Nebulizer and a 3 Year Old

Try having him hold it. Both my boys had to have it too and they loved holding it themselves.

Also too! I read ,from another mom on here, to get lemon flavored fish oil! It works wonders! Tastes great! My whole family uses it. Cheapest place I ve found was online at the vitamin shop.

I've never understood why doctors immediately go to the nebulizer since kids hate them and they haven't been proven to be any more effectove. We took my son to National Jewish in Denver (the best respiratory hospital/research center in the country) and they gave him an inhaler with a spacer. It is so much easier to use! 2 puffs from the inhaler go into the chamber and he inhales on the end to get the medicine out. It takes less than 5 seconds. You should ask if you can switch.

Can YOU do a "treatment" to yourself while watching a movie with him. If it won't damage the machine to do it with no medicine in it, I would do it myself and he can watch, check it out, etc. Let him get to know it a bit before the next treatment. I know you can't reason totally successfully with a 3 year old, but sometimes you can if you cananswer their questions, etc.

My older sister has very bad asthma and has to do it twice a day whenever she visits. My 1.5 year old son watched her and got used to it. He had a minor bout of pneumonia and needed to use the nebulizer - we didn't have to fight him because he had seen it in action and had "non-treatment" exposure to it.

I hope that helps a little.

I agree with Laurie A. My son (6 now but was 3 then) and my daughter who is 1 year old, have had to take pulmicort and xopenex for quite a while. My daughter is who we had little "freak outs" with. We endedup doing what Laurie did. O, she still cries sometimes, and it's not her favorite thing, but in time it will get better. Think of it front the child's point of view, that mask must look freaky and the noise is too. Just be patient. :)

My son is also 3 (bday in May) and we got his nebulizer almost exactly a year ago. He also has Pulmicort as his primary preventative medicine, and we add Albuterol as a "rescue med" when he is actively wheezing.

Do you use a mask or the mouthpiece? My son HATES having the full mask over his face, but does very well with the mouthpiece, since it doesn't actually have to be IN his mouth - we can just hold it an inch or so below and let it blow into his nose/mouth.

We always watch TV while we do it to help distract him. In the beginning, my husband and I would sometimes hold the mouthpiece near our own faces to show him that it wasn't scary. He does great with it now - just took a few times to adjust.

Send me a private message if you want more info.

Rather than take on the battle we waited until our two year old was asleep to give him the treatment. He slept right thru it. Doesn't help for the morning or day time but at least helped us keep a normal bedtime routine.

when my two year old need to do that i gave up trying to hold that little contraption in his mouth. just sit with him and try to keep it in the area around his face so that he is still breathing it in. Doing that is better than nothing, in my opinion. just sit with him or even try to explain it and ask if he wants to hold it. maybe just being in control and not having to put it directly in his mouth will calm him down enough to sit through a setting with it. good luck momma;'.?

If hes not a light sleeper give it to him while hes sleeping.

Well for a little one its hard. But I have two and one whos been on treatments for asthma. Really you need to make a big deal about it and when hes sits good even bigger. You may have to put it to your face to show him its ok. Maybe let him hold it. if he plays a little and its not right on his face but its going up to his nose its fine and you only need to do it for about 5 mins treatments usually last 10 to 15 mins. so just do it for 5 mins and if he starts to take to it add to it. Now don't freak out he did get upset thats one reaon he threw up but the medicine can make you get sick too.

You just have to get through it. I never used Pulmicort but use Xophenex. He doesn't like it but the crying and temper tantrum will get the med really deep into the lungs. They get the benefits even though they fight it because they take REALLY DEEP breathes when crying.

