Childhood Asthma – Parents, Do Keep