Puffers?

Sammy-Mae · January 2013

I posted this on a toddler board too.

Thoughts on giving DS a puffer. He hates it. Fights, screams whatever. We have tried getting DD to show him it was NBD by pretending to give it to her. SHe put on a good show that he thought was funny but when we went to give it to him he screamed. We are using the chamber for him and he hates having the thing on his face. Any tips?

We aren't supposed to do it when he sleeps because the doctor wants us to brush his teeth after each treatment.

missyishere · January 2013

I wish my mom were alive so I could ask her how dealt with me when I was a toddler.
My only suggestion would be to give something to preoccupy time, like drawing with crayons, while doing a treatment.

diego299 · January 2013

I think puffer is a breathing treatment, let me know if I am wrong.

DS would NOT wear the mask so we just used the tube thing and it blew it in the general direction of his face. Our doc said that was better than nothing, espeically if you are doing it several times a day. I would hold him and DH would read a book or play with a toy to distract him. We were told to brush his teeth afterwards to bc it can cause build up and damage the enamel on the teeth. GL!

missyishere · January 2013

diego299:
I think puffer is a breathing treatment, let me know if I am wrong.
DS would NOT wear the mask so we just used the tube thing and it blew it in the general direction of his face. Our doc said that was better than nothing, espeically if you are doing it several times a day. I would hold him and DH would read a book or play with a toy to distract him. We were told to brush his teeth afterwards to bc it can cause build up and damage the enamel on the teeth. GL!

Oh, and I second the teeth brushing and a rinse due to thrush possibilities.

Sammy-Mae · January 2013

Oh we do brush his teeth afterwards. He loves brushing his teeth so as soon as we are done he walks straight to the bathroom and gives me crap until I get his toothbrush out for him.

Oh and a puffer is an Inhaler. Sorry, Canadianism maybe?

stardust317 · January 2013

With DD, we were actually told to use them while she naps and usually, she'll sit in my lap and and look at a book for a little bit. We rarely get a whole treatment in while she's awake.

mrsgabus · January 2013

Sammy-Mae:
Oh we do brush his teeth afterwards. He loves brushing his teeth so as soon as we are done he walks straight to the bathroom and gives me crap until I get his toothbrush out for him.
Oh and a puffer is an Inhaler. Sorry, Canadianism maybe?

LOL Actually yes I believe we (Canadians) call them Puffers, My husband (USC)Calls them inhalers.

When Dylan (ds1) was little (1-3years) we had the puffer and the chamber but we ended up just using the puffer until he got older.

We tried everything but the only way we got it to work was by one hold him and the other with the puffer. We would blow on his face and he would take a deep breathe.

He used the chamber from 3-5years old and now just uses the puffer it self.

DoctorWorm222 · January 2013

I've had asthma all my life, and I've never heard of trying to get a toddler to take an inhaler. Seems like you'd need to do a nebulizer treatment to get anything into his lungs -- especially if he's fighting you. Nebulizer treatments are long and they're a PITA, but you might ask your doctor about them because it seems like it might be more effective at this age.

Scramblersmom · January 2013

diego299:
I think puffer is a breathing treatment, let me know if I am wrong.

DS would NOT wear the mask so we just used the tube thing and it blew it in the general direction of his face. Our doc said that was better than nothing, espeically if you are doing it several times a day. I would hold him and DH would read a book or play with a toy to distract him. We were told to brush his teeth afterwards to bc it can cause build up and damage the enamel on the teeth. GL!

I am also assuming you are talking about a nebulizer but let me know if this is incorrect. We just blew the meds in DS's face when he was on the neb and tried to keep him occupied by bouncing him up and down on our knee while signing to him or handing him a toy to play with. It was helpful for both me and DH to work together to give him his treatments so that one of us could hold the neb and the other could entertain.

mamaZbo · January 2013

You are talking about an inhaler, not a nebulizer, correct? Does the chamber have a face mask, or just a spot you put your mouth over (like the inhaler)? If it does have a mask, maybe he would be better off just using a chamber with a mouthpiece so it doesn't feel like something stuck on his face. I think you will just have to keep doing it as part of your routine until he gets used to it.

Sammy-Mae · January 2013

HEre is what he is using except his inhaler is orange

mamaZbo · January 2013

This is the adult aero chamber

I wonder if he would tolerate it better without the mask. The chamber is important until they learn how to inhale the medicine properly, so I wouldn't do away with it. LIke I said before, he might just have to tolerate it until he gets used to it. I don't know if you want to introduce some kind of reward, or just do something he enjoys afterwards every time, like play with a specific toy, dance to a particular song or something so he associates taking the medicine with something fun.

I have to use a aero chamber to give my cat an inhaler (we share meds) and he doesn't like it either.

blu-eyedwife · January 2013

What medication are they giving him?

LBB has albuterol in a liquid form, so we can give it to him in a dropper instead of a puffer. I would think, given age/forms of asthma treatment that your son is probably likewise on albuterol/preventil?

Sammy-Mae · January 2013

He is on Ventalin for emergencies and FloVent for daily treatments for now. She wants to see how he does on these before she puts him on something else.

ababymaybe · January 2013

We made a BIG HUGE deal about how well he did after we gave it to him. He screamed his face off at first, but we still clapped and cheered, saying "big boy! You did so good!" Or something like that. Sounds silly but eventually it did work. He's no longer scared of it at all and will just sit nicely for the chamber, then claps for himself after. Some kind of "contraband" food reward right after probably couldn't get either to create a positive association... We aren't above bribery in this house lol.

nittanyllama · January 2013

We use the same inhaler set-up with mask/chamber 2 times a day. I admit we usually let him sit in front of the tv for distraction. We also get him involved by having him "help" us push the inhaler and we cheer when he does a good job. Maybe I'm just lucky but Gavin doesn't mind it very much. Hope you figure something out!

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