It seems like everyone uses Albuteral in their nebulizers. My daughter takes Xopenex when she has a flair-up that her Singulair can't help. It's Levalbuteral, I guess. It doesn't cause the shakes like Albuteral does and I guess it doesn't have all the other side-effects either. I just wonder why my daughter was prescribed this when no one else even knows what it is.

DS and I both use Xopenex in the nebulizer, just different doses. I like it a lot better than the Albuterol. The Xopenex can still cause the shakes, but they're not as strong or as long-lasting as with the Albuterol. Overall I've been pleased with the Xopenex for both of us.

My 8 year old son has asthma, It makes him throw up when it acts up so it took me awhile to figure out what it was but now we have it controlled with medicine
he takes one singular and one brovex everyday
He uses his albuterol inhalor if it's a bad day or to get him back on track if we miss a dose of pills.
He uses his neb machine if is REALLY acting up or he is sick, and Dr. told me to only use the xopenex to calm down flare ups when he is sick and discontinue once it has calmed back down.
I dont know her reason behind that but that is the recipie that works for us and I am thankful to have found one that does work!
I know it is a hard thing to deal with

My son uses Xopenex in the nebulizer (he's 6) instead of Albuterol . . . because the Albuterol makes him too WILD. The Xopenex is for flare ups. He uses Pulmicort for preventative . . . daily. We've got an appointment today to see about an inhaler. Dragging the nebulizer around is getting to be tiresome and there's not always an electric outlet when he needs to use it!

We used to use Xopenex for DS's nebs vs. albuterol (he doesn't actively use anything now, just an inhaler for emergency and we keep xopenex on hand for bad chest colds). DS is allergic to many stimulants, like me, and his heart rate would race up to/just over 200bpm when he was actively on albuterol. When they switched him to xopenex, he went down to the 140's during treatments (he was on a sat monitor at the time). We also found that he did worse on the albuterol.

My dd who is 1 is on Xopenex and Pulmicort for preventative daily she seems to do well with Xopenex. I never really asked why Xopenex not Albuterol I do know that I have asthma and I've used Albuterol and Xopenex I think Xopenex is a better choice for me.

I am so excited to report that we are moving up to an inhaler!!! No more dragging around the big nebulizer machine all the time!!! The doctor feels that Robbie's old enough now to use the inhaler with a spacer . . . but our insurance company denied the initial request for the xopenex inhaler . . . duh . . . it's the same medication as the nebs, but in an inhaler . . . anything to make the process more difficult!!!

Now, just to get another set for school . . .

I agree that xopenex is a better choice than albuterol . . . the albuterol made Robbie WILD AND CRAZY and he was just a little guy . . . less than 2 yrs old!!!

Best wishes!!! Keep me informed!!!

My daughter is also uses pulmicort and xopenex. Albuterol never worked for her so we switched. My 4 y.o. daughter uses albuterol. I guess it just depends on the child.

My almost 4 year old, uses Pulmicort and Xopenex. We tried Albuterol, through the inhalor but it was nt worling for him. I like the Xopenex because it doenst cause their hearts race as much. It seems to be much better for him.

I guess it's just like any other kind of medicine . . . one kind works for one person and not for another!

I'm having a TERRIBLE time with our insurance company right now getting them to pay for the stupid Xopenex inhaler, though. Robbie has always used the Xopenex in the nebulizer and now the doctor wants him to use the inhaler because the nebulizer is so hard to drag around all the time . . . there's no electric outlet in the car, at the baseball field, etc.

They don't want to pay for the stupid inhaler, but they'll pay for the nebulizer meds! GGGRRR! I hate insurance companies!!!

The pharmacist argued with them and so did the doctor . . . so now we're in the appeal process . . .

That is awful. Our insurance is that way on stuff too.. it really stinks!

My son took Xopenex for the first time last night, and he had terrible terrible tremors, he said his heart was racing, and his throat hurt. I suspose this is normal, but scary! He refuses to use it now! He is afraid "his body will not stop shaking." He was on Abuterol, but they say they switched becasuse this med is CFC free, better for the enviroment. I never noticed shaking with Abuterol. I just hope this doesn't happen everytime he takes this med.

My son took Xopenex for the first time last night, and he had terrible terrible tremors, he said his heart was racing, and his throat hurt. I suspose this is normal, but scary! He refuses to use it now! He is afraid "his body will not stop shaking." He was on Abuterol, but they say they switched becasuse this med is CFC free, better for the enviroment. I never noticed shaking with Abuterol. I just hope this doesn't happen everytime he takes this med.

I would call your doctor . . . I don't think any of those reactions are normal . . . at the least, call the pharmacist!

Let me know what happens!

