An Asthma Diagnosis for Emmy & VAX Pure Air 200 Review

Children and being poorly seem to go hand in hand, especially when they are school-aged. They pass bugs and germs to each other constantly through poor hand washing practices, not putting their hands over their mouths when they cough and just generally all being in the same rooms couped up together all day long.

If there is a bug, cold or virus going around the class then my two seem to always pick them up, and of course, pass them to each other and often us too. So when Emmy started coughing we knocked it up to yet another cold and thought no more of it really, she did have a runny nose and was running a fever at the time.

She missed a few more days off of school she was running a fever, something she always tends to do when she is even a little poorly, as does Harry – it seems this is their bodies way of fighting anything. The school won’t allow them in with a fever anyway so she stayed home for a few days.

Her cold disappeared within a week and she was back to her usual self again, only she had a lingering cough which wasn’t going away. Again we chalked it up to still being part of her cold and gave Calpol when needed as she doesn’t like cough medicine.

As the weeks went on she was still coughing but only at nighttime, I ended up sleeping in her room with her, propping her up during her coughing fits and giving her water to drink. Another cold appeared so the cough, we thought, was related to this next cold.

We chalked it up to the fact she hadn’t been sleeping very well she was now run down so her body was trying to fight off yet another cold virus she had knocked her for six yet again. She had a fever again with this one too, there really isn’t anything new about that, it happens every single time she is poorly and we are very used to it now – her younger years when her temperature spiked over 40 would have panicked me but I’m much calmer and practiced and reducing it now.

When we went away Glamping in Devon over the Easter break was when her cough began to worry me more and more. Being in a tent it was easier to hear how much she was coughing during the nighttime, it was constant nearly all night and every night. It was no wonder she was shattered and always run down really.

Upon our return, I booked her into the doctors to discuss her coughing and my suspicions that it could be Asthma-related. She got the all clear health-wise, as in no chest infection or anything sinister and the doctor agreed with me that it did sound like it could be Asthma.

She was prescribed a peak-flow to blow into each evening as well as a blue inhaler and a spacer (a device which the inhaler fits into and the other end goes over Emmy’s mouth and nose – this helps to ensure she uses the inhaler correctly and all the medicine is inhaled properly).

These were to be trialled for a few weeks up to a month to see if they improved things at all, if they did then it was Asthma she had and we were to go back for another inhaler.

Within a week of taking her inhaler every evening her coughing was certainly less, then with the introduction also of a VAX Air purifier which we were very kindly sent to trial in Emmy’s room, 2 weeks later and her coughing stopped completely.

The VAX Air Purifier has really worked wonders for her and for me, I suffer from Hayfever so when the pollen is really affecting me I close myself in her room with this on and along with my hayfever tablets I can sleep again. It’s funny what we just get used to, isn’t it? I was used to waking constantly in the night with itchy eyes and a sore throat and sneezing and Emmy was used to waking all night coughing.

The VAX Pure Air 200 removes 99% of harmful particles as small as 0.3 microns and is suitable for any sized room up to 105m².

I was so surprised at how quiet this machine really is, with a night mode option you can barely hear it running throughout the night. There are of course other modes on the machine – you can set it to auto meaning it will automatically adjust the levels needed depending on the air quality, so if the windows are open and pollutants such as pollen are coming into the room it will work on a higher level to filter these out of the air for you.

The VAX air purifier works by drawing in the dirty air and releasing clean air back into the room, all the impurities are then trapped within the air filter inside the machine.

It also has a timer on so you can set it to run for an hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours or 8 hours at a time, and it can also be run on low, medium or high and it also comes with a remote control so you can change switch it on/off or change the speed without getting out of bed/off the sofa.

This really has made the world of difference to us both and even friends who’ve come over have immediately noticed the difference in the air quality in her bedroom.

Air purifiers can help to remove the following from the air in your homes:

• dust and dust mites
• mould spores
• pollen
• pet dander, and
• other allergens such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are released from plastics and furnishing, and products such as household paints and crafting materials. Even the fragrances that we use to clean and make our homes smell fresh can react chemically to pollute the air, and ozone-based air fresheners can also cause indoor air pollution.

There are two sized air purifiers available from VAX the Pure Air 200 and the Pure Air 300 which is for larger rooms.

The Air filter inside each machine lasts for around 6 months and replacements are available directly from VAX.

You can see a video of this in use over on my Instagram highlights here.

We have now taken Emmy back to the doctors armed with her peak-flow results and the doctors agreed that it has certainly helped her and she now has a brown inhaler which is a reliever and she needs to take this morning and evenings and it should mean she doesn’t need the blue inhaler, unless having an attack.

Disclaimer: We were sent the air purifier for review purposes, as always, all thoughts and opinions are our own.

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