Inhalation Therapy in Infants and Children

Aerosol therapy is commonly used and is effective for the treatment of lung diseases in infants and children. Many of the aerosol devices used for inhalation therapy in infants and children are similar to those in adults. However, the effective use of aerosol devices poses additional challenges in infants and young children due to both anatomic and physiologic factors such as smaller airways that limit deep lung deposition, nasal filtration of aerosols particularly for the very young preferential nose breather, faster respiratory rate, less inspiratory pressure, and smaller tidal volume. There are also behavioral factors in the very young that influence deposition, including limited ability to breath-hold or sustain a deep inhalation, active avoidance of masks placed on their face, and crying. In this chapter, we discuss how these factors influence aerosol delivery in young children and we give suggestions and examples of how to mitigate potential problems.