Chocolate and other camp tricks

carachel2 · Mar 10, 2006

Hi, I have been following through many allnurses threads for awhile and I wanted to say that everyone participating in these nursing discussions have truly encouraged me in nursing (I am currently a level II nursing student). In a lecture on Wednesday a professor brought up that chocolate is an old wilderness nursing trick for bronchospasm. I knew about giving coca-cola to kids experiencing minor asthma attacks helps to bronchodilate them, but was unaware of the effect of chocolate. Apparantly chocolate has Theobromine in it, which is a smooth muscle relaxant.
I personally thought that was pretty neat. I was wondering if anyone else had heard about that? Also, I was wondering if anyone else knows of any other "wilderness" tricks like that! Thank you for your time and thoughtful responses! Again, I really appreciate all that you nurses do! I am proud to say I am going into nursing because of nurses like all of you!!
Thanks,
mousesn

I've heard the same thing about a little caffeine. Of course, in the actual wilderness I don't know about the likelihood of having caffeine or chocolate around, but at camp I'm sure they are plentiful, LOL !

GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · Mar 10, 2006

I guess it would be the caffeine that helped. But is there enough caffeine in chocolate to actually help? Its a good excuse to eat a whole bunch of chocolate, though!

camp nurse 2004 · Mar 20, 2006

I will try this in the summer 2006

thanks

ZASHAGALKA, RN · Mar 20, 2006

My experience as a camp nurse is that any of the kids remotely asthmatic have their 'puffers' handy. Most parents are thankfully paranoid about such things.

Chocolate or caffeine is a mild emergency aid but not a cure.

Someone having an asthma attack would truly either need their prescription medicine or immediate medical attn.

If I gave those thing to an a child with active asthma, it would only be enroute to the local clinic.

I did have a circumstance where a child forgot his albuterol inhaler at the beginning of camp, but a quick call to his doc, and a prescription phone-in, and I had a $16.00 replacement inhaler up from the local pharmacy by noon the first day of camp.

I would not be comfortable with using either as a definitive treatment.

~faith,

Timothy.

mousesn · Mar 28, 2006

My experience as a camp nurse is that any of the kids remotely asthmatic have their 'puffers' handy. Most parents are thankfully paranoid about such things.
Chocolate or caffeine is a mild emergency aid but not a cure.
Someone having an asthma attack would truly either need their prescription medicine or immediate medical attn.
If I gave those thing to an a child with active asthma, it would only be enroute to the local clinic.
I did have a circumstance where a child forgot his albuterol inhaler at the beginning of camp, but a quick call to his doc, and a prescription phone-in, and I had a $16.00 replacement inhaler up from the local pharmacy by noon the first day of camp.
I would not be comfortable with using either as a definitive treatment.
~faith,
Timothy.

Thank you for your advice! I also do not think I would be comfortable using chocolate or coka-cola as definitive treatment, but I like hearing under what circumstances other nurses might feel comfortable using them (like how you said, "en route to a clinic". I also appreciate hearing about your circumstance and the actions you took! Thank you!