Illness of the child is the real challenge for his parents. What should they do? How to help the kid? It can be difficult, but parents can’t panic, the baby notices the slightest changes of your mood. This theory is especially correct when when we talt about asthma: the illness which became the frequent phenomenon among children.
Bronchial asthma is the special condition of bronchi including a hypersensibility of respiratory tracts to infections, dust, pungent smells, pollen of plants, a chronic inflammation, disturbance of respiration because of a spastic stricture and an edema of fine bronchi.
Risk factors:
The most important is an allergic mood of the kid’s organism. Emergence of asthma is quite often preceded by an allergic rhinitis or diathesis.
Heredity is existence of a disease at any of close relatives.
Other factors are the premature birth, the unsuccessful course of pregnancy, violation of food-taking, early introduction of a feeding up, dysbacteriosis, deviations in development of respiratory system.
Usually suffocation attacks are short-term, as a rule, they arise one-two times a week at night or in the first half of a day. It is easy to recognize the beginning of an attack by the complicated exhalation and more frequent breath.
Between attacks there may be dry cough and rattles. At the easy course of a disease the child get hoarse and cough only after the postponed cold, during overcooling, against the background of a stress, more often in the afternoon, than at night. Generally the kid looks absolutely healthy and doesn’t complain of anything.
At the middle stage of asthma tussis and rhonchus practically don’t disappear completely if the patient ignores treatment. The child can’t sleep due to the dry cough without sputum which isn’t giving relief at night.
Recommendations for asthmatic children
The general safety rules for the little asthmatic are well-known. But sometimes, at a disease in a light form, they begin to be perceived as something optional. Adults are relaxed, they cease watching the kid, and his condition worsens.
The child has to sleep not less than eight hours a day. A blanket, a mattress, a pillow may be only synthetic, they need to be washed often.
If the baby has asthma, communication with pets should be excluded. Doctors advise to refuse also house plants.
Parents and close relatives should refuse smoking or not to smoke at least in rooms and near the child on the street.
Humidity of air needs to be maintained at the level of fifty percent. Too dry or wet air worsens a condition of respiratory tracts. The damper and a hygrometer will help to control a situation.
Refuse household chemicals which are possible to live withiout. Buy all the rest in special departments selling goods for allergic persons.
During a blossoming period of plants it is better to take the child away from allergens. If there is no such opportunity, take the appointed medicine, feed the kid with hypoallergenic food, limit walks on the street.
It is necessary to free the apartment from dust and objects accumulating her. There should not be carpets, big soft toys, not glazed book shelves in the house. You should do wet cleaning every day, using detergents for allergic persons.
Bronchial asthma demands constant control of the doctor. Once in three months it is necessary to take your kid to the doctor. If you noticed that the nature of a disease changes, it is a reason for an extraordinary visit to hospital. Consultation with experts is obligatory if the child had an allergy to a new stimulus. It can be a deterioration sign. You shoul pay special attention if the effect of the drugs which are prescribed to the kid, increase or night attacks appear.
Statistically, eighty percent of children outgrow bronchial asthma. It is only necessary to help them with this important issue.
Asthma Inhalers
Asthma inhalers are the most convenient way to get asthma medacations derectly to a child’s lungs. While a nebulizer could be easier in use, many parents and children don’t like how long they take to deliver an asthma drug.
To bright the positive effect, asthma inhalers must be used properly, requiring some steps. The procedure can be simplified by combining a metered-dose inhaler with a spacer or a spacer with a mask, but the inhaler with spacer must still be applied correctly.
You might not be able to get away from using an asthma inhaler, though as some asthma medications are only available as an inhaler. For example, while there are nebulized forms of albuterol, levalbuterol and budesonide, most other medications to treat asthma are only available in the form of inhalers.
Types of Inhalers
There are two main types of asthma inhalers, these are the metered-dose inhalers that many patients are familiar with, and the dry powdered inhalers. Usually, most people think that dry powdered inhalers are easier to apply as they are breath actuated, while for metered-dose inhalers require it is compulsory to coordinate taking a deep breath with activating the inhaler.
Dry powdered inhalers
usually can’t be used until children are 5 to 6 years old and can take a proper deep, forceful inhalation. Younger children generally try to blow into the inhaler, instead of inhaling.
Many younger children make the mistake in using a dry powdered inhaler, to be exact:
- they position the inhaler in a wrong way
- they forget to exhale fully before inhaling
- they fail to take a deep, forceful inhalation
- they do not hold their breath for about 10 seconds
- they forget to breath out slowly after using an inhaler.
Of course, sometimes there are also mistakes with metered-dose inhalers. A typical mistake of children is to forget to take a slow, deep inhalation, breathing in too fast instead.
Inhalers with Spacers
Although the kid may be able to use a metered-dose inhaler when he is 5 years old, it is still recommended to use a spacer to make sure he directs the full dose to his lungs.
A spacer is a small device that can be adjusted to an inhaler and can even contain a mask for infants and kids who are 4 years old or younger.
Rescue Asthma Inhalers
Rescue asthma inhalers include short-acting medications that can provide quick relief when your child is having asthma attacks, for example:
ProAir inhaler
Ventolin inhaler
Preventative Asthma Inhalers
Inhaled inhalers are a mainstay of asthma preventative therapy. Unlike rescue inhalers, which can give quick relief for asthma symptoms, these inhalers are generally used on a daily basis to help prevent your kid from developing asthma symptoms.
For children with moderate to seriuos asthma who aren’t controlled with an inhaled steroid, an inhaler that combines a steroid with a long-acting beta-agonist can be of a great effect. For example:
Advair Diskus – approved for children who are at least 4
Once your child’s asthma is under proper conrol while using a combination inhaler, talk to your doctorto find out when it might be the right time to reduce your child’s therapy so that he could only applystrong steroid inhaler.
What To Know about Asthma Inhalers for Kids
Perhaps the most important thing to know about your kid’s asthma inhaler is that you should keep on using the devices until you are instructed by your doctor to stop doing it. An asthma developmet plan can help you to know for certain when to use your child’s asthma inhalers and regular visitsto the doctor.
You’d better bring all the child’s asthma inhalers with you when you come to the doctor so that he knows what drugs your child is taking, besides, your child can show how good his technique of inhaling.
Asthma inhalers can be rather expensive and cost can be main factor that influences which inhaler your child uses. If your insurance company has a drug formulary, then bring a list of preferred asthma inhalers to your visits with your doctor.