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The nighttime inhaler debacle

Giving inhalers throughout the night (often 3-4 hourly when things are bad) is exhausting and often a bit upsetting if you inadvertently wake the child. But it can also be both daft and hilarious. You have to be stealth. The idea is to administer a ridiculous amount of puffs through the spacer without waking the child. In hospital the nurses do this with the skill and silence of a ninja, at home we do it with the fumble and blunder of a red-bummed baboon.



For example, A is sleeping reasonably peacefully. We enter and make our approach. She stirs, her Dad dives down at the foot of the bed, I jump into the doorway, but as I do A rolls right out of bed. I do that leap that you see in the films (minus the barrel roll, though I like to think it did happen) and somehow she rolls into my arms before hitting the floor. I roll her back into bed. Inhaler still not administered, parents tired, wide eyed and wondering how on Earth to give an inhaler to a child who has just been rolled onto her front, face to the wall by her idiot Mother!

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