The Dr said that this was normal, he said taking this medicine is like taking a dose of Adrenilin (sp). It just reacts diffrent in diffrent people. I'm going to have a hard time convincing him to takes this med again.

That's so strange----the Xopenex almost puts Ty to sleep sometimes. It actually use to all the time when she was younger. I have a picture of her sleeping while I'm giving it to her from last winter. It's kind of like Benadryl, huh? It makes some kids hyper and puts others to sleep....weird.

That is a strange reaction, although when Robbie was younger and I had to use the Xopenex through the nebulizer machine, I would not wake him up at night to use it. I would just fix the medication in the machine and hold it in front of his face . . . he slept right through most of the time!!

Oh, and here's an update on the insurance company denial . . . the xopenex inhaler only costs $14.02 more than the albuterol . . . the insurance company (Maryland Medical Assistance) wants me to take him to an allergist and give him the albuterol and "see what happens." That way, if he has a reaction and "needs medical attention" then there is someone right there to treat him!

Are they NUTS??? I'm not going to deliberately give my son something that he has been diagnosed as being ALLERGIC TO!!!!! My pediatrician has requested a "peer review" with the insurance company, so we'll see how that goes. Just more delays . . . Robbie's using his inhaler every day now at least once, sometimes more, normally after phys. ed at school and after playing outside or running around a lot inside with his twin sister, Ashley. I'm hoping that the inhaler that I have doesn't run out anytime soon!!!!!

I just found this forum, didn't know there was a separate forum for asthma. My daughter is almost 2 and we've been dealing with asthma for about a year and a couple months now. It's challenging. They started her on Pulimcort and Xopenex and then after about 6 ER trips we saw the pulmonologist and he put her on flovent inhaler and albuterol inhaler and albuterol in the nebulizer if needed. I find that when she is sick and having a flare up, the neb works better with albuterol then the albuterol inhaler. Xopenex didn't help much for us. Now she's up to 3 steriod treatments (i usually give her two from the inhaler per day and one through the nebulizer) per day and rescue meds (albuterol) when needed or sick. Xopenex like I said didn't help my daughter much and sometimes albuterol doesn't break the tightness either and we end up in the ER. I'm really hoping she grows out of this soon!

my dr switch my dd to xopinex because the abuterol was giving her the shakes and just made her so crazy she could not sit inschool and the mood swings were horrible.

it made a huge difference in my dd when we switch.

my son has been on xopenex since he was first diagnosed. He was on albitural, but once the doctor saw how he was on it she changed to xopenex, he also has a xopenex puffer.

My son seemed to do fine on his albuterol, but the dr. switched to xopenex and it doesnt seem to work as well on his asthma, not to mention that his heart rate goes up to 168 beats per minute and doesnt come down for hours. Different kids react to different meds I guess. I am sure I'm not the only one who wonders about the fact that the majority of the medical community is treating the symptom of asthma/allergies but haven't figured out what the cause of the symptom is. Has anyone ever heard of NAET.com? I just read some of their website today and am wondering if anyone else has heard of it or had any experience with it as relates to asthma and allergies.

Yes, different medications work for different people and Xopenex didn't work for our daugher at all. Our pediatrican placed my three old on Xopenex/Pulmicort nebulizer treatments in Feb. We were told to use it twice daily for 6 wks. We lasted about 4-5 days. I have NEVER seen a drug have such adverse reactions on a person. My daughter is a very good eater and we couldn't get her to eat anything and she really wasn't interested in drinking either. She actually went 12 hours one day without urinating. She also became aggressive, hitting me, her brother and cousins whenever things didn't go her way. Our cooperative and happy child became a ball of energy and nerves. One minute she would be running wild and the next she would be in tears. The worst part was bedtime. She would scream and have tantrums about going to bed and once she fell asleep she would jerk and twitch for hours. A couple of nights she woke after sleeping for about three hours and the aftermath was unbelievable. She would sit straight up and scream, sounding almost like a wild animal. Of course I would try to console her which only made her angrier. She would scream louder and then hit me and push me away. She seemed terrified of me and my husband. (Honestly, her head might as well have been spinning). I couldn't imagine what was going through her head. After about 4 nights we stopped the medication and slept peacefully. The next day, we tried the medications again and the episodes continued. I called the pediatrician and she didn't seem concerned at all. She said Xopenex didn't have side effects like albuterol and suggested that my daughter was having temper tantrums. I was furious and took my daughter to MY doctor. He beleived that we were correct and suggested that I try giving her the medications separately to see which was causing the problems. So, we gave her Pulmicort by itself one night and Xopenex the next night. One night she was aggressive, screaming, and out of her mind and the next she twitched, jerked and whimpered throughout the night. Needless to say, we stopped both medications and things returned to normal. She will NEVER take these medications again unless it is life-threatening and there are no other options and she will also not be returning to that particular pediatrician!