BRONCHODILATORS
confirms Dr Sinclair, “with 90 percent of patients having no side effects, but in a ‘select’ few it changes their personalities and/or gives them a very sore tummy – and cannot be used!” These medicines make breathing easier by relaxing the muscles in the lungs and widening the airways. Long acting bronchodilators are used in conjunction with corticosteroids to treat asthma. They are usually nasal sprays or inhalers. But are their side effects worth it? “My daughter had her dose of asthma pump Foxair increased to four doses a day,” recalls a mother of a three-year-old. “She changed visibly into a moody pain. I decided to stop the pump, overnight her personality changed back to placid with a chance of tantrums.”
“Foxair contains a low dose of inhaled steroid, which is unlikely to have any major systemic effects,” says Dr Sinclair, “but the b-2 agonist salmeterol it contains, like all the bronchodilators in high doses, can make kids shaky, anxious, feel as if their heart is racing, and make them cranky and jittery.”
PSEUDOEPHIDRINE
Pseudoephidrine, and the less common phenylephrine, are both vasoconstrictors – they make the blood vessels in the nose smaller and reduce swelling, so that less snot is able to be produced there. Decongestants are great when you need them, but they are known to have side effects including dizziness, anxiety, sleeplessness, and headaches. Dr Sinclair says that saline solution is a great nasal washout as a first defence. “But often a topical anticongestant like oxymetolazone (Iliadin, Drixine or Otrivin) and/or a systemic decongestant containing pseudoephedrine or antihistamine, such as Demazin, Coryx, or Rinex, does help with sleep at night.” Before giving your child any medicines, even over-the-counter ones, it is important to know the active ingredients in it so that you don’t accidentally give your child two different brands of drugs containing the same ingredient and accidentally overdose him or her. Follow your doctor’s advice for administering drugs strictly – and if you notice what you think is a side effect from the medication, go and chat to your doctor. You might just be surprised. YB