Teaching a young kid to use an optichamber for an inhaler??

[Logan Sapphire]

My son is 19 months old and needs to use an inhaler (albuterol and Flovent) several times a day. He has the optichamber/mask contraption, but doesn't really inhale the way he should. It was a long struggle to get him to accept using it (initially it took my husband and me to hold him down) and now he'll tolerate the mask on, but only for a few seconds and certainly doesn't take the required 8 breaths each puff.

Is there any way to teach him how to use it properly or is this something that we'll just keep having to do and he'll eventually learn on his own?

 

[NovemberBride]

Re: Teaching a young kid to use an optichamber for an inhale

LS,

My DD started using the same thing as your son at an even younger age. What we did was just try to get her to copy us - i.e. we would take exaggerated breaths. I don't think there is anyway to get kids that young to take a set number of breaths, but we did the best we could and it seemed to work alright.

 

[diamondringlover]

Re: Teaching a young kid to use an optichamber for an inhale

My son has asthma and he was diagnosed at around age 2, but he used a Nebulizer and he had liquid albuterol and there was something else we use to give him 4 times a day but I cant remember the name of the drug right now...but does your son have a nebulizer? all we did with that was put the meds in the little cup thing and strap the face mask on him and he would breath normally and he got his meds without to much struggle..the down side was it took about 5 mins to use it and it was a struggle to get him to sit still for that long, but we would talk to him, read to him or put his favorite TV show on (we had many, many tapes for him to watch), but with the nebulizer we knew he was getting all of his meds, he didnt get a inhaler until he was heading to kindergarten at age 5 and even then he had trouble using it...good luck with your son it does get easier the older they get.

 

[pancake]

Re: Teaching a young kid to use an optichamber for an inhale

LS, you just need to secure him the best you can to bet the mask on with a good seal. For some patients that means parents bracing kids lying on the floor between the parent's legs, or holding them on your lap with the arms braced with the parent's elbows and the mask pushed onto the face with the head against the parent's chest. It is unpleasant at first but tends to improve over time. A 19 mother is too young to reason with, they just don't have the capacity to understand that they "have" to do something. Some are very compliant but most are not.

Spacers/chambers are preferred to nebulisers as the deposition of medication in the airways is equivalent, and spacers are portable, whereas negs are not.

 

[Logan Sapphire]

Re: Teaching a young kid to use an optichamber for an inhale

Thanks for the tips!

He's used the inhaler before at a younger age but we always thought it was a temporary thing. Now that the pulmonologist has said it's a long-term occurrence, at least for the foreseeable future, I'm resigned to the whole ordeal. I think he's particularly pissy b/c he's on a ton of medication at the moment:

Albuterol every 4 hours
Flovent x 2/day
Nasonex nasal spray once a day (goes over like a lead balloon)
Zantax x 2/day
Benadryl once a day
Currently on a 20 day course of antibiotics for a whopper of a double ear infection that ear tubes didn't help prevent, but he takes the oral antibiotics a lot better than the ear drops
JUST finished 7 day antibiotic course for pink eye

He's not a happy camper, to say the least.

 

[Munchkin]

Re: Teaching a young kid to use an optichamber for an inhale

A big piece is that he simply needs to get used to it over time.

Buckle him into a highchair in front of the TV. Stand behind him while holding the spacer and inhaler in place on his face. I've found that standing behind a buckled child enables you to anticipate squirming better and the TV can be a distraction.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

Re: Teaching a young kid to use an optichamber for an inhale

Logan, D must be miserable!!! (and it's no picnic for you!!!)

No advice (I did the nebulizer thing for almost a year with one of the kids that I nannied for, but don't have any info re inhaler)

big hugs to you and your little guy!!!

 

[Logan Sapphire]

Re: Teaching a young kid to use an optichamber for an inhale

Logan, D must be miserable!!! (and it's no picnic for you!!!)

No advice (I did the nebulizer thing for almost a year with one of the kids that I nannied for, but don't have any info re inhaler)

big hugs to you and your little guy!!!

Thanks, Bella! I hate to admit it, but yes, we're all miserable here D had a 103 fever for over a week and the stomach flu 2 weeks ago. Last Friday was his first day in daycare in over 2 weeks; I'm sure he'll bring something home again this week.

We actually have to get some bloodwork done on him b/c the pulmonologist suspects some immuno-suppression issues. I have no idea what that even could be or mean! He is sick more often and longer than even most daycare kids. I suspect there might be some additional undiagnosed allergies (besides the peanut and pecan ones) too.

To make matters worse, I think C (our 3.5 year old) needs to go to an ENT. She keeps having nose bleeds on a very regular basis. Sometimes they're gushers- not just drips. It freaks daycare out when they gush. It almost always happens when she is in bed for either a nap or for the night- not sure what the connection is to sleeping. We run humidifiers and put nasal saline gel in her nose. Her peds said they didn't want to cauterize b/c she was still growing, but this is getting ridiculous. It's not limited to just the winter months either. She wakes up screaming with blood pouring down her face and into her mouth. Last night's episode was 1am. Ugh.

Btw, did you ever get your daycare situation sorted out? Hope you and B are healthy!