I just wanted to reply to your question since the original post was strated in 2007. My daughter is a former 23 weeker who is now 2 1/2 years old.
She caught RSV in december 07 and as a result we had a 13 day PICU stay. Unfortunately, my daughter had to be inutubated and put on ventilator for 7 days as she has BPD and the infection just took over.
Part of her treatment while on the ventilator and once she was off was nebulizer treatments. She would get Xopenex (a dialator to open her up) every 3 hours and Pulmicort (inhaled steriod) every 12 hours. Some children recieve Albuterol treatments instead of Xopenex, but they both do the same thing.
My daughter was on these medications prior to RSV, but just for maintenance.
Hope that helped.
Take care,
Yolonda
oh just thought of something else, I dont know the technical name for it, but respitory therapist would cup her hand and pat my daughters back to break up the mucus or something like that. It's kind of the same concept as in the nicu when they would put that little vibrator thing on the baby's back while giving a breathing treatment.