You could just put the machine in another area and string the hose over to him. One friend waited until her son was asleep. The machine was in the hall and she sneaked in and just held it in front of his face while he slept at nap time and during the night.

what worked for my son was wearing ear muffs! he didnt like th noise of the machine, and was content to sit and watch the tv without hearing it but we had to have those earmuffs every time! if hes not interested in watching tv without hearing it - headphones would be even better you could download some disney songs from a favorite movie onto an ipod or phone and put headphones on him. what a treat and you'd be there to supervise

we got a really cool pair of sunglasses and called it his alien mask, i dont know if its too late for you to backtrack, but give it a try, maybe those googly antenna things too, then something mesmerizing on tv, distraction is king!

Find a more natural healing type doc and get a 2nd opinion.

Hi M.,
First of all, don't feel bad about not knowing that your son has asthma. My daughter was diagnosed at about 3 years old when she got a cold and flared up and ended up hospitalized for several days! I have asthma myself, so I also felt like I should have recognized it before. The only symptom she had is that she would cough once in a while at night after she layed down. We did not end up doing the nebulizer when she came home, but had an inhaler with a spacer. They just have to breathe in about 6 times per puff and then you're done. Much easier, it works just as good, and is over with much quicker. You can either have a mouthpiece that they hold in their mouth, or connect it to a mask, whichever works best.
Since then, my daughter has been on Singulair for maintenance and we just give the steroid inhaler if she gets a cold, and have the albuterol available if needed.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!
Good Luck! :)

Our daughter was on a nebulizer for years.. When we introduced it to her we let her turn it on and listen to the sound.. We let her hold the tube and feel the air. We then let her hold the mask..

We let her watch us set it up.. We then told her to pick out the books that she wanted us to read to her while she had her "treatments".. We also asked her if she wanted to hold the nebulizer Tube or did she want us to hold it.. We asked this every time..

We explained to her this was going to help her get rid of her "cough".. See if letting him have a little control over the treatments will help.

On a side note.. We purchased a Hunter air filter for her room. We would change out the filter every 4 weeks.. During high mold season, we found we had to change it every 3 weeks..When she was not in her room, we kept her door closed. We also pulled all of the carpets out of the house. This made a huge difference. Not everyone can pull out all of the carpet, our goal was to make her room an air "sanctuary". We tried to keep it dusted, tried to not have too many plush animals, her bedding was easy to wash, no drapes she had only mini blinds.. . It seemed like sleeping was the most difficult with the asthma..

I am sending you strength.. Our daughter finally grew out of this in about 3rd grade..

do a teddy bear first and dont wait to late to do the treatment or you wont sleep tonight. If he doesnt get all of the meds and does most he will be good I even have to pull away on the nebulizer. or let him do some and then the teddy and back and forth. its not going to hurt him not to do the full dose. just get him most of it.

I don't have a child with a nebulizer, but I used a nebulizer for years myself when I was a kid. I think I was about 5 when I started it (so a little older than your son), but I remember being scared of it, too. My parents would reward me with little things for using it. I would get to stay up 10 minutes past my bedtime or watch TV at a time when I normally wasn't allowed to. Sometimes they even gave me candy, though I know some parents hesitate to give kids candy at all. In general, just make nebulizer time fun time. Hang out with him while he uses it, and play fun music or do a silly dance for him to entertain him. After a few days, he'll get over his fear, and he'll become used to it.

Our daughter has asthma so we've had to give her intermittent breathing treatments since she was about 5 months old. She's now 2 and gives us a harder time about it so I always turn on Dora/Elmo/Baby Einstein and let her watch a couple of minutes before we start the (very loud) nebulizer.

I've also found recently that she does better if she can hold the wand herself (I just remind her to put it to her nose/mouth), we've never put a mask on her. If you're trying to do the mask, maybe your pediatrician would let you try the wand first so it would be less "confining" and a little less scary. I definitely would've stopped the treatment with puking, too. Good luck, he'll get used to it in time...

My daughter is 2 and uses Albuterol in the Nebulizer. She won't do the face mask at all. And we don't put the mouthpiece in her mouth, we hold it just below the nose and it still works great. That is the only way we can get it done!