Everything You Need to Know About Asthma in Children

Asthma spares no one: neither young nor old people. Childhood asthma often develops before the age of five. In the United States, for example, the disease affects 10-12% of children and their number is steadily increasing.

Asthma in children: Causes

There are many factors of the emergence and development of the disease, but psychologists distinguish eight main asthma causes:

• Presence of any, even the most minor allergies;
• heredity;
• frequent diseases caused by air-borne infections;
• low birth weight;
• male sex – yes, it’s oddly enough, but men and boys are in a high risk group;
• black or dark skin;
• exposure of the baby to tobacco smoke before and after birth. Smoke may affect the baby if a pregnant mom was smoking, as well as if she was a passive smoker;
• living in low-income families.

The reasons for increasing the number of childhood asthma

1. The deterioration of the environmental situation in general. At home the mom can do wet cleaning every day, destroying the main enemy allergy – dust. But on the streets you can do nothing with dust, smoke and gas concentration. Living in cramped conditions, families are forced to live in small spaces, where it is difficult to fully protect children from exposure to tobacco smoke. The father smokes in the kitchen or in the bathroom, and then there comes the baby and breathes tobacco smoke;
2. Refusal of breastfeeding can also lead to the development of allergies and asthma, as breast milk contain important substances needed for the immune system hardening. And if there is no milk, then what to talk about?
3. There is an opinion that today’s children, due to a system of mandatory vaccinations, fall sick not often enough to have a strong immune system. It sounds somewhat paradoxically so let’s explain this in simple words. When the body is fighting the disease, it resists, generating protective antibodies, which protect the child from more nasty diseases in the future.

If a child does not practically fall ill, these antibodies are not produced that can result in asthma.

Asthma symptoms, when it’s necessary to take your child to a lung specialist

• Your child coughs often. And coughing attacks occur during the game, at night or when the baby is laughing;
• decline in activity during the games;
• there is often a feeling of weakness and fatigue;
• heavy breath;
• complaints of shortness of breath or chest pain;
• wheezing during inhalation and exhalation;
• stiffness of a neck and pectoral muscles.

In fact, do not be afraid, if you notice that your child has one or more of the symptoms listed above – it is not necessarily asthma. However, as we say, “better safe than sorry”. It is better to be checked, especially if your family has or had asthmatics.

Particular attention should be given to adopted children, as not everything is clear with their pedigree, and that means we can expect any “surprises”.

Very often, small children acquire asthma after suffering from viral diseases of the upper respiratory tract, for example, after a common cold. You should pay a special attention to a frequent or prolonged cold!

When you are going to see a doctor, no matter whether you go to a pediatrician or pulmonologist, you should have a medical card of the child with, as the doctor should not only examine a young patient – the examination can not detect the enemy lurking in the body – the disease.

Attention! It is necessary to reread all previously made recording on the health of the baby. Especially pay attention to everything that is related to the respiratory system. Complaints of gasping, wheezing, whistling cough and so on.

It is difficult to identify asthma in infants, but older children with a history of diseases provide more opportunities to detect asthma.

Advice: Taking the child to the doctor, do not expect that inspection and health card reading will solve all the problems. Describe the symptoms that you see in your child accurately:

• Coughing;
• wheezing;
• breath, chest pain and tightness;
• their frequency.

The physician must listen to the child’s heart and lungs. If needed, the doctor prescribes a special examination. So, if you do not trust the conclusion of the doctor at the first inspection, get a direction to the X-ray of the chest. Take a direction to allergic skin test and analysis of blood. These tests are required to determine whether asthma is complicated by gastrointestinal disease that causes the reverse current of gastric acid into the esophagus, or sometimes even into the lungs.

Conclusion: If the doctor listens to the child and says that there is no danger, but you feel otherwise, consult a complete examination. If your baby is completely healthy, you just waste some time and a little money. If he is sick – you will be able to identify the disease at an early stage, when it is easier to cope with.

Tip: After receiving advice from the doctor, do not hesitate to ask questions. The less you know the rules to combat the disease, the less the chance is that you will help your child. Do not rely on your memory, keep the instructions at hand. Get more tips for managing your child’s asthma.  

Always have medication at home and even in a kindergarten or at school, if your child is absent-minded.

All the necessary medications (inhalers) may be bought in Online Asthma Inhalers pharmacy. Severent inhaler is one of the most effective medications to relieve asthma attacks. Save your time and money and be healthy!