Coping with Childhood Asthma
The American Lung Association states that asthma is the leading serious chronic illness of children in the U.S. In 2006, an estimated 6.8 million children under age 18 (almost 1.2 million under age 5) currently have asthma. If your child has asthma you have watched your child’s anxiety and physical discomfort enough to know first hand how frightening, and disruptive asthma can be. Here are 5 things to make living with asthma easier for your child and you.
The two most common signs of childhood asthma are constant coughing and wheezing. Usually when a child has been running and playing, his breath comes out making a whistling sound which is known as wheezing. Your child can also experience tightness in the chest accompanied by shortness of breath.
Of course not all children will wheeze, often a small percentage will only ever have a persistent cough. Usually most noticeable late in the evenings. This can be a hidden symptom also, as in about 5% of cases in childhood asthma coughing is the only symptom they have. If your child appears to have coughing fits after running, crying or high activity there’s a chance they might have asthma.
Complete cure of asthma is not possible, but necessary precautions taken by the child and the parent will ensure that the child is remains hale and hearty.
Child asthma can be very difficult to deal with, especially when the child is your own flesh and blood and you have to see your own child suffer with the disease. Having an asthma attack can be extremely terrifying to a child, so if your child has asthma you need to make sure that you let them know what asthma is. You also need to work together as much as possible to make sure that you have done everything you can to eliminate their chances of having an attack.
Experts tell you that exercise can trigger an asthma attack. I’ve noticed that digging the garden a couple of times a year triggers sore muscles. But if I was doing it every day there would be no sore muscles. Take a gentle stroll every day while you are pregnant for half an hour. Exercise is important and you should be able to be physically active without having asthma symptoms after the first few days of exercise.
Medications such as Albuterol and Ipratropium are such examples of short-acting agents, and have been proven to be quite effective in controlling the symptoms of Asthma. They are considered to be in the class of Bronchodilators. Each of these medications has their own benefit as well as side effects. In some cases, the use of nebulizer treatments in the home, become necessary, depending on the severity of the disease.
Preventer medicines are designed for long term care use. They are usually taken through an inhaler. The most effective asthmatic medication in this category is a corticosteroid which can help reduce the swelling in the airways thus preventing the onset of any asthma attacks. At times this medicine is also given in the form of liquid or tablets but for a short period and are used to to get some unusual swelling in our throat under control or to deal with a chest infection.
Basically the real secret to dealing with asthma is to understand the condition and how it affects you. The more you know what sets it off, what can ease it and how you should respond to it, the more you are able to minimize its effect on your life.
