How Do You Get A Toddler To Sit For Breathing Treatments?
Breathing treatments can be scary, tedious and annoying to an average toddler who wants to continuously keep moving. Most treatments can take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes to complete, depending on the dosage, the machine used and the type of medication. The machine is loud, the mask is confining and the mist from the medicine is slightly bitter; but getting a young child to hold still and be patient for longer than a minute under any circumstances can seem impossible. When you invite the child to explore or do something special and exciting during a treatment, however, the toddler might just stop moving in order to get what he wants. Familiarize the child with the nebulizer, explaining in easy-to-understand terms what it is and how it works. You say, “This is breather” or “This is a mister. It makes mist that helps us breathe better.” Show where the medicine goes, how the machine turns it into special steam and how the steam gets to the face mask. Let the child play with the machine.
