Health & Wellness

The Importance of Using a Spacer with Asthma Reliever Medication

Asthma Australia

It is highly recommended that everyone with asthma to use a spacer but it is even more important for children.

To ensure your child with asthma receives the correct dose of their asthma preventer and reliever medications, it’s not just taking it at the right time, it is also taking it in the right way.

• Spacers can be a highly effective way for children with asthma to take their reliever medication so the correct dose goes into the lungs where it is needed.
• Spacers slow down the delivery of the puffer medication and allow the child to breathe it at their own pace - it allows time for a child to inhale.
• When you puff medication into the mouth without a spacer it can go to the back of the throat so quickly, they haven’t got time to inhale correctly & the majority of the medication will end up being swallowed and go into the stomach and not the lungs.

Watch this video to see How to Uses a Spacer Effectively

• The effective use of a spacer provides the best chance for a person with asthma to get the right dose of their medication while helping to minimise potential side effects.
• It is critical to have twice-yearly checks to make sure their technique is correct. It’s extremely important to have a face to face check with a health professional, whether that is a doctor, a nurse or a pharmacist to check technique.
• The majority of people do not take their medications correctly. They’re not getting the dose they think they’re getting and especially with their preventers, that has implications for their asthma control.
• Inhaler technique will be among the first things a health professional will check if a person with asthma’s control has worsened.

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