44% of Brazilian children have respiratory problems. The most common treatment? Inhalation therapy. But this was a terrible experience for a child. We needed to create a solution that made this moment less dramatic.

We were under no specific restrictions for this project.

To turn 12 minutes of suffering into pure fun, we created Inhalation Stories. The kit given to the young patients contains a fun-looking mask that fits over the nebulizer mask, transforming the child into a character from a story. Once the mask is on, you access storiestoinhale.com and choose the character's story. During 12 minutes, the average time of an inhalation therapy session, the character suffers from respiratory problems similar to those of the child, such as congestion, shortness of breath and cough. All of the stories were created by children's authors with the supervision of specialists from Clin Kids.

The Inhalation Stories Kit is made up of a fun character box, a mask, and a pair of headphones. The masks are made of a light, flexible material, so they feel light on children's faces and fit perfectly over the nebulizer masks. Then, an adult just needs to put the nebulizer mask, character mask, and headphones on the child, choose the character's story on storiestoinhale.com, and let the child have fun while undergoing therapy. The stories were created by children's authors with supervision from Clin Kids pediatricians. They last exactly 12 minutes, the same as the therapy. The stories also help in medication delivery, because the characters experience the same respiratory problems as the patients. For example, at a given moment, the fox runs so fast she is out of breath, and the child needs to help her take a deep breath and fill her lungs.

Acceptance was outstanding. We traded tantrums for laughter. We were able to change a behavior by turning an obligation into pure fun. Now, children not only sit quietly throughout the treatment, but they also want to do it again to hear the other stories. This allowed us to reduce the wait time for inhalation therapy by 50%, not to mention the peace of mind it brought parents, doctors and nurses, who no longer needed to beg children to finish their treatment.

Tantrums were a recurring problem during inhalation therapy at the Clin Kids clinic. Despite the best efforts of doctors, nurses and parents, inhalation therapy is not a fun time for young children, who feel suffocated. Treatments that were supposed to last 12 minutes often took twice as long, just because children would throw tantrums.