The Three Years I Spent Solving What Everyone Said Was Impossible
That question — "What if there was a way to give parents the same treatment
without the noise, fear, or ER visits?" — became an obsession.
I knew a nebulizer with saline mist worked. I'd seen it save Emma's life in the hospital.
But I also knew why no parent before me had solved this.
Traditional nebulizers had three fatal flaws that made them impossible to
use at home with a terrified toddler.
And I was about to find out just how hard those problems were to solve.
I started where every desperate parent starts: Amazon.
The reviews looked great. Thousands of 5-star ratings. "Works amazing!" "Life-changing!"
I ordered three different models over two months.
Every single one was garbage.
The first one was SO LOUD Emma refused to even be in the same room with it.
65 decibels — literally as loud as a vacuum cleaner running next to her head.
She screamed. She fought. She ran away crying.
I had to physically restrain her while she sobbed, "Mommy, no! It's scary!"
That's not treatment. That's trauma.
The second one claimed to be "whisper quiet."
It wasn't.
And after three weeks, it started making a grinding noise and died completely.
When I tried to get a refund, the seller had disappeared from Amazon.
The third one worked for exactly 12 days before the nebulizer cup cracked and started leaking everywhere.
❌ They're made with cheap plastic parts that break within weeks.
❌ They're manufactured in bulk by companies with no medical background.
❌ The "5-star reviews" are often paid for or fake.
❌ There's no quality control, no safety testing, no accountability.
And here's the worst part:
Even the ones that "worked" were still 60+ decibels, still bulky, still needed to be plugged into the wall.
Which meant I still couldn't bring it to daycare pickup when Emma started wheezing.
Couldn't bring it on our family vacation.
Couldn't keep it in my purse for weekends at my parents' house.
I was trapped at home, and Emma was still terrified of every treatment.
I tried three different "highly rated" Amazon nebulizers. All broke within weeks,
all terrified Emma, none were portable.