Asthma - Atrovent inhaler prescribed for 8 month old - anyone have any experience?

[Stagiaire]

My 8 month old baby has a chest infection and is quite wheezy. The GP has prescribed an Atrovent inhaler. I have never heard of this type of inhaler before. I am asthmatic and use blue, green and brown inhalers and understand the blue one is a reliever, the brown a preventor, etc. Am a bit confused as the Atrovent inhaler has a green dust cap but the inhaler itself is white. Has anyone heard of Atrovent? If so, can you tell me anything about it and why it has been prescribed for my baby instead of the bog standard ventolin? I didn't have time to discuss this with the GP as they were running 45 mins late and were in a bit of a panic. To be honest I think I was a bit shocked that she was prescribing an inhaler to a baby so I wasn't really thinking straight. Wish I'd asked more questions now.

My daughter had a chest infection when she was 11 months and couldn't stop coughing, especially at night and the doctor said that she thought that although the symptoms were asthma-like, she needed an inhaler to help widen her bronchial tubes (or something similar) I can't remember if it was Atrovent but she had to have it for a few months but it was hard to get her to inhale properly as there was a long tube and face mask attachment. A friend who is a nurse got me a proper small paediatric inhaler which was much more child friendly and didn't drown her face! Maybe you could just ring your doctor rather than go back to confirm about your inhaler.

My DTDs had atrovent for bronchiolitis (a chest infection) when they were about 18m. It is not often used for asthma I don't think (as the ventolin etc. tend to be preferred).

Your baby doesn't have asthma - so they don't need classical asthma medication. Probably becasue mechanism of bronchospasm is differeent in infection to that in asthma????

DO you need to know antything else.

I have been thinking about this for a few minutes ...

Atrovent is a bronchodilator in the same way that ventolin is a bronchodilator. I think atrovent is more to prevent bronchospasm whereas ventolin is to relieve an attack. The preventer you have for your asthma is not a bronchodilator (it will be steroids if it is brown) - which is not as appropriate in the case of chest infection wheeze as it is for asthma.

Basically your LO needs a preventer that is a bronchodilator and not a steroid. Neither the blue or brown inhalers you have fit this criteria (I am not familiar with teh green one I am afraid) - but Atrovent does.

Thank you for your responses. We ended up at A&E at 4am this morning as she couldn't sleep and was hot with rapid breathing. We ended up coming home with a salbutamol inhaler. The doctor did mention bronchiolitis and said that both Atrovent and Salbutamol don't always relieve the wheezing associated with a chest infection but they're worth trying. The doctor also explained that Atrovent does the job of both a reliever and a preventer - at least I think that's what she said - I was a bit groggy with lack of sleep. I'm sure SMS's explanation is more accurate!

dd2 (2.10) has a brown preventer and atrovent puffer which is used any time she has a cough and it really works wonders

Ds was given an Atrovent inhaler when he was around 6mths old. He had been diagnosed as a happy wheezer but I was concerned about the wheezing when he had a cold and so we had one for then. Tbh it never really worked with him and we swapped to a Salbutamol one which worked alot better HTH.

"The doctor also explained that Atrovent does the job of both a reliever and a preventer"

Exactly What I was trying to say but in fewer words.

Very helpful SMS.