flovent (every day) and Arbuterol (as needed).

 

[Teejay32]

Originally posted by Christine
Anyway, my question is for those of you with young children on inhalers, how do you explain to them how to get the medication into the lungs rather than into the mouth and swallowing it. For me, it's like I need to teach him how to smoke or something?? It's like he just can't get the "inhale" part of it.

I called it 'belly-breathing'. We used the aerochamber w/inhalers. If DD does it right her abdomen will expand instead of her chest, so I have her concentrate on belly-breathing. It only works for a few minutes until her attention wanders.

I think the nebulizer works better. Right now she's doing very well on preventatives.

 

[Christine]

Thanks for your replies.

Yes, I know albuterol is in a liquid form. We used to use that when he was very young. The doctor does not want to continue this as it causes too many systemic side effects and takes forever to get to the lungs. Also, my son doesn't actually use albuterol too much, I guess it is the maintenance meds I am concerned with.

He does very well with the nebulizer and we do have our own. But it is the goal of my lung specialist to get him off the neb. He says that it is really impractical for his age and that the best form or treatment is the inhalers. They get the most meds to the lungs. He is pretty strong in his opinion that my son *WILL* use the inhalers.

Belly breathing--well that is interesting. The respiratory therapist that was *training* my son said that when I see his chest rise, that's when I know he has taken a deep breath (vs. seeing his neck muscles tense). I think part of our problem is that we have been given so much conflicting advice on how to use these things.

I probably shouldn't say this but I will--to me it is like my son needs to learn to take a "bong hit." I don't really know how to explain that to him. But it is more like he is taking the strong breath through his mouth, almost like through a straw. And then the medicine just stops in the mouth.