Asthma devices and medication FAQ

Inhaled relievers work by relaxing the muscles surrounding the airway which allows them to open your child airways so they can breathe easier. They work quickly for a short period of time and are often referred to as the “blue inhaler”.

These inhalers should be used as an add on with your child controller to manage your child’s asthma symptoms in the orange zone of their asthma action plan. These are not for regular daily use. If your child’s asthma symptoms are not improving you need to review your with your doctor.

Every child should always have access to their reliever inhaler, for use if needed.

The use of 3 or more canisters of the blue reliever inhaler in a year indicates overuse of the reliever inhaler. The overuse of the blue reliever inhaler indicates poorly controlled asthma and increases the risk of severe asthma symptoms, hospitalisation and even fatalities.

If your child is requiring use of the blue reliever inhaler more than twice a week, your child’s asthma needs review by a doctor/nurse.

These contain an inhaled corticosteroids plus either a slow acting and/or fast acting bronchodilator. This allows easy administration of two medications at once. Usually used in poorly controlled asthma.

Maintenance and Reliever Therapy (MART) is the use of one inhaler to manage your child’s asthma. It is a combination of a controller and a reliever inhaler.

This medication is an anti-inflammatory oral medication, available in tablet, chewable tablet and granules. They should be taken daily, even if your child is well.

Montelukast is an anti-inflammatory oral medication used with inhaled medication to control asthma symptoms. This medication should be discontinued if it hasn’t improved your child’s asthma symptoms or if they have developed side effects such as headache, sleep disturbance, low mood, dizziness or stomach pain. Your child asthma should be review by your doctor/nurse if you stop this medication.

Oral steroids are given by the doctor/nurse for 3 to 5 days during an asthma attack to reduce airway inflammation rapidly. Your child may be more active after being this medication. If used over a prolonged period of time oral steroids can be associated with side effects.

Some inhalers have a dose counter, this will tell you how many puffs are left in your inhaler.

If you have a metered dose inhaler, it can be difficult to know when your inhaler is empty. Even if the inhaler is empty it will still “puff” when you spray it or sound like it has something in it when you shake it. This is because there is a propellant in the inhaler to make sure the medicine reaches your lungs.

If your inhaler is without a counter, you can also keep a tally of the puffs your child has taken.

In the case of a controller inhaler you can work out when the inhaler is likely to run out, for example a 200 dose inhaler used 2 puffs twice daily may last approximately 7 weeks.