Asthma kids...

He is great Lu. I used the ventolin and spacer to nebulise him for 2 days straight and then kept his ventolin on his high dose for a few days after. The action plans are great and really help when they have an attack.

I am going to use Amy's idea and when I see that asthma nose I will be upping the ventolin to hopefully avoid an attack!

Hows your wee man??

My turn to jump in here now as I have just come back from our docs with a salamol inhaler and all the spacer kit. Fay has never had an attack or even been slightly wheezy but she has been having night attacks of coughing and choking recently (last 6 weeks) I thought it was the tail end of a cold and then realised it had gone on for 6 weeks. so we are trying it for 6 weeks and then having a break to see what happens
neither Nei and I have asthma but I am the only one in my family to miss out so we knew something was coming.

Hello ladies.

My daughter is will be 10 in late November. She was first diagnosed with Asthma at around 9 months old when she was hospitalized with her first attack. The first few years were pretty rough with very unstable asthma.

Finally our doctor referred us to the Asthma society. We went every couple of weeks where I learnt how to correctly use her inhalers and spacer (the doctors hadn't shown us properly!!) We kept records of her health, flair ups, environmental details etc. This helped me understand her triggers and how to act to prevent an attack. I totally recommend them to anyone dealing with asthma in their family. I learnt so much.

Now days her asthma is pretty well controlled, she still uses Flixotide daily, does a peak flow every morning and has Ventolin as needed.

There are two forms of salbutamol inhalers that can be obtained on prescription. The Ventolin brand which occurs a part charge of $4.30 approx per pump or the fully funded Salamol brand. I work in pharmacy and most of the regular customers using these inhalers choose the Ventolin ones as the Salamol don't seem to work for them. Salamol is also prone to clogging so needs to have its nozzle run under a hot tap regularly to clear it.

For the record I choose to pay the bit extra for the Ventolin brand, I find it works better for my girl.

I also get a 'Child disability allowance' for her though WINZ due to her asthma. Its not based on the parental income. Its worth looking into. To apply just get a form from WINZ, get your doctor to fill it in then return it with the relevant identification papers. I've known other people have it for children with severe reflux too. Just an idea...

Argghhh Asthma rearing its ugly head here again. I woke in the middle of the night to check on Alize because he came home from DC with a cough. No wheezing or the usual runny clear nose but anyway go tup to fine him grunting and whezzing so bad but still asleep my poor wee man. I woke and gave him 6 puffs of ventolin via the spacer. He just went back to sleep. I checked him and his grunted had stopped and the wheeze wasnt as loud so went back to bed.

This morning I went in and again he is grunting and wheezing so bad he cant even cough and he says to me "breather" lol that is what we call his ventolin and spacer.

Have put him on 4 puffs 2hrly and will just let the DC know. Otherwise well, so he can attend DC, they have a care plan and know when to contact me if he even slightly chnages and they are really good like that.

OK that is my rant for the day...

Fallen, was your daughter ever tested for allergies?? Alize has been and is allergic to dustmites and animal dander. The paed seems to think these are why my son suffers asthma.