Posts Tagged ‘asthma children’

Pediatric Asthma

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

Pediatric asthma is one of the most delicate conditions that affect children of all ages. Before getting to the pediatric asthma treatment, we have to talk about the correct diagnosis, as this is a very hard thing to accomplish. Small children and infants cannot tell what bothers them, so the symptoms have to be guessed first by parents, and then by doctors. If a parent doesn’t suspect anything abnormal in their child, why would they seek for pediatric medical consultation? Children get frequent colds and childhood diseases, so there’s another reason for parents not getting too worried if their child coughs and has difficulties in breathing.

Explaining Pediatric Asthma Control to Children

Pediatric asthma, after being diagnosed, raises another problem: making your child understand how he needs to behave in order to avoid asthma episodes. In asthma and allergies there are no diseases but only patients. Each child has unique manifestations of pediatric asthma, different triggers and different ways of reacting to them. This is why children have to understand from early ages what harms them and why it is important to stay away from everything that may worsen their condition. Taking the asthma medication as prescribed is also crucial in controlling the symptoms. The peak flow monitoring can help in keeping asthma under control. Children need to be taught how to control their peak flow twice or three times a day, so the historic can be established and the efficacy of the medication can be evaluated. Specific goals setting can help the progress of the child in understanding how to control the illness, so that pediatric asthma makes lesser victims.

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How Allergic Asthma Starts

Sunday, October 5th, 2008

Allergy affects three quarters of the population in developed countries. Although they may not have too much in common, fact is that many times allergies and asthma occur together, causing sufferers a double trouble. The allergic asthma mechanism can be described in simple words like that: the allergic response to the contact with an allergen will cause the body cells to release histamines, which are chemicals that have the role of defending the body from the intruders. Because of these histamines, the airways and nose linings start to swell. This inflammation makes the air passages constrict, thus preventing the air to enter the lungs in enough quantities.

Will Treating the Allergy Make Allergic Asthma Disappear?

Yes, the asthma symptoms can be perfectly kept under control if you take care of your allergies. If you’ve already suffered an allergic reaction thanks to getting in contact with an allergen, the allergy medication will only alleviate a bit the allergic asthma manifestations. However, if you manage to control your allergy, then your asthma is not going to bother you at all, because it is triggered only by allergic reactions. If you notice a relationship between your exposure to certain allergens and your airways behavior you definitely need to talk with your doctor about that. A life of avoidance can almost guarantee you that your allergic asthma will be fully controlled.

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Asthma and Allergies

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

There is a tight connection between asthma and allergies. While asthma can have other causes than allergies, an allergy never comes alone. Most of the times, it develops into an allergic asthma which can give a lot of trouble to the person in cause. That’s because an allergic asthma sufferer has to fight two diseases in one: first of all, he needs to take anti-allergic medication, so he avoids occurrence of symptoms such as running nose, itchy eyes, sore throat, each time he gets in contact with the allergens. On the other hand, as allergic asthma progresses, there may be needed some asthma medication such as corticosteroids or bronchodilators, in order to ease breathing and allow the patient to have some rest. Night time is a hard time for asthma and allergies sufferers. That’s because we usually have difficulties in falling asleep when we cannot breathe properly. Not having enough sleep leads to exhaustion, depression and irritability, thus endangering the social life of the ill person.

Children – the Most Affected By Asthma and Allergies

Asthma and allergies are very frequent among children under 18 years of age. When they get asthma episodes, children miss their school, so their education has to suffer. They are very affected because of their colleagues, who cannot understand that illness is not a subject for hoaxes and amusement. There are cases when colleagues of allergic kids try to put peanut butter on their skin, only because they know that they shouldn’t. The allergic kid gets extremely scared, because this contact could actually kill him, therefore he attempts to run away from the danger. It is very hard to prevent such incidents to happen. Asthma, which prevents the child from breathing properly, makes him keep the mouth open all the time, so asthma children start to look like fish. In time, their face changes the shape, so they are recognizable from a distance.
Asthma in children needs special care, early diagnosis and an understanding environment. In these conditions, children can live a normal life, even with their asthma and allergies, because they are kept under control.

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Childhood Asthma

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Asthma is a chronic disease which may occur at any given moment in life. Childhood asthma is affecting almost 7 million children under the age of 18, in the US only. Out of them, more than 1 million are children under 5 years old. This is scary, if we think that there is a possibility that childhood asthma remains undiagnosed for very long time, until attacks become frequent and parents start to suspect that their child has more than a simple, common cold, usual for childhood.

Social Implications of Childhood Asthma

There was this statistic showing that childhood asthma is the third cause of hospitalization in children up to 15 years old. This makes them miss lots of classes in school, because they either are in the hospital and cannot go to school, or they are at home, but feeling so bad that they cannot leave their bed. Asthma makes children look a bit like rabbits. Because they cannot breathe properly, they tend to keep their mouth open, so their face changes over time. Having that strange appearance, asthma children are target to many mean jokes at school or kindergarden. It is difficult to explain a small child that he is ill and this is how he is going to be for the rest of his life. Childhood asthma prevents kids to develop normally, to socialize with their peers and make friends. These symptoms may go up to depression, and they may require specialized medical assistance.

Signs and Symptoms of Childhood Asthma

Children catch colds a lot, so usually parents don’t worry too much. They just give their kids some over the counter medication and watch them to see if symptoms go worse. The obvious signs of childhood asthma are wheezing, permanent coughing and rapid breathing, but they cannot manifest until the illness gets quit advanced. Sometimes, even doctors are fooled by the symptoms, so they think it’s a cold, when they have to deal with childhood asthma. This is why the stethoscope has to be completed some times by pulmonary function testing. This simple tests reveals early asthma symptoms, so a proper diagnosis can be set even when the childhood asthma is in its incipient stage.

Triggers of Childhood Asthma Attacks

Asthma episodes can be triggered by various factors such as physical effort, emotions, allergy, infections, irritant smells or even weather. Most of these are factors that can be avoided, so the child can remain symptom-free for years, between two attacks. One special chapter is allergic asthma, which starts as a consequence of getting into contact with the allergen the kid is sensitive to. Sometimes, for instance, in case of allergies to pollen, it would be difficult to keep the child indoors for two three months, so he’ll be exposed to the allergens, thus being prone to suffer a new asthma attack. Such children should be given antihistaminic medication during the pollens peak seasons, and they should be kept inside the house in the days with maximum pollen activity. These can be determined by watching the special pollen bulletins and air quality warnings on TV or on internet.
With a bit of care, childhood asthma is perfectly controllable.

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