more asthma questions... DS 13mo

[sillyworriedmama]

hello, the 'watchers and waiters' thread seems to have dropped off the active list, so I'm just starting a new one for a quick question. We have stupidly mislaid DS's brown inhaler for 3 days now (searched everywhere) but because the asthma nurse had been expecting to stop him from having it at the next appt (10 days time) we weren't particularly worried. However, in the 3 days he's been building up another stinking cough. He woke last night coughing and this morning its just cough-cough-cough-cough-cough pause for 3 minutes, cough-cough-cough... repeat. Have given atrovent and ventolin but he's going through a massively angry phase with the inhalers, and screams when you put the aerochamber on - so I don't know if anything goes in as he barely inhales.

so two questions - is there anywhere I can get a brown inhaler from over the weekend? And secondly, is there anything I can do to make the blue/green inhalers less stressful for him to take so that I can relieve his symptoms better?

so cross with myself for relaxing a bit! I bloody knew it was too early to stop the brown inhaler. Should have been knocking on the door of the surgery the minute it went missing. *feels like a bad mother

thanks for your advice

(1) try giving your out of hours GP service a call, explain the situation, see ifthey'll write you a script.

(2) have you tried "giving" the inhaler to any of ds's teddies? Let him have a play with it, Try a demo yourself (I know he's only little but should get the idea). Also a good idea to count along with the inhaler so that they know when it'll be coming off.

Best of luck :)

Oh and don't feel bad!

Asthma is such an unpredictable beast, it's often a case of wait and see (hence thhe thread title!)

thank you MrsPlez! Will try the teddy route. Just put him down for a morning nap, which is pretty unusual these days. I hate seeing him so worn out by it - he just wants cuddles and sleep time, wouldn't even eat breakfast today. sigh Will keep a close eye and get to the walk in today if he doesn't pick up by lunch time. It certainly is an unpredictable beast! Not sure it's how I'd choose to be kept on my toes but there you go! :)

I agree with mrsplez, as he is napping I would also try to get a few puffs of ventolin into him now.

If the only way you can get him to have it means he screams though then so be it is how I work it with ds, it is more important to get it into him.

hi Sirzy :) he's slept about 3.5 hours today, and is now playing with the chamber and shaking up the puffer giggling like a maniac. I think I need to let him be more familiar with them, instead of just coming at him when he already feels rough. He is doing ok, apart from the excessive sleepiness he doesn't seem distressed by the coughing (which has settled with the ventolin for a bit now). I've never tried to get it in when he's asleep, I'll def give it a go! I'm definitely of the 'just get it in him' school too... usually hold him down while DH gets the mask on, when he is grumpy and coughing so much pretty much anything upsets him anyway:( so I see it as a necessary evil. Much harder when you're on your own though!

I found letting DS play with them has certainly helped, he is 21 months now and we rarely have issues getting him to have it now thankfully. Shame the times he fights the most are when he needs it the most though!! Before now he has fallen asleep hugging his spacer like a teddy!

DS isn't great at allowing me to do it while he sleeps (which is a pain when he needed it 2 hourly!) but I know it works for a lot of children.

Glad the ventolin is helping, hope he is better soon.

might be a long night... just given 2x ventolin, 2x atrovent, he coughed himself literally sick - actually vomiting - when I put him to bed. :( it's horrible, sometimes it escalates so fast. He took the inhalers this time. We pretended to give one to mummy, then to daddy, then to DS. Repeated slowly until he had all four. God bless MN for reminding me I'm not the only one going through this. Thanks for your replies ladies x

If your worried dont hesitate to take him to A and E to get checked out. The rule of thumb I was given for DS was if I have to give 5 puffs of ventolin and there is no drastic improvement then to take him in.

Hope you all get some sleep

he's been up in the night up to 5x before I knew what was wrong - if he sleeps less than 4 hours after the 4puffs off we shall go (again... i'm getting to be a 'regular'). I was told that the green and blue inhalers work better together so I'm hoping that this will maybe work better for him tonight. Thanks for replying, I'll let you know how we get on...

Good luck!!

Its a horrible feeling knowing that the hospital visiting is approaching and never knowing when the right time is. Hopefully he settles so you dont have to go.

We are regulars to, when you see A and E/kids ward staff in town and they stop you to say hi you know you have spent to long there!!

Call Out of Hours and tell them you have lost the brown inhaler and can they prescribe another one - most towns have an all night or late night pharmacy.

You can give up to 10 puffs of ventolin through a large volume spacer but if he isn't responding to that then head for A&E just to be on the safe side. You can give the ventolin through the mask when he's asleep.

Just to let you know, we made it through the night, went up to 8 puffs then he settled in the end. I turned the house upside down today and am happy to say I found the brown one posted under the laundry basket! I think a certain small person may have put it there... He's still exhausted, crashed out now having another morning nap - its bee nearly an hour and a half so far, but I've been checking on him and other than coughing he seems ok. Such a fine line when it gets to that point, but I'm glad we didn't keep him up and take him to A&E now, I think most of all he really needs rest. None of us sleep at the emergency dept! His tummy isn't pulling in either, so I'm happy I made the right call. Thanks for the support!

Yay for finding inhalers and not needing the hospital