The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved the first corticosteroid inhalant for kids as young as 1 year old, says this wire story on ABC News .
Corticosteroids are an important part of keeping asthma under control for older patients.
But, until now, they were unavailable to the youngest asthmatics because they only came in a dry, inhalable form that requires the patient to inhale the drug properly. This new formulation, called Pulmicort Respules, can be used with a nebulizer, which is a machine that creates a mist out of the medicine. Small children can use masks, such as oxygen masks, through which they inhale a small amount of medicine with each breath they take. New studies have come out recently showing the crucial role corticosteroids play in the management of asthma. Those who use the drugs regularly significantly reduce their risk of dying from an asthma attack, says this Canadian Press article from Toronto's C-Health .