My DS has Asthma- anyone else out there that feels helpless!?

[LullyMummaOfOne]

Hi, my DS has had Asthma since an early age although it has only just been detected and confirmed since he turned 2yrs. He only really gets bad patches of Asthma when he is ill with a cold or infection, apart from this it doesnt effect him at all. He has been quite bad in the past though and ended up in hospital then on steriods which help almost straight away.

Yesterday he came down with a cold and today he sounds wheezy. I have tried to give him his pump (with and without a spacer) but he refuses each time and just cries. We are off on Holiday on Saturday and really want to nip this in the bud. Does anyone have any advice or helpful suggestion that i can try to convience him that his pump is not a bad thing.

Im desperate!! thanks very much

Oh it can be so hard to get two year olds to cooperate with meds as they just don't understand. i have a 3 year old with cystic fibrosis who has to have the salbutamol, with a spacer device and this time round she's SO much better about it than when she was younger. The only thing I can think is to turn it into a game - call each puff a really funny name, do it yourself first (without the meds in) and make funny faces, maybe a little bribery in the form of a sweet or something if he does it?

Hope you get some other feedback and that you manage to have a nice holiday. x

Hi Lully.
I totally sympathise, my ds (2.10)has chronic asthma and we had such battles to get him to take his inhalar. We would end up having to hold him down and we would all end up in tears. He has to have his preventative twice a day now though so he eventually got used to it and he even tries to do it himself. I took my ds to the shop and let him choose his own sparkly stickers to decorate his spacer and then we played for hours giving all his toys/ mummy/ daddy/ the cat their turn at taking the inhalar (without actually spraying it of course. Ds now has a spare inhalar(empty case) and spacer so that he can play with it as much as he likes.
He used to get a small reward each time he used his inhalar but we faded that out as he got more and more used to it.
We also raised the head of ds's bed a little and invested in a humidifier for his bedroom, this seems to help at night when he has a cold (which is all the time)
What sort of spacer does your ds have? We were given a great big bulky thing with an attachment to go on the end but ds hated it and panicked when it was put near his face. We changed it for an aero spacer which is much smaller and has a vent in it so breathing through it is much more natural (it fits in your handbag too !!!!). Ask your doctor or pharmacist about the spacer options because it made a world of difference when we changed to the smaller one.
Good luck and enjoy your holiday.

changed to the aero spacer because he hated the big bulky one,

Oh, it is horrid when you have to hold them still and they are sobbing/screaming, but you have todo it so they can breath!

DS is always worse at taking inhaler when he is wheezy ( I suppose it is hard enough to breath in the 1st place without some contraption over your nose and mouth!).

I would resort to bribery, personally, rather than risk trip to hospital later in the day. Take your inhaler and have a chocolate button...
With ds we also go over the top with praise when he does it ( I have been known to do a "puffer dance" before now!)

Agree with chubbymummy.

DD was 18mths when she was diagnosed. We decorated DDs chamber with stickers and made it into a game (called it her fairy medicine). Does your DS have a fave character/tv programe that you could incorporate into a game?

The aero spacer is also a lot better than the bigger spacer. DD seems to get the full dose a lot quicker as there is less gap between her mouth & the inhaler, iyswim (she doesn't have to take as many breaths!!)

DD is now 6 and we can manage the asthma pretty well. She has a preventer which keeps it at bay, but as soon as she shows signs of getting a cold we start the ventolin as well.

Good luck!!

Thanks for all your advice. My DS has a small spacer, not quite sure of the name but will look into this tonight and see if its an aero one- if not i will mention to the doctor tomorrow.

He loves Noddy at the moment as is still obsessed witht he Night Garden so i will also try the game plan.

I just hope that he will understand soon that the inhaler makes him better.

we use stickers on the chamber too - ds quite likes it though he seems to think that he should be blowing not breathing in - he has seen me with my peak flow meter