Salbutamol for 19m old - any experience?

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We've just come away from the doctor's with a prescription for Salbutamol + spacer and mask for DD who is 19m.

She has a very bad cough and the GP heard a wheeze with the stethoscope.

I've Googled and not really found much info on toddlers having Salbutamol and the leaflet in the inhaler box says from 4 years.

Can anyone else whose young child has Salbutamol give any tips on administering it. I'm guessing DD won't think the mask is much fun.

We tried it for my 7mo and she was happy to use the spacer, they're very simple to use.
Unfortunately it didn't help her symptoms.

We found most success if DD was sleeping, when awake she would cry and move so it took 2 of us but meant she got a proper lung full.

Hi, my DD was 12 months when she had to start using Salbutamol and Clenid for RS virus. We too used the teddy-bear spacer. It gave her great relief and we had to continue with the medication well into spring the following year - to prevent another case of RS (and IC...), but also to treat any wheeziness. We were told she'd likely to develop asthma, but luckily that didn't happen. The mask was a nightmare, but we were told if the child screams whilst you administer it, they actually take deep breaths so the Salbutamol is inhaled very deeply, which is good. Our GP advised us to have a treat to hand after adminstering the spacer -we used chocolate buttons as a 'reward', it worked :-). Good luck and keep at it, it will get easier eventually :-)

Try playing about with the spacer, so she’s used to it. You could using it to pretend to give medicines to teddy or yourself.

Other than that, bribery or just holding her down if you have to. It’s not ideal, but as a last resort she will be taking the salbutamol in if she’s crying.

My dd has had since she was 13 months

She hated the mask but we had no choice to pin her down to give her it

She screamed a lot, but the doctors said that that was actually good as it got to her lungs quicker.

She still has it now at 5

Thank you for responding. We'll see how we get on with it when we get hold of the spacer.

We sometimes give it when they are asleep, works wonders. Been giving since 8 months

The first attempt actually went pretty well. After her monkey soft toy demonstrated first DD was happy to have the mask on.

The instructions for the spacer say to use for 4 breaths in but I imagine that's for older children where you can instruct them to take 4 deep breaths. Is it the same with the mask on? It's not particularly clear.

Between the mask and the chamber there's a little disc type thing. With each breath the disc moves/clicks. So while she is breathing (normal breaths are fine) watch for the clicks of the disc as that kind of shows how many breaths she's taken.

We used the spacer from 12 months and had no problems. She was also on montelukast tablets which she took no problems as well, just chewed them up. I find not making it part of a routine helped so if she didn’t like it we didn’t go through a whole shebang of drama every day. It just came out every so often, was used and put away no fuss.

DS is 21 months. Salbutamol has been a godsend. He generally tolerates the spacer quite well if I hold him against me. Good luck.

With a little one just count to ten with each puff, take the inhaler off give it a shake and do the next puff. Try and get a good seal with the spacer, over mouth and nose.

I was told to count to 30 using the spacer

Paediatric nurse here. Counting slowly to 10 is enough. Try and get the aerochamber spacer, the yellow one With the teddies on, it's much smaller and less scary for toddlers. The mask is a better fit as well.