Would something like that require a person pushing on the stomach?
I was firm with the pressure but not severe. It was a combination of an authorative voice from me, focus on his stomache rather than his breathing, the resistance to the hyperventilation due to my pressure on his diaphram, the power of suggestion which really works with children, and a validation statement that everything would be ok, just relax! Oh, by the way I also moved my hand in a circular pattern to increase stimulation from my hand. IMHO, a lot of children create a psychological addiction to the inhaler. In this instance, the boy, who was overweight, was running for first base in our baseball game and was thrown out. I have a feeling that if he would have been safe the attack would not have happened. Im not generalizing this situation to all attacks!
That week was interesting as two of us were the leaders for 25 age 10-11 yr olds. Several were ADD and ADHD who were off their medication for the summer. They were all angels. I had no problem until Wed. evening campfire when the parents visited. It took me about 24 hrs after they left to settle them down again and they were fine until I delivered them to their parents Sat. afternoon. It was a profound week for me.
So you found that the kids had no problems when they were away from their parents, but the problems surfaced immediately when they were with them?