General Chat

Thanks for the advice. Had some temporary successs with a new game - we all have face masks (bought some dust protection masks from B&Q like you would use for DIY) and pretended to play doctors and nurses. However she did work out that hers was different and that ours did not appear to be working properly. Will have to continue and just perservere with different ideas and games until she becomes more use to it. Karen

my daughter has had asthma since little baby but never had mask only those huge volumatics , she refused to use, now shes 18 getting her to take he inhaler with her is an effort, try just holding the mask near not on nieces face, perhaps its the feeling of having mouth and nose covered that makes her panic, if you get closer each time you try after several attempts she may just pick it up and do it herself with suggestion, leave it lying round, its hard with kids isnt it you got to have the patience of a saint, best of luck trying

When my son was on his nebuliser, we pretended he was flying a plane and he was the pilot, took a little while but he accepted it. Also, if you take the mask off, you will see the mist coming out of the end of the pipe, if you hold this close to the little ones face when she is asleep she will breath in enough of the mist to feel the benefit and she won't be stressed out by it. Hope that helps. M.

Karen, It took us about 4 days to get the face mask on our son, he was coming up 2 by then. I wore it, dad wore it! eventually he did accept it when we took him out! went to a resurant and asked if we could plug it in. Maybe son is an extrovert, but after that no probs, think he liked the attention more, but it worked! Kim

I have been racking my brains to remember how my daughter managed it with our grandaughter. She was certainly younger than 18 months when she was diagnosed. I am certain though that she didn't have a nebuliser but a face mask that the inhaler was puffed straight into. Not one of those bottle type ones with a valve of but something that made contact (and hopefully a seal if she wasn't wriggling too much!) directly with her face. It was so much quicker and easier and you could gauge quite readily if the puff had been inhaled. By the age of two or so she would squirt the inhaler herself which made it better for her and mum as she thought she was being a clever girl and mum was glad it was done! Perhaps it might be worth checking with the doctor to see if one of those may be suitable for her. Is she using ampules in the nebuliser? They should have the dosage printed on so if you have a ventolin (Salbutamol) inhaler as well, in an emergency she could puff that through a hand over her mouth and nose if the dosage were the same (remembering that the take up from a nebuliser is likely to be greater than with an inhaler) Hope this has been of some help Magsxx

Hi, My son had chronic asthma and had to use a nebuliser regularly. I got some "special" picture and pop up books and books that had moving tabs etc that he could only have when he was having the nebuliser. I'd sit beside him and turn the pages. When he got older we had "special" videos of his best- loved cartoons which he would watch. Gwynne

The doctors suspect that my young niece (aged 1.5 yrs) has asthma. As a precaution they are making her use a nebuliser. Has anyone any good ideas as to how we encourage a small child to put the mask over her face? Have already tried treating it like a game (dolly gets some, niece gets some) however its not working and she is getting violent and upset. Anyone got any ideas as the poor little mite (and mother) is getting very agitated about it. Karen