My DD7 also has asthma and we tried a bunch of stuff. She seemed to do o.k with medicine only when she had a respiratory illness which happened 2 or 3 times a year. We tried albuteral both liquid and through the nebulizer. It made her very jumpy. We tried it when she was between 1 and 3 years of age off and on. We then switched to pulmicort and xopenex both through the nebulizer. I loved them - no side effects whatsoever. When she started school she seemed to get sick more often and even got pneumonia. We then tried Singular for daily use to prevent attacks. The Singular gave her night terrors. We tried both the 4mg and 5mg and she could not tolerate either dosage. I have heard about this happening with other children as well. We also got an albuteral inhaler for emergency situations and it seems the albuteral does not make her as jumpy now as it did when she was younger.
As she got older the nebulizer really got to be a pain to use so now we have switched to Pulmicort Flexhaler which I really like as well as the Pulmicort delivered via the nebulizer. As many people have mentioned the Prednisone really works great when you have an emergency, but there are a lot of side effects of oral steroids. When she first took the oral steroids when she was younger they made her very emotional everything would cause her to break down and cry, she was really mean and demanding as well. I no longer notice this problem as she has aged. It is really just trial and error finding something that works for your child. The older they get though the better they are at helping find something that works for them. I hope you find something that works for you.
