Asthma meds

[Coco H]

Just wondeing if anyone knew about why different medications are prescribed.

My son is 10 months old and on atrovent (which is beacuse it works better at his age generally due to ther receptors) and salbutamol and pulmicort.
I have just been given clenil and salbutamol.

Just out fo interest what is the difference between clenil and pulmicort?

[V10Mike]

Coco H said:

Just wondeing if anyone knew about why different medications are prescribed.

My son is 10 months old and on atrovent (which is beacuse it works better at his age generally due to ther receptors) and salbutamol and pulmicort.
I have just been given clenil and salbutamol.

Just out fo interest what is the difference between clenil and pulmicort?

Atrovent and salbutamol both act to open up the airways -Atrovent is long acting, salbutamol is for instant relief when you get shortness of breath -sometimes referred to as "reliever" medications.

Pulmicort is budesonide, clenil is beclametasone dipropionate -both of these are inhaled steroids, which act to reduce the underlying inflammation which causes asthma -known as "preventer" medications.

The important thing is always to take your "preventer", even if you are not suffering from shortness of breath. Hopefully then you won't get an exacerbation, and will rarely need to use your "reliever".

Typical mistake is to stop taking the preventer, then a week or so later the asthma comes back and requires lots of preventer use to get under control.

See if your local surgery has an asthma nurse -they are usually the best people to talk to for practical advice.