How to get almost 5 year old to use inhaler - getting desperate

[rhetorician]

She has mild asthma, mostly manifesting as a cough, and consultant and GP have told us to use preventer with spacer. DD is a stubborn so and so to say the least and just will not use it. She runs away, hides, cries. Will use spacer without the medication but says it tastes nasty and will not listen to reason/bribes/threats. I've tried when she's asleep and she just turns her head away. She is quite sensitive to smells and tastes, but I really need her to take her medication before she has a bad attack.

incentivise it in someway? Reward for taking it for a week...? The spacer is the best option I know of... maybe try speaking to the asthma nurse.... they may have an idea of strategies.. ?

My DS was the same when he first got his preventer. He was three at the time and would not let us near him with it. We used a teddy and pretended to give it to that and then DS gave the inhaler to teddy as well. This really helped, we did teddy's turn, then DS turn.
Also when we spoke to the doctor about it, she explained that it doesn't need to be right over his face when you press it so for example the inhaler is in the spacer, you press it and then put it near the face so it covers the nose/mouth but not right onto it if you know what I mean? This hadn't initially been explained to us and it made the experience easier. It took about a week of doing the teddy thing he was taking it fine.

Chocolate bribe and trying it on toy cat worked a treat. Will drop choc bribe before long. She had built it up in her head and I just needed her to get beyond that. Thanks for the tips.

Great news

I don't know if she is a bit old for it but when my DS was younger we used to sing the same song every time (twinkle twinkle little star, but would work with anything really) as he got to learn that by the time the song finished the inhaler would be finished too