New Person...15 month old just diagnosed following an attack!

Hi all. Im new to this forum. Just been referred to it by a friend. I have 2 children. My son was diagnosed with asthma age 2.5yrs. He has never had an attack but is extremely wheezy when ill. He has regular inhalers, steroids and nebs when poorly but is ok in normal daily activities.

My daughter is 15 months old and 2 days ago had a severe asthma attack. She has had inhalers before but only like her brother when she was poorly.

Her attack was the scariest thing I have seen! She went blue. I went into autopilot, gave her 4 puffs of ventolin and the blueness eased but she was still struggling. i got her to A&E and I cannot fault them! They got us straight through, put me and her a ease straight away, admitted her to the childrens ward and gave her regular nebs to ease her. They kept regular checks on her. Only when my husband arrived did I burst into tears at the thought of how bad it could have been!

She is home now and doing well but has officially been diagnosed. I have the self management system leaflet and we have her inhalers and prednisolone tabs. But what i wanted to ask you all is if any of you know a way of getting nebs at home?? We really struggle to get inhalers into my daughter. She screams, and its really upsetting. Shes strong for 15 months!! It takes 2 of us to give her her inhalers. Which is difficult when there are not 2 of us there and when we have to give her 10 puffs!! She takes nebs much easier and doesnt get distressed by them. I think she gets much more benefit from them. Any ideas??

Thanks

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Hello Gemmylou, welcome! You'll find loads of help on this site, it's fab.

Have just tried to track down some of my replies to other posts regarding getting young kids to take their inhaler. Here's one that I replied to and some of it might be of help?

asthma.org.uk/applications/...

Hope it helps!

Lx

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Hi. Thank you. Have seen your post and it came up with some great ideas. She gets so distressed. I sing twinkle twinkle, and she puts her chamber on us. She has no problems with it when its not on her face. She doesn't even cry when I show her that its time to have it. It is literally the minute u put it on her face. We have made it into games and her brother joins in..(they adore each other so its good that he has them too because he helps her). She watches him have his inhaler and we let her help him. We also let my son help to give hers but its just such a strain. We sing, we clap, we play games but nothing. Will use the teddy trick and see if that works but i fear she may be a bit too young for that yet. Will also try the happy words. Will let u know how I get on.

Thanks. xx

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Hi

We used to distract our boy with things outside like birds etc. And then we'd count the birds while doing his meds. It did not always work and when he was very ill we simply had to do it while he cried. It helped him take deep breaths in if we timed it right anyway.

Good luck

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nebs

Hi,

we had an awful time for approx 12 months giving our littleone inhalers. he was diagnosed at 17 months and used to kick and scream and thrash round, he is now 5 and stands and counts each breath when he has his puffer.

nebs machines allocation differ from area to area. where we live they do not agree with supplying a neb at home as they say it gives a false sense of security. they told me that after 4 hrs of appearing ok after a neb that a child can suddenly become critically ill agai. personally i would love the reasurance of having a nebuliser. our child stopped breathing twice when he was two. we ended up buying a sats finger monitor that told us his heart rate and his sats levels. this was a great help to us but we were met with opposition at the hospital. however it was the best £89-00 i ever spent. it gives me peace of mind and as he doesnt wheeze- he is a silent asthmatic- it lets me know when his sats are at dangerous levels.

we use an aero chamber, one of the mums on the childrens ward recommended it to me as her child didnt like the volumatic. you get them on prescription or you can buy one for approx £6-00 from the chemist. its a small mask - they have colour appropriate sizes for size of child- with a small tube- about the size of the inner cardboard on a loo roll-. it has teddy bear pictures on it but we used to put noddy stickers on and on the inhaler we used to stick a sticker and he used to count to 5 watching pc plod etc. worth a try but do persevere, she will eventually get used to it.

good luck

kel