Our New Therapy

Two puffs, twice a day. Once in the morning, once at night. Ava is an inhaler baby. I guess I can be thankful for genes and I don't mean the kind of jeans that you wear. Genes that get passed on through heredity and our DNA. Somewhere along the way our pediatrician thinks that Ava may have childhood asthma. They call it a fancy name now, as to not make any firm diagnosis until the child reaches the age of six.

After being sick during February, continual colds and running noses for the next 7 weeks, we knew things just weren't quite right. Ava would wake up for 1-3 hours at night. Coughing. Coughing and then some more coughing. It was horrible. All she wanted to do was go back to bed, but she couldn't. Poor thing. I tried cool mist vaporizers, deep cleaning her bedroom and changing her sheets and washing blankets several times a week, cleaning constantly, etc. But nope, the coughing still persisted.

Now, she's on Flovent to help control and prevent her asthma symptoms and we have a bakcup albuterol inhaler if we need it for an attack. Since starting the treatment now over 2 weeks ago, her symptoms have significantly improved. She still wheezes if she gets hyperactive, but once she calms down, it is smooth sailing.



The hardest part - she cries and cries when we use the inhaler. Actually, she screams. I have to pin her down and hold her head. It is quite a process x 2 times daily. But, she's getting better. She'll even hold the chamber that attaches to the inhaler to her face. As can be seen in the posing photo shown above. But, don't let their be a tight seal around her nose and mouth because she'll scream!

Kind of reminds me of my own days when my parents had to pin me down to put eye drops in both eyes. Sometimes it's just not fun being a parent. But, we have to do what we know is best for our children. What goes around, comes around.

The meds are helping and we have a follow-up appointment this week to see what our next actions steps will be.