Coughing and Using a Nebulizer
- Friday, August 14, 2009, 7:25
- Asthma
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- Alois:
- When my 8-year-old is in her allergy season or winter season when I know she’s going to have a hard time, we’ll have her use her nebulizer sometimes three to four times a day, with something like Cromolyn, and Rescue medicine also. And when she’s having this coughing, how can I tell that the nebulizer is working for her? When she’s done, she’s still coughing.
- Dr. Ayars:
- That’s a good question. Again, at least she’s old enough to ask, and hopefully she can respond positively if she felt like it was opening her up. Most of the time if it’s asthma, the patient will notice a clear-cut benefit from a nebulized treatment. Again, going back to that peak flow, you could see what her peak flow was before the nebulization and repeat it afterwards. Certainly they can still cough even if they’re relatively clear, and it is very difficult to know whether it’s an asthma cough. And if you call a physician on the phone, he’ll say, well I’m not positive, but if the kid’s having a lot of trouble, they may say well let’s give him prednisone or prelone, and just see if we can clear them up. And that’s kind of the proof of the pudding as well, if you give them that and everything clears up, and their cough goes away, then it probably was an asthmatic cough, rather than a cough for another reason.
- Andrew:
- Now I did have a question for you too, Alois. I understand that you’re taking some American Lung Association classes? Is that right?
- Alois:
- Actually, I’m just now learning to go to the schools in my area and teach the children Open Airways and get them educated.
- Andrew:
- So you’re a health care professional who’s learning a lot more about asthma.
- Alois:
- You bet.
- Andrew:
- Okay. Well I hope this has been helpful for you?
- Alois:
- It definitely has.
- Andrew:
- Dr. Ayars, listening to what Alois said about her child, is there some thinking about what sort of treatment would be right?
- Dr. Ayars:
- Yes, from what she says, it sounds like the child is having significant day-to-day asthma, and during the allergy season and having to nebulize three to four times a day, shows that the kid has significant asthma. She’s only using Cromolyn, a bronchodilator, and certainly you could be more aggressive with treatment. With an 8-year old there are other drugs available that are superior to Cromolyn type drugs, especially the inhaled steroids, and even in that age group, we use it in those individuals because it usually works very well and is generally very safe if used appropriately. I think this child sounds like it could certainly have benefited from the use of inhaled steroids or more aggressive treatment.
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