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Home / Photo of a Six Year Old Baby in the Hospital With Asthma

Photo of a Six Year Old Baby in the Hospital With Asthma

Asthma in Children

Likewise chosen: Childhood asthma, Pediatric asthma

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Summary

What is asthma?

Asthma is a chronic (long-term) lung illness. It affects your airways, the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. When you have asthma, your airways can become inflamed and narrowed. This tin cause wheezing, coughing, and tightness in your breast. When these symptoms go worse than usual, it is chosen an asthma assault or burst.

How does asthma affect children?

Asthma ofttimes starts during childhood, usually before age 5. Many children have asthma - it is the most common chronic disease of childhood. It can cause children to miss school and finish upwardly in the hospital. But treatments can help manage asthma.

What causes asthma in children?

The verbal cause of asthma is unknown. Genetics and surroundings likely play a role in which children get asthma.

An asthma attack can happen when your child is exposed to an asthma trigger. An asthma trigger is something that can set off or worsen asthma symptoms. Different triggers can crusade different types of asthma:

  • Allergic asthma is caused by allergens. Allergens are substances that cause an allergic reaction. They can include
    • Dust mites
    • Mold
    • Pets
    • Pollen from grass, trees, and weeds
    • Waste product from pests such as cockroaches and mice
  • Nonallergic asthma is acquired past triggers that are not allergens, such every bit
    • Breathing in cold air
    • Certain medicines
    • Household chemicals
    • Infections such as colds and the influenza
    • Outdoor air pollution
    • Tobacco fume
  • Exercise-induced asthma happens during concrete exercise, especially when the air is dry

Asthma triggers may be different for each child and can change over time.

Which children are at run a risk for asthma?

Certain factors raise the gamble of asthma in children:

  • Being exposed to secondhand fume when their mother is pregnant with them or when they are small children
  • Genetics and family history. Children are more than likely to have asthma if 1 of their parents has information technology, especially if it's the female parent.
  • Race or ethnicity. Black and African Americans and Puerto Ricans are at higher risk of asthma than people of other races or ethnicities.
  • Having other diseases or atmospheric condition such as obesity and allergies
  • Oftentimes having viral respiratory infections as immature children
  • Sexual activity. In children, asthma is more common in boys. In teens, it is more mutual in girls.

What are the symptoms of asthma in children?

The symptoms of asthma in children include:

  • Chest tightness
  • Coughing, especially at nighttime or early morning
  • Animate issues, such as shortness of breath, rapid breathing, or gasping for air
  • Feeling tired
  • Night circles under the eyes
  • Being irritable
  • Wheezing, which causes a whistling sound when they exhale out
  • Trouble eating or sucking (in infants)

These symptoms can range from mild to severe. They may happen ofttimes or only once in a while.

When children have an asthma assault, their symptoms become much worse. The attacks may come on gradually or suddenly. Sometimes they can exist life-threatening. Warning signs of a severe attack include severe coughing, serious breathing problems, and turning very pale or blue in the face, lips and/or fingernails. If your child has those symptoms, get medical help right away.

How is asthma in children diagnosed?

It tin be hard to diagnose asthma in children, especially if they are young. Asthma has like symptoms as other childhood conditions. And some children may not accept asthma symptoms very frequently, so it may seem similar they are having respiratory infections instead.

Your kid'south health intendance provider may utilise many tools to diagnose asthma:

  • Concrete exam
  • Medical history
  • Chest x-ray
  • Lung role tests, including spirometry, to test how well the lungs work. Younger children are usually not able to practice these tests.
  • Allergy peel or blood tests, if you have a history of allergies. These tests bank check which allergens cause a reaction from your immune system.

If you have a young child who cannot do lung function tests, the provider may suggest doing a trial of asthma medicines. The trial involves giving your kid the medicines for several weeks to see whether the symptoms get better.

What are the treatments for asthma in children?

If your child has asthma, you will piece of work with their health intendance provider to create a treatment plan. The plan will include ways to manage your child's asthma symptoms and foreclose asthma attacks, such every bit:

  • Strategies to avert triggers. For example, if tobacco smoke is a trigger for your child, you lot should non permit anyone to smoke in your domicile or car.
  • Curt-term relief medicines, besides called quick-relief medicines. They assistance prevent symptoms or relieve symptoms during an asthma assail. They include an inhaler to have for your child at all times. It may as well include other types of medicines which work quickly to assistance open your child's airways.
  • Control medicines. They piece of work by reducing airway inflammation and preventing narrowing of the airways. Not all children will take control medicines. Whether or not your child needs them depends on how severe the asthma is and how often your child has symptoms.

If your child has a severe set on and the brusk-term relief medicines do non work, go medical assistance right away.

Your kid's provider may adjust the handling until the asthma symptoms are controlled.

Start Here

  • Asthma Diary (Nemours Foundation)
  • Help Your Child Proceeds Control Over Asthma (Environmental Protection Agency) - PDF
  • School and Asthma (Nemours Foundation) Besides in Spanish
  • Teaching Your Kid about Asthma (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology)
  • What's an Asthma Action Plan? (Nemours Foundation)
  • When to Go to the ER if Your Child Has Asthma (Nemours Foundation) Besides in Castilian
  • Exercise-Induced Asthma (Nemours Foundation)
  • Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction Defined (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology)
  • Asthma Quiz (American University of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology)
  • Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction Quiz (American University of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology)
  • Know How to Utilize Your Asthma Inhaler Video (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Photo of a Six Year Old Baby in the Hospital With Asthma

Source: https://medlineplus.gov/asthmainchildren.html