Wednesday, June 10, 2009

For Erica: Yes to Flovent!

Got this via comments:


hi, I have a 2 year old that was recently diagnosed with asthma They put her on pulmicort and she does fine with it, my problem is she HATES to sit there and take the medicine. It seems to take forever!!! So my doctor said I could put her on flovent and take it through the inhaler, I am kinda scared about switching her. I hate the fact that she has to take medicine anyway, but switching makes me nervous. Have you ever used it? What do you think?? Thanks so much for your time, Erica


Flovent is essentially the same medication as Pulmicort, but it's delivered via an Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI) instead of a nubulizer. You'll need a spacer, like Vortex or an Aerochamber, but it's easy to use and takes about fifteen seconds to administer!

One tip: Flovent can cause thrush, so we always do our meds immediately before brushing our teeth. It's just become part of the AM/PM routine at my house, and compliance is not even an issue. (Talking with the mask on is....)

I'm sure you'll do really well with the switch. Good luck, Erica!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok great!!! That makes me feel much better! Thank you so much and I will keep in touch. Glad to know their is someone I can talk to about the same things I am dealng with, I appreciate you! Take care!

Aimee said...

I'm so glad I could help!! I hope your doctor is a good resource for you, too.

Thanks so much for visiting and commenting. :-)

JYC said...

Hey Aimee,

I stumbled across your blog while looking for people who had asthma stories to share. I really like the personal nature of your blog, really puts a face on asthma, haha

Is flovent the main medication you give to your children, or do you use a combination of drugs? One of my close coworkers got severe asthma when he was 21 and he's been on a wide array of drugs since.

Jerry

Aimee said...

Hi, Jerry!

Yes - Flovent is our only maintenance med now. The pulmonologist pulled my boys off Singular when it was black-boxed a few months ago.

For rescue meds, we use either albuterol, Xopenex, or DuoNeb for the nebulizer. If it's not a *really* bad flare, we'll use albuterol (ProAir) MDI.

My kids are too young for the combo meds out there now - but a lot the over-12 crowd is relying on Advair and the like to control their asthma these days.

Hope that helps!

Lauren said...

Aimee, I found your site while looking for a possible link between discontinuing Flovent and my son's rash around his mouth appearing a day later. Your blog entry and the comments by others were the only information I could find about perioral dermatitis caused by flovent or stopping flovent. Have you had any more experiences with it since your post?

The pediatrician and the allergist both had never experienced anything like it. He got a topical antibiotic cream and I suspected it wouldn't work after reading your blog, but gave the doctor the benefit of the doubt. It actually mostly cleared up with the cream, but then rebounded quickly as soon as he stopped using it. He's now back to using the cream plus on an oral antibiotic. I'm wondering if we should be reporting this to the drug company (GSK) since it seems to be an undocumented side effect that doctors have no idea about.

JYC said...

Oh I see, yeah combination therapy is probably what like 99% of people use. What sort of side effects do you see? One of my other close coworkers has mild asthma that she only gets when exercising, so otherwise she quits her meds.

Unknown said...

My almost 2 year old has been on Flovent for about a year now I think. Anyway with the most recent H1N1 "Swine"flu outbreak, does anyone know if Flovent will help or hurt them if they get this infection?

Aimee said...

Flovent will absolutely HELP. If your little asthma patients are routinely taking their maintenance meds, they are less likely to develop really severe symptoms. Just as meds like Flovent will prevent flares when they're well, it's even more imperative when they're sick. Before my kids were on Flovent daily, their doctor would give me Pulmicort respules when they developed symptoms.

Anonymous said...

Pulmicort has an MDI too. It's powdery like Advair, and it's not the typical shape (its almost like a cone) but it works very well provided you rinse after you use it.

Anonymous said...

We were in the hospital 3 times last year. They put us on flovent during the cold season and albuterol when needed. We have made it through 5 colds and the swine flu with out incident. As soon as he gets a runny nose we increase his meds according to our doctors instructions. Once it's over we go back to the daily doses.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone have a child age seven or close to it on Flovent? My son has been on Pumlmicort (Nebulizer) and xophenix for five years and now starting Flovent. Does it work better?

Aimee said...

Hey, Anonymous -

Ozzy is 8 and has been on Flovent for years. We switched to the diskus last year.

The primary advantage of Flovent vs. Pulmicort? It's just easier. The diskus takes about a second, and they can do it themselves (monitored, of course).

One thing: Make sure they rinse their mouths THOROUGHLY afterward. We have a medicine/rinse/brush teeth routine around here that works pretty well.