Ventolin inhaler dosage

[idobelieveinfairies]

My DS (14) has just been diagnosed with Asthma. The doctor thinks it's something he will grow out of as i had it for a short space of time as a teenager too.

The doctor advised he has two puffs before sports as it's only when he has sports there is a problem. Though the instructions on chemist label says 2 puffs four times a day (we are going with what the actual doctor says).

DS has used it a couple of times and it is helping his breathing whilst excercising, but feels he needs another 2 puffs half way through PE lesson/footie training etc. Is that ok? Should he be using it when he feels like he needs it?

Any advice welcome :)

Hiya. My ds (6) has asthma.
Ventolin is a reliever inhaler and the dose is two puff per required need.
It is difficult to overdose from an inhaler. My ds took 10puffs at a time during bad exacerbations. Though it can make you feel a bit shaky and anxious in high doses.
It might be worth asking to see a specialist nurse to assess the need for a preventer inhaler. Salmeterol is a long acting form of salbutamol and might work better to prevent symptoms during exercise
Hth

If he needs more then he should have it. Ds is 2 and has had 10 puffs every 2 hours before now so like pp said it is hard to overdose.

oh ok, i will ask. We are due to go back to the surgery in a couple of weeks for breathing tests so will sort it out more then. He has a lot of sport this weekend so he can use it when he feels like he needs more.

Thanks :)

Salbutamol (Ventolin) is a reliever inhaler as others have said. Normally people use it to alleviate symptoms or before they do something which provokes an attack e.g.. sport.

It is unusual to take it regularly and in fact if you are having to take it regularly because you are frequently wheezy it would generally indicate that you may need a preventer inhaler (usually a steroid).

If the pharmacist has issued a medication with the wrong instructions for use on it it is actually quite serious. i would query what the prescription said with your GP (if they have computerised records then this should be easy to quantify) and if it was prescribed as required (PRN is the latin phrase docs use to indicate this) then the pharmacist has issued the prescription with incorrect instructions.

On this occasion it isn't caused harm because you realised but imagine if it was a medication which is dangerous in overdose, or was given to someone who didn't realise they had to query it. Therefore I would feed this back to the pharmacy.

Hope that makes sense but the GP who is treating / seeing you will be best able to advice your son about his asthma.