Asthma Inhalers And Children

The most common method prescribed to treat asthma is giving medication with an inhaler. An inhaler is a small device with a pump that delivers a measured dose of medication when the pump is depressed. In order for the medicine to do its job, it needs to be breathed in before it dissipates in the air. That means that a person using an inhaler needs to be able to breathe in at the same time that the inhaler is depressed. That kind of coordination can be very hard for young children.

That’s why the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the United Kingdom and the American Academy of Pediatricians recommend that children under the age of five be prescribed an inhaler with a spacer and a face mask. When the inhaler is used with a spacer and a face mask, the medicine stays in the mask so that the child can inhale it all over a few breaths instead of one big breath.

That’s not the only issue that’s made news about children and inhalers. One of the biggest issues facing schoolchildren with asthma, for example, is having access to their inhalers. Because many schools have a well-intentioned zero-tolerance policy for drugs that requires that ALL medication be kept in a locked cabinet in an office, some children with asthma have been denied the right to carry the medicine that can save their lives. In one well-publicized case, a teenage girl in Salem, Oregon had an asthma attack after being required to run around the track in a physical education class during pollen season. The school was a four block walk away from the track, and Kim Berry had to be assisted on the walk back. When they arrived at the school, it was another several minutes before the person who had the keys to the medicine cabinet could be located to unlock the door and get Kim’s inhaler.

Those precious moments could have cost the girl her life. In 1991 a New Orleans high school student died when security guards at the school delayed her on her way to get her rescue inhaler from the school office. In another case, a sixth grade student in Maryland was lauded as a hero by some – and branded a drug trafficker by her school – when she grabbed her own inhaler and administered a dose to a classmate who was having a severe asthma attack. It’s cases like these that have led many states to enact legislation regarding asthma inhalers and children. But even in those states where asthma rescue inhalers are specifically excluded from school zero tolerance policies, school officials are not always aware of the state policy.

It is vital that parents of children with asthma insist on their child’s absolute right to carry an asthma inhaler with them at all times. Says Dr. Miles Weinberger, director of the Children’s Hospital of Iowa’s pediatric pulmonary division, “it is essential that all students with sufficient maturity have their bronchodilator inhaler in their possession at all times.” If your child has been prescribed a bronchodilator asthma inhaler, be sure you know the rules at your school regarding asthma inhalers and children.

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