Using an aerochamber along with your metered dose inhaler

I was giving my son his asthma medication last night and I thought to myself "Am I doing this right"? We've been doing this for years but every once in a while I feel like a need a refresher. Is it just me or does anyone else feel that way? Sometimes I feel like we get into some bad habits or like I skip a step. In the event that I am not alone, I decided to do a little research today on the aerochamber.

ICYou has a great instructional video on how to use the aerochamber (and I think I've posted this once before a couple of years ago):


We like the aerochamber. Trying to get my son to take his inhaled medication without it is not fun. But when he first started to use it, he hated the aerochamber. He hated the nebulizer mask too. We had to fight him when we used anything on his face. Little kids are like that. They kick and scream and I know with my son it sounded like we were killing him instead of giving him medication. Sometimes we'd both end up in tears. The whole experience came back to me when I read this blog post at Learning to Breathe. Brooklyns Mama is going through the same things we did.

Then on the flip side, I found Love Letter to my AeroChamber. thekickable posted this heart felt little letter that explains why the aerochamber is so necessary. Without it, there would be more days on the nebulizer. My son would much rather spend 2 minutes a day with the aerochamber than 15 minutes every 2 hours with the nebulizer.

And Life with these Lungs! posted a list of inhalers and mentions that her favorite is the MDI with spacer.

Do you ever feel like you need a refresher on how to use your daily medication? Which inhaler/inhaler method do you find the most helpful and why? Which ones seem to be the most popular in your community? Do you always use it the way you should, and if not, why?

Head on over to the Asthma and Allergy Community to continue this discussion and to connect with other Health Activists.