Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

We found out today that Eddie has cough variant asthma. Part of the treatment is to nebulize him before bed since it mainly presents at night.

I can tell that its going to be a fight to get the mask on him....has anyone had to do this and knows any tricks?

The other thing Im nervous about is the nebulizer treatment is a steroid, so Im afraid he is going to be bouncing off the walls and not go to bed since it has to be administered at night. Has anyone found this to be the case or did they not have a reaction to it at all?

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

DD had RSV for about a month and needed nebulizer treatments 3X/day. She hated it! I don't really have any tricks for you, but in terms of your other question, she usually fell asleep during the night treatments and would stay asleep. I didn't notice any difference at all with the 3 steroid treatments. Good luck!!

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

don't use the mask if its that much trouble. do the blow by method. just hold the mouthpiece in front of their mouth/nose. (they won't get as much of the medication, but if its the difference between getting some and getting none, some is better.

Also which meds are you giving?

xopenex should not be as bad as giving albuterol, but if this is maintenance meds such as pulimicort, that won't affect them.

my son was on the nebulizer 1-2xp er day for 4 months out of every winter for seveeral years, and 3-6 times a day when the ashtma flared.

oh, and if you need to do it at bedtime, do it right after they go to bed. can't be hyper when you're asleep. and the blow by works just fine when they are sleeping. (did it a million times and works like a charm)

hth

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

When Abby had bronchiolitis, her nebulizer had a pacifier adapter like this:


She NEVER took the mask, but used this. Not sure if your DS uses a paci or not at this stage.

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

when Ian had bronchitis we didnt use the mask. Just held the tube under his mouth and let him inhale the medicine. he ended him trying to eat it so it worked out.

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

I think my sister has to nebulize Landon frequently (maybe not regularly though). His mask I think looks like an animal or something....I'm not sure.

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

maria (blissful) did/does...i'm sure she'll chime in at some point

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

We have been doing once a day for the past 1.5 year.

DS has RAD (reactive airways disease) or "baby athma".

We use Pulmicort every day as a preventive med.

DS will no tolerate the mask. Never did!

Until recently, we did it at night while he slept. He would have a complete melt down even with the piece by this nose/mouth. The pulmonologist said it was fine.

Recently, we tried doing it while he sipped on juice and watching TV. He "tolerates" it. But again only when we hold it by his nose/mouth.

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

One thing I found that worked with David is we would sit and read a book while doing it. He never liked the mask either, I would just hold it in front of him and let him take it in that way. I tried to do once when he was sleeping, but the machine is so loud, it was startling him.... But that is the way to do it if Eddie will sleep through it!!!

Message edited 3/22/2010 8:38:27 PM.

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

we used the neb 4x a day when DS had bronchitis in february. Before bed it never made him hyper.

sometimes we would have a hard time and have to hold him while the other would hold the mask; other times he would sit there happily. we found that if we put him in his carseat in front of the tv while we did it, it seemed to distract him. not always though.

we also used the neb with a saline solution b/c after the bronchitis was gone, DS was still congested and stuffy. the ped gave us a saline solution to put in the machine instead of the albuterol.


ETA: like the above poster said.. afew times we would do it while DS was sleeping..while we were getting him ready for his last bottle / bed time and he would startle a bit and then go right back to sleep. we also used to hold the mask a little away from the face ..he was still breathing it in fine.

Message edited 3/22/2010 8:33:49 PM.

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

We do... at first he kicked and screamed but now he is used to it. We usually watch Elmo while we do it, and once the solution runs out he gets to nebulize his 2 stuffed animals.

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

We had to do it 3x a day for a month when DS had RSV. At first he fought it, but that really only lasted a day.

What worked for us, was to put Mickey Mouse on, I'd hold him in my lap and hold the mask in front of his face, he'd watch TV and be fine.

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

almost 2 years now.

i am up right now, neb ready to go, just waiting for him to go to sleep, then i will do it.

it is important though to make sure meds aren't on his teeth all night...so i brush his teeth in his sleep as well.

Re: Anyone have to nebulize their child regularly?

thanks everyone! We did it with a little resistance first but I "put it on" first to show him it didnt hurt. His has a panda bear motor, so I told him if he talked into it, that it was his special walkie talkie to the panda. Which worked, then he started to get bored and antsy. I then told him if he took it off, the panda was going to take it and it was going to be the pandas turn. Ill admit, I played to his weekness bc DS HATES to share his stuff more than anything in the world, so he held that thing onto his face for dear life, so the panda didnt get a turn.

Once the novelty of that wore off, we went with it was his astronaut mask so he could were it in the rocket ship in space. Then he seemed to just forget about it and watched backyardigans with it on. All in all it went well! Thanks for all the tips! Im sure Ill be using all of them once the novelty of my tricks wears off!