Too much blue inhaler...

[RatherBeOnThePiste]

DD 13 has taken too much (6) puffs of blue and isfeeling weird and shaky. This will just pass won't it? She was feeling wheezy when she woke up and took too much. I think hayfever is bad today. Is there anything I can do? She is lying on the sofa feeling v weird

ventolin does that I find (when you take a lot in one go). If she sits it out she should be fine. I hate taking loads of puffs of it, makes me feel very spacey and weird.

If the shaky feeling is from not breathing well, I'd pop her to the GP.

just to reassure you, ds had an asthma crisis recently. His was on 10 puffs every hour plus a second inhaler. so thats 240 puffs in a 24 hour period. SHe hasnt overdosed, dont worry.

She'll be ok. Is she able to breathe ok now though? If not then that could be making her feel odd and if so you need medical advice now.

Thank you. Much appreciated. I think she is feeling spacey and weird. She thought she was going to faint. She is on the sofa. How long before it passes do you reckOn? She took6 and isn't a regular user but uses it at this time of the year when she gets hayfever

Agree with the above

yes it makes me feel faint. It's a horrid feeling. I'd say she should start feeling better within the hour (the shakiness should certainly have gone in that time) but that weird feeling might last a bit longer.

Make sure she's had something to eat because it only feels worse if you haven't.

On my daughter's asthma plan, she can take up to 10 puffs of the blue at one time to relieve symptoms. However, if 10 puffs are required, I am also to take her to hospital for checking.

If 6 puffs were relieving symptons I would just keep an eye on her. Salbutomal (the drug in the blue inhalor) has a side effect of raising the heart rate, which is why she feels weak and shaky. When my wee one was on intravenous salbutomal her HR was something wild like 200 for days (she was obviously in high dependency being monitored at that time!)

Thank you everyone - yes she is breathing fine now and beginning to feel better, but it is coming up to an hour. She feels better lying down. I will get her to eat something. She was certainly panicky before which added to it all.

She does get hay-fever and only has the blue inhaler essentially for this time of year, but that means her body is not hardy to it iyswim. She woke up and felt wheezy because of the hay-fever, itchy eyes as well, took 2 puffs, felt it hadn't worked so took more, then more. I suppose for someone not used to it 6 puffs in quick succession is a lot? I think a lesson has been learnt here for both of us.

HattiFattner & ithaka - good lord, that is a whole lot of medication your poor DC and you, makes our situation look pathetic really.

Thank you everyone, just need to call the school now to say she's overdosed

As others have said don't worry about the amount, Ds is on 5 puffs 4 times a day at the moment as he is getting over a cold - he is 16 months. At 12 months he was on 10 puffs every 2 hours!

Hope she feels better soon

This will pass in about half an hour, she'll feel weird but it isn't damaging her, my 3 year old was on 6 puffs every 3 hours once.

Thank you - she asleep on the sofa and I will wake her in an hour, she was already feeling much better. She was panicking about her heart racing and feeling faint. I suppose because she is not used to taking it really at all, that 6 puffs felt such a lot to her body. I do feel sorry for all these little DC having to take copious quantities though.

I am glad she feels better. You can reassure your daughter that the racing heart is a natural side effect of the medication. I have never taken it myself, but it must feel horrible, however it as also (literally) a life saver.

if she is like my DD when young, it's possible that she isn't taking deep enough breaths when she puffs?

my DD whn small found it hard to synchronise breathing in with puffing.. and ended up taking lots of too-shallow breaths..

In this situation the drug isn't fully reaching the bottom of the lungs, so you don't get the benefit in terms of breathing, but it is still being absorbed into the blood stream, so you get the racing heart. Then they child panics a bit, and takes more, even more shallow, breaths and more puffs, and so on..

I wish I had a good recommednation for how to teach small children to take deep breaths... never found one.

LeroyJethroGibbs - your post just made me laugh - bless you for cheering me up! Although clearly that was very minxy of you, and I won't recomend it to DD!

stubbornhubby - I expect that may have a lot to do with it, she isn't young (13) but is inexperienced, maybe she needs on of those spacer things?

well 13 is good, because it means that she will be capable of doing it -- but with practice.

No, skip the spacer, learn the puffer.

I think that children have the idea that the the puff is going to squirt the drug into their lungs all on it's own. They don't quite see the connection with the deep breath. From experience I can tell you that if they breath all the way out, and then breat all the way in.. and hold your breath.. you will feel the impact of just one puff, quite noticably.

the one hint I do have is -- deep breath in and HOLD YOUR BREATH for 20 seconds or so.. keeping all the drug inside your lungs for as long as possible. A very frequent mistake with children is to breath in and then blow it all straight back out again...

sorry I should be clearer..

• breath out
• then, as you puff, take deep breath all the way in
• hold breath for 10-20s
• breath out
• breath back in again as calmly as possible.

(10-20sec might be too long if they have been breathless already)

Dicsclaimer - I'm not a doctor.. just an accoasional wheezer, and parent of one. This is just worked for us.

I think I shall be supervising inhaler use again - so we can def work on this!

yeah, and have a discssion, and demo, and practice when she's not wheezing, when she's calm.

If they are breathless already my expereince is that they are NOT in a listening mood