Prelone Dosing and Inhaled Steroids
- Monday, August 10, 2009, 7:17
- Asthma
- 374 views
- Add a comment
- Rick:
- Welcome to Cheryl from Bothell.
- Cheryl:
- Hi. Thank you. I’ve got a question that’s two-part. I have a son who’s 5 years old and just diagnosed with asthma within the last year. We are taking Prelone orally just to kind of help out at times when he really needs it. And my first question is how much Prelone is too much in frequency and amount? The second part is, at what point do you switch from Prelone to an inhaled steroid?
- Dr. Redding:
- Those are excellent questions. Prelone and oral steroids are used as probably the ace in the hole when it comes to trying to control asthma that is currently active or out of control. We use it in two ways. The first is to use very short-term therapy, which is usually about three-to-five days, and to use a relatively high dose during that time, reducing it fairly abruptly over three or five days, to try and grab ahold of asthma when it’s out of control. I think in terms of your child’s particular condition, the question you’ve raised of when to switch to an inhaled steroid is a very good one. Much of that seems to be age dependent. We know that children, at least at six and seven, learn to master inhalers or puffers over a short period of time. Our experience now is that children much younger than that can actually take inhaled steroids using a spacer device which looks like a toilet paper roll but it’s attached to the inhaler with a mask.
- Cheryl:
- Like an aerochamber?
- Dr. Redding:
- Yeah. An aerochamber is exactly that. And by using the aerochamber and practicing, you can get children even as young as three and four to use this with some good results.
About the Author
admin has written 208 stories on this site.
Write a Comment
Gravatars are small images that can show your personality. You can get your gravatar for free today!