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How to Make Homemade Spacer Devices for Asthma

Inhaled asthma medications such as bronchodilators, are the most effective way to rapidly reverse the narrowing of an asthmatic child's airways. Inhaled medicines are typically administered with a metered-dose-inhaler (MDI), and for children, with a medical device attached called a spacer. The spacer helps the child coordinate the press and breathe action of the MDI so he can inhale the medicine properly. Spacer devices, which cost approximately $30 US dollars, can be too expensive for parents who live in countries like South Africa. So the South African adaptation of the National Institutes of Health guidelines for the care of children with asthma, recommends that parent make their own spacer devices using a plastic bottle.

Things You'll Need

  • Thin steel wire about 12 inches long
  • Cigarette lighter
  • Clean, empty plastic drinking bottle
  • Metered dose inhaler
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Instructions

  1. How to Make a Homemade Spacer Device

    • 1

      Ask your child's doctor for instruction on how to make a homemade spacer device. Great care must be must be taken when constructing a homemade asthma spacer to ensure that it works properly.

    • 2

      Make a hole in the base of a 500 ml plastic cold-drink bottle where the MDI can be inserted. Plastic can be difficult to cut, leaving jagged edges that can hurt a child.So instead of cutting the hole, make a heated, molded steel wire which is the same diameter as the MDI mouthpiece. You can apply this to the base of the bottle to burn a hole instead of cutting.

    • 3

      Shape a thin, steel wire around the mouthpiece of the MDI to make it the same size and diameter as the mouthpiece. Keep a section of the wire long enough to use as a handle to hold to make the hole. It should be long enough that you won't get burned when you heat the molded end of the wire.

    • 4

      Heat the molded end of the steel wire with a cigarette lighter, grill lighter or small butane lighter that you can find in any hardware store. The mold should be heated until it is red hot.

    • 5

      Apply the heated end of the wire against the bottom of the plastic drink bottle until it melts and burns through. This should leave a hole the side of the MDI mouthpiece. Once cool to the touch, remove the piece of plastic you've burned away.

    • 6

      Insert the MDI mouthpiece into the hole after removing the plastic piece to create a tight fit.

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