How do I Get My Child to Take Asthma Medicine That Doesn’t Taste Good?
- Wednesday, September 2, 2009, 12:16
- Asthma
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- Andrew:
- Dr. Gower, we have joining us John, who is in Belleville, Illinois. John, do you have a child with asthma?
- John:
- Yes, I’ve got a 3-and-a-half year old.
- Andrew:
- And I understand there’s a challenge there of getting your child, who has asthma, to take the medication that doesn’t taste good, right?
- John:
- Right. Prelone.
- Andrew:
- So, what kind of difficulty do you have?
- John:
- Well, we can’t get it down him, and I’ve consulted with our pediatrician. I’ve got a friend that’s a pediatric nurse at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis. They’ve all given me advice on how to disguise [the taste] by having him suck on a popsicle first to kind of deaden his taste buds. Nothing. Nothing worked. It got to the point where it was traumatic for everyone to try and get the medicine down. I was wondering, are there any alternatives? He’s too young for pills. We got the liquid and the pill form, and we couldn’t do anything with either one.
- Andrew:
- Dr. Gower, can you help solve this problem?
- Dr. Gower:
- Well, I can try. John, is he on other medicine such as Singulair or something like that, or any other controller medicine?
- John:
- He’s on albuterol and when an attack occurs, he goes on that. We’ve got a nebulizer and we just got an inhaler with a chamber and a small face mask. But we just started Intal.
- Dr. Gower:
- Okay. By nebulizer?
- John:
- No, he’s using the inhaler.
- Dr. Gower:
- With the face mask?
- John:
- Yes, sir. And he’s doing good at it. We’ve got a prescription for both the nebulizer and the inhaler, but if he can do the inhaler with the chamber, it’s so much easier and quicker.
- Dr. Gower:
- You bet. No, I understand. That’s great. Now, how often does he take the Prelone?
- John:
- Well, the last time he was in the ER over Thanksgiving, it was prescribed then.
- Dr. Gower:
- Once or twice a year or something like that?
- John:
- Yeah. I think twice so far he’s had a prescription for Prelone.
- Dr. Gower:
- Okay. Well, other ways to perhaps get the Prelone in would be to mix it with other materials like applesauce or orange juice or other foods that he likes, and if you dilute it enough, sometimes that can mask it adequately. Also, switch to Pediapred, which is another kind of prednisone. The Pediapred and the Prelone are both prednisone and are most effective, but you don’t want to use them on a long-term basis. These are rescue medicines. The Intal, having just been started, will probably, if he takes it on a regular basis, raise the threshold, decrease the inflammation so that he will not get into trouble as much as he was before. So the problem will not be as common, probably, in the future as it has been because, number one, he’ll be older, and number two, he’s on the Intal and won’t get into trouble as much.
Another possibility is to put him on Singulair, which is licensed down to two years of age now as of about a month ago, and that is a pill or a liquid that he could take. It’s once a day only and it’s a controller anti-inflammatory as well. So another way you could do it is there’s budesonide, which is an inhaled steroid that can be delivered by nebulizer, although it’s not licensed yet. It’s coming out in the near future, so I would consider asking your physician about that.
- John:
- That would take the place of Prelone for emergencies?
- Dr. Gower:
- It’s used in a lot of the European countries by nebulization chronically or for emergencies. But those are all different possibilities you could consider.
- Andrew:
- John, does that help you?
- John:
- Yes, sir, and I appreciate it.
- Andrew:
- Sure, and we wish you well with your young child. Certainly any parent with a child where you’ve made the trip to the emergency room and you have to administer these medications, it’s worrisome, but I think the news from Dr. Gower and the asthma specialists is that your child can have a really good life and that this condition can be controlled.
- John:
- Right. Well, thank you very much.
- Dr. Gower:
- You’re welcome.
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