Asthma in Children

Determining whether or not your child will suffer from asthma is usually apparent by the time your child is five years of age. For parents who are fearful of their child having asthma, it can be difficult to read any existing symptoms to make a reliable diagnosis.

As a general rule, young children are more likely to suffer from asthma if one or both of their parents has asthma, the child frequently experiences allergy-like symptoms or accompanying conditions such as eczema, or the child wheezes or has trouble breathing even when he or she isn’t suffering from a cold or other infection.

Diagnosing your Child

Fortunately, not all children that experience wheezing episodes or over sensitivity to allergies will go on to develop asthma. Wheezing, specifically, can simply be the result of a child’s airway becoming inflamed by a certain illness. As this child grows older and his or her airway expands, he or she is much less likely to wheeze when battling a cold.

If you’re unsure of whether or not your child is suffering from asthma, you should be sure to seek the advice of your regular pediatrician. When consulting your pediatrician, it’s important to bring along important information regarding family history of allergies or asthma, your child’s overall behaviour, and his or her breathing patterns and responses to foods or other potential allergy triggers.

In children specifically, it’s hard to conduct a reliable lung function test to obtain a definitive asthma diagnosis. Because of this, your doctor might talk to you about using a 4-6 week trial of asthma medicines in order to identify any differences that occur in your child’s symptoms.

Asthma Medications

As is the case for most medications, there are certain things you should be aware of when giving your child asthma medications. Of course, the first and most important point is to never leave medications within reach of young children.

With every medication your doctor suggests, a responsible adult should always supervise use until you, your child, and your pediatrician all agree that he or she is capable and responsible to handle their medications on their own.

Even children as young as three years old are capable of beneficially using an inhaler, provided he or she is given proper instructions and demonstrates their capability through supervised practice. If your child doesn’t feel comfortable with an inhaler, you might find a nebulizer to be more useful.

A nebulizer is a small machine that makes your child’s asthma medication an airborne solution. In other words the nebulizer converts your child’s asthma medicine into a mist before dispersing it in an easy-to-use mask that your child can simply put on and breathe normally.

It is important to recognize that a child in the midst of a serious asthma flare may not be able to effectively make use of his or her inhaler in the moment. If your child is unable to breath in enough air to get their asthma medicine into their lungs, you should seek emergency assistance immediately.

If you want to talk to your local certified pharmacist about your child’s specific asthma-related symptoms, please don’t hesitate to give Medicine Shoppe Sunridge a call at 403.291.0076 today!