my 2 yr old son was diaganosed back in june last year it is a real struggle trying to get him to have his inhaler. we have stuck stickers on his spacer we play with it but he still hates it . at the moment he is having his puffer every 4 hours as he has got a cold . it takes two of us to give him his puffer it is a nightmare. after the struggle of giving him his puffer he has a coughing fit is this normal ? it is where he just struggles to get away from his puffer?
my only advice is what my mum did with my brother and i.
Try playing with his favorite teddy and letting him give it to his teddy showing him its not gonna hurt him etc.
Failing that my mum waited till we were asleep and gave it to us when we were sleeping.
Keep persevering. If you to are asthmatic you could let him give you your meds through a spacer to show him there is nothing wrong or strange about it etc.
Hope it helps and good luck. Lv kat Xx
hi
My son has had an inhaler since he was 12 weeks old but when he was two we had to change from the areo chamer to the volamatic and he hated it . We spent ages playing with it putting stickers on it and pinning him done to give it. In the end we mastered it we told him that it was magic and that in would help him and make him better from that day we never referred to it as anything else but his magic. We also sang nursery rymes in between puffs in stead of counting which made it more fun. He didn,t like it at first but now at two and half he asks for his magic when he feels tight chested. hope this helps but what ever ou decide to do stick with it dont keep changeing and dont dont give up. it will get easier.
clare
x
I have the same problem with My 20 month old son, he's suffered with Asthma since he was 6 months, I've been in and out of hospital with him. I know how hard it is to give an inhaler to a child that hates it. I always had to get family/friends to come over to help me give him his inhaler when he was needing it every 4 hours because I could not do it on my own, where he struggled and screamed so much and my husband was at work. He recently was admitted to hospital and came home 2 days later where I had to give him his inhaler 10 puffs every 4 hours. A nurse in the hospital told me the best way to do it when I'm on my own and that is for Me to sit on the bed upright with my legs out straight, lie my son the same way in between my legs with his feet nearest the bottom, put each of his arms under each of my legs, that way he cannot move, all he can do is kick his feet, I then have 2 hands where I can hold the volumatic and squirt the inhaler, I know it may sound very harsh but it is much, much easier and it's less of him moving around and you are able to get it over with quicker, although he still crys after a few puffs he settles and then it's over with and then I can get him straight up and give him a big kiss and hug and tell him with a super boy he is! I don't think there is anything you can do to make your son like his inhaler but as he gets older he will understand a bit more, my 3 yr old also has bad asthma but he uses his volumatic with the mask, he just breaths in and out on his own through the nozzleand it's fine. Hope this has been some help, I know exactly how your feeling.
Claire
Perservere and bribery is how we did it!!! We did stickers on the chamber and on him, packs of raisins if he did it nicely, playing with it and getting him involved in setting it up and administering it himself. He is now three and most of the time takes it on his own although sometimes he actually asks us to hold the spacer. Now only occasionally have to hold him especially if he is very sleepy but night cough not settling.
Good luck!!
2 yr old hates his puffer
hi i had the same trouble with my daughter and also work with children with special needs so i know just how hard it can be to get a child to take there medication it can be a hard and tiring time but it does get easier the more you persevere ,the trick is to make it fun in anyway you can but obviously this depends on ur child and their interests my daughter now likes to do it herself after having to let her teddy have his first hope this helps
I found out my 3 year old daughter has asthma on Tuesday, which was a bit of a relief after her coughing on and off her whole life & having a number of so called chest infections. We were given an inhalor and spacer to give her whenever she had a spout of coughing. It has teddy bears on it but she refused to take it or put it anywhere near her face. Her dad, grandparents, pre-school tried to encourage in various way over the last few days with no effect (playing games, rewards, bribery, reading books of children with asthma, putting up posters of children taking inhalors and watching other children in her pre-school taking their inhalors). When we tried to explain it would help her cough she just said ""I love coughing"" which she clearly didn't, she was just scared. I was desperate to get the stuff in her to relieve her coughing, to cut an even longer story short we were advised to go up to the Peadiactric Assessment Unit up the hospital where a specialist nurse would help encourage and help administer. She tried for about half and hour, then it took two nurses and myself to hold her down and administer it. My daughter was very distressed, but as soon as she'd had the Sabitimol there was a marked improvement and although exhausted I believe she may have understood it helped her. She had some given in her sleep last night at home and this morning she managed a few puffs after pursuading her, saying that if she didn't have it nicely at home we'd have to return to the hospital and the nurses give it to her. Sometimes you just need to be cruel to be kind. (Doesn't stop you feeling guilty though, hey?!)
I hope this helps - I guess what I'm saying is go back to your doctor and request a referal to the PAU at your local hospital or equivillant. Best wishes.
I think that two is such a wonderful and difficult age. These little people are struggling for their independence and identity.
I had many of the same problems with my now 11 year old daughter. Now we have different ones. I know two is still very little, but I would try and tell him a story with one of his toys about asthma and that the toys and his lungs need more asthma medicine. He can give the teddies medicine and then you can help him with his own medicine.
My daughters teddies had more emergencies than you can imagine, but she was in charge and she got tell them what to do and when to take medicine. Actually she was a much stricter disciplinarian than me. So then with my help I let her be charge of her spacer and her medicine.
By the time my daughter was 4 she was absolutely in charge of knowing about her inhalers...so much so that we had a little row the school who did not want her to have them in the classroom. (we sorted it out eventually)
I think my daughter was 2 and half when we started, so it might still be a tall order to try some of this, but definitely trying to explain what asthma is to him and trying to let him take charge (under supervision) is the way forward. Also maybe changing spacers? I don't know which you have.. see which one he wants to use.
Good luck...and I hope things get better.. the terrible two's don't last long. World domination for two year olds and all that.
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