To give my toddler salbutamol?

[StillSquirrelling]

Just a quick one really. My toddler has been (dry) coughing more or less every 30 seconds or so through the night and all morning. He doesn't seem too bothered by it but is obviously getting quite exhausted by it!
DD2 was prescribed an inhaler (and spacer) a few months ago for possible asthma (she's 5) as she had a pretty regular night time cough a lot of the time. Other than that she has no symptoms so they aren't sure if it actually is asthma.
As I understand it, salbutamol simply works to open up the airways temporarily and the doctor said is pretty hard to overdose on it too.
As DS is too young for cough medicine (he's 3 in 6 weeks but is height and weight of an average 4 yr old according to his red book) would I be ok to give him a couple of puffs of his sister's inhaler? Obviously I'm not a doctor and you're not suppose to give other people someone else's prescribed medicine but from what I've been told and have read, salbutamol seems essentially harmless but quite helpful!
Thoughts?

Sorry for any typos etc - I'm on my phone!

No.
Your child has not been diagnosed with asthma so don't give him medication that is not his.

Salbutamol does more then open up the airways. He nosy be allergic to it. His cough may not be asthma related.
Give him a spoonful of honey to see if that helps the cough and soothe his throats then see GP in the morning.

Of course not.

It's very unlikely it would do any harm tbh. If it helped, that would be useful information for your GP. Still best to get him seen however,

I don't think her GP needs "useful" information of the effects of op experimenting with unprescribed medication, Witch.

No, I did think it would be frowned upon. I won't give it to him then. He's had honey but that hasn't really helped. I'm not in the habit of giving prescription medicine to others, I just thought it might be a fairly harmless way of helping him, but obviously it isn't!

If you're concerned enough to give him unprescribed ventolin, then you'd be best off seeing the OOH GP.

As an aside, was your DD given anything aside from the ventolin? Asthma care seems to vary quite a bit actoss the UK, and so if you haven't got an asthma plan, follow up appointment in place, and discussed additional meds/hospital referral, then it might be worth going back.
Both the Asthma UK website and the parents support thread in Childrens' Health are excellent sources of information, should you need them.

Salbutomol (Ventolin) increases the heart rate. Not safe and in actual fact surprisingly easy to overdose in the wrong patient.

Yeah, because tremors, tachyarrthmias and palpitations are useful side effects.

I won't take him to the GP unless it lasts for over a week. That seems to be the accepted length of time for a lingering cough in kids to warrant attention from the doctor here. Unless it gets croup-y of course. He'll just have to grin and bear it I suppose. I feel so sorry for him though, poor sausage.

Give him iced drinks or ice lollies. It helps with the swelling in all the little tubes. Bronchi- thingies. And a good way of keeping his fluid levels up.

Personally, I would do it.

Yes, it is prescribed medication but salbutamol cannot do harm.

I can't see how you could overdose him. The dosage of salbutamol in a nebuliser is 32x a full inhaler's and they're given to small children. I was on a nebuliser as a small 5 year old, so probably a similar size.

I think he needs to see a GP, but if his breathing is compromised then I'd try the inhaler.

• obviously it can do harm. Badly worded.

TheDoctor
No, she wasn't given anything else. She doesn't have any wheezing (except when she has a cold, as do I) and the test she did (the blowing I a tube one) was fine. She was literally given it to quieten her night time cough down, with the instruction to come back in a month if it hadn't worked. It did work so we haven't been back. She only takes it on the odd occasion that her cough starts up again.

you can get cough medicine for children, op.

It's pointless taking him to the GP, as I've said above, because they just send us away unless it's been going on for more than a week or sounds like croup - which it doesn't.

heart pretty much all the non-prescription cough medicine is for over 6yrs. Apart from the ones that have no active ingredients of course.

Do you have a family history of asthma or allergies?

If your DD is possibly asthmatic then I would have thought a GP would take your son's symptoms more seriously, rather than waiting a week.

I would give honey and lemon and keep indoors. If hes not in any pain then I dont see the need for drugs

There were loads of cough medicine suitable for my 17 month old - I bought Tixilix with glycerine honey and lemon for him (but it tastes like ass)

Try Vicks vapour rub too, and some steam.

If it didn't get better and you ended up taking him to the doctor would you be happy to tell them you had been giving him salbutamol? If he had an adverse reaction to it would you be happy to explain in A&E that you had decided to give him it?

Cough meds are useless.

If its asthma, you shouldn't wait a week.

It could be cough variant asthma, and it could get worse.

Please do not do something so stupid

Salbutamol is not an inert substance...it has profound effects on the smooth muscle of the airways and can cause tachycardia

It isn't the most effective broncho dilator in under 2's, so it is likely you would get side effects and no positive benefits

Speak to your GP

My baby (15 months) and toddler (3yrs today) both have ventolin and beige (can't remember the name) inhalers for post viral coughs that came from a couple of bouts of viral bronchilitis.
Go to the GP and don't give medicine that's not described, the GP should be able to help.

Also, mines are being suspected as possibly having a type of asthma that presents as coughing instead of wheezing from the bronchilitis, so talk to the Dr and talk about the history with your DD.