newly diagnosed 18 month old

im 20 and have had asthma since the age of two. I took my 18 month old little girl to the doctors AGAIN yesterday as she has been coughing badly and really wheezy for 8 months now and finally got told she has asthma. she has been given clenil 100 to have twice aday. i find it hard knowing if she has taken the full dose as she screams whenever her inhaler is near her. i feel as if it is my fault that she has to go through having the inhalers. in the last 8 month she has been rushed in to hospital 6 times because of being unable to breath. how do i know if she is getting the full dose. i dont sleep properly as im scared she'll have an attack and stop breathing. can anyone give me any suggestions to help me.

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HI net 89,

I dont have a child with asthma but just wanted to let you know if you look at the top of the page -All about asthma and follow it to parents of children there is info on their that you might like to read.

love Glynis xxxx

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my heart goes out to you as I know totally how you're feeling. My 13 month old daughter has a diagnosis of asthma and is on clenil and montelukast. She gets short of breath and coughs regularly. I too am scared to go to sleep for fear that she'll have an attack and I wont hear her. She's in my bedroom as I feel Ill have a better chance of being there if need be. She needs inhalers 4-5 nights out of 7. ( around 2am!)

Has your daughter got a spacer? If so, then you should be able to see the valve moving or hear it clicking if she is breathing in the meds. I was told by a nurse in hospital that if my little girl cried while taking the meds then it would enhance the effects of the spacer in that she'd be taking big breaths of it which is what you're aiming for.

Im sure she will get used to seeing the spacer and inhalers. My daughter takes her dummy out ready now when she knows its time. She sits still and breaths well using the spacer.

Its not your fault at all. Noone would wish this dreadful condition on their little ones.

I hope that her coughing and wheezing eases and her asthma becomes controlled quickly. Its such a scary time as a mum to watch and see your baby struggling for breath.

Ive probably not been much help. Just wanted you to know you're not alone.

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Hello love, don't worry - she will get used to it. We had a few probs at first and so we had to try a lot of different tricks! My son is very sensitive (but they all are aren't they) and I think that he just mirrored my anxiety because I was so upset about him being poorly and was frightened after he'd been in hospital.

Anyway, our tricks were:

We played with the the spacer and mask on his favourite teddy bears and some of his favourite adults (grandma, my best friend, his best friend's Mum etc) pretend to be taking it, all have a go etc

We played a counting game - instead of counting numbers we reeled off things he liked at the time (with my boy it was soft-fruits and vehicles!!!)

I made sure that I had it with plenty of time on my hands. I was finding that if I was giving myself a short window of time then I'd get stressed quite quickly, all the underlying anxiety that I was feeling would bubble up I suppose and my boy totally picked up on it.

I'll ask my husband if he can remember any other tricks.

And about the anxiety - it is so natural. I posted something a couple of weeks ago about it and the support was wonderful from everyone was fab, you should have a look, it might make you feel a little bit better - the post is called ""I'm a mummy that can't quite stop worrying"", it's in this section.

Hope you start to feel a bit better xx