Any tips for giving asthma inhaler puffs to a hysterical 13 month old?

[Jacksmybaby]

He goes absolutely ballistic screaming and fighting, and (as he is incredibly strong) I can barely hold him still, we end up having to have several goes as he wriggles the mask away from his face. Have tried the "look, teddy/bunny/mummy etc is having her medicine, now your turn" thing, plus tried giving him the inhalers and the mask to play with so he knows they're nothing scary. Any tips for a) how to physically restrain him and hold the mask, b) how to help him be less scared of the mask/inhalers? TIA.

well in terms of holding him down safely

one person holds his body

the other one puts his head between knees to hold it still then applies the mask

the screaming will ensure it goes deep into his lungs

it's really tough .. but you have to do it

he'll get used to it eventually

definitely easier with two. sit him on your knee facing away from you, put one hand on his forehead to keep him still (ish) and hold his arms down with the other hand. Then other person does the mask.
It's not nice but i always found if we were really firm it would be over so much quicker and you'd know exactly how many puffs he's had etc.
I have done it on my own though, again sitting behind.
Also, they crying is good is that they take really good deep breaths.
Not fun is it.

We had the same trouble with ds when he was about 18mos
DH held him in his lap facing out ,one hand around his front holding both arms at the same time iyswim.
I had to force the mask on and basically keep teh puffs going until I thought he had had the required amount.We tried the syrup but it doesn't work quick enough.
It's horrible but they do eventually stop the hysterics.
Bribery worked a bit ,ie smartie for a puff but yours is too young for that I expect.

Good luck

hi twiglett, we seem to cross paths a lot, (i'm platesmasher btw).....
That's your cue.....go on you know you want to say it...

we were told to let DD cover the outside in stickers.

We have also been known to give it her when she was asleep.

I agree with Twiglett, he will get used to it.

My DD's spacer was huge but my DS has a little one with teddies on it and he loves it.

Have him lying between your legs on his back, and then place your legs over his arms so he can't struggle. I know it sounds horrible, but keep calm and smiley and explain that he needs to have it, and then do singing. As he gets older, he can make requests between puffs

Thanks, I do it with DH at the weekends and it's so much easier but on weekdays there's only me around! Yes, I have found that siting him on my lap facing away, with one arm holding his arms down and my chin down over his shoulder to try and hold his head still, is the only way. Poor DS .

It's very very hard, and possibly even more distressing for you than for him.

You can sit on the floor and lie him in front of you, facing upwards with his head kind of in your crotch. pin his arms with the backs of your thighs, and just do it.

He will scream, but to be honest, the more he screams, the deeper it will go into his lungs.

Thats why my tip is so good, as it can be done by one person, a nurse showed it to me, and we started giving ds1 an inhaler at around the same age.

Overrun that sounds good, but I'm being dim - where are his legs? Under my legs too? Which way up is he?

we had the same prob with dd as you had to physically restrain her to get her to do it in the end when she was calm i demonstrated it on her dolly a couple of times and let her do it to her dolly first and now she doesn't have a prob with it (touch wood)

Sorry, I'll try and explain better If you sit up straight with your legs open, and lie him on his back with his head facing towards you, you can slide your legs over his arms so he can't flail about. In that position his legs shouldn't be too much of a problem, as he wont be able to reach the inhaler to kick it away. Or if he does kick it will only be your legs.
I found that being restrained like this, with soothing noises and then jokes and singing to make it seem fun, it didn't take more than a few gos before he was relaxed and would just assume the position

Oh ok I think I get it now, so his head is wedged up in the crotch basically?! Will give it a try and let u know how it goes! Thanks a lot .

I had this with ds.

He was fine playing with the mask but when he was having an asthma attack, there was no way I could get it anywhere near his face.
We ended up just kind of spraying the inhaler bit somewhere vaguely near his mouth and hoping for the best.

docs advice:

don't push it, don't get him worked up as the asthma will get worse, if he doesn't want to take the inhaler, ring the out of hours doc and get them to come round with steroids. Once he gets to 5 he won't be able to have the steroids any more and he will NEED the inhaler, so it is really important not to have him too scared to use it when there is no alternative.

Ds hasn't had an attack since then, so haven't had to put it into practice.

Do you have an asthma clinic that you can chat to?

btw, I realise that not everyone has an out of hours doc, and that not everyone has a doc as nice as mine, I was just sharing what mine said when I had this problem.

Good luck.

my ds liked seing other people use theirs so we went visiting granny and friends with asthma.if you dont know anyone you could do this with,maybe you pretending to do it would work.also ds likes his best toy having the inhaler-dh made his toy cow a inhaler!also he was better when dh did it rather than me.and changing places we did it.-in the bath worked for a bit,sat having a story on mummy and daddys bed etc.i think it just takes a while and then it becomes part of their routine.ds also likes helping so he gets them ready and takes the lids off and passes then to me to put in spacer thingy,then puts lids on and puts them in his inhaler bag.

I agree with squonk - I wouldn't push it - I take it v slowly when we had to do this with DD otehrwise she just became worse.
It is so hard you have my sympathies

Overrun you are a total lifesaver, your position worked like magic! He didn't like it any better, but at least it was over a lot quicker as he couldn't wriggle away so we got it done in one go. Thanks so much!

i used to do it when ds1 was strapped into highchair. this is good if you are on your own.

if he has a favourite pudding and can have that in front of him to have straight afterwards then that could be incentive to get it over and done with (bribery is always good for us, though 13 months is quite young for it?!).

now that ds is older we call it his 'trumpet'! he blows into it, then we depress the puffer, and he then takes a breath through the chamber. much easier than it used to be...

good luck!

Let him have a go at playing with the inhaler this way he will become more involved with the routine :)