Ok, so it isn’t exactly a toy, but I am still so excited about it anyways. Today I am here to write about my daughter, Little Miss A’s pediatric inhaler. Have you seen one before? Because I certainly had not. I was also a bit concerned that she wasn’t going to be on board with using it. However after explaining how it should help her breathe better and how the alternative would be strapping a little breathing mask to her face for longer breathing treatments, she was willing to give it a try.

And success would be an understatement. Little Miss A loves her puff puff inhaler. She asks for it throughout the day and tries to sneak an extra puff when she thinks I won’t notice. Unfortunately for her I do notice and I’m sticking to the doctor’s order of 2 puffs every 4 hours as needed. As of right now, “As needed” means when she has a cough or cold.

If you didn’t already know, Little Miss A had a seriously bad case of RSV (a respiratory virus) when she was 7 weeks old. At first she was misdiagnosed and was sent home in respiratory distress. Soon after we found ourself in triage fighting for her life. She was intubated, flown to a children’s hospital through a thunder storm, was intubated for 2 weeks, had multiple code blues called for her, and came home addicted to morphine.

So I’m sure you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she has had breathing problems ever since. Soon after many trips to the doctor for wheezing and episodes where she would stop breathing and I would resuscitate her, she was give a prescription for breathing treatments at home.

The good news is that she isn’t constantly fighting for oxygen. It’s only when she gets a cough or a cold. Unfortunately she picks up everything and is sick every other week. Literally.

But after a few years she sort of weaned off the breathing treatments. I could break up the phlegm in her lungs so she wouldn’t wheeze during the day and I was resuscitating her more like once a month instead of every time she was sick. BUT once a month is still WAY too often.

So last time when she got sick and her eardrum burst, we went back in for a follow up. While at her new pediatrician I brought up these breathing concerns. I’ve mentioned this doctor before and he’s amazing. Why? Because he listens and doesn’t assume he knows everything. Unfortunately these can be rare traits in doctors, so I was lucky to find this one.

This pediatrician is guessing that Little Miss A may have a low version of asthma that only gets triggered when she is sick. He suspects that she may get triggered when she runs around a lot too and wants me to listen for wheezing after she plays hard to see if she will need to switch to a weekly inhaler.

But for now we have an inhaler that we are using when she gets sick and so far it has been a game changer! She has been sick for 5 days and it already feels like a miracle. When she uses this pediatric inhaler her cold just sounds like a kid’s cold. Stuffy, runny, coughy. Instead of the tired, wheezy, worn out Little Miss A that I am constantly watching for signs of respiratory distress.

Here’s to hoping this inhaler lighten’s her colds and if she eventually switches to a weekly inhaler that it will strengthen her lungs, like her doctor suspects it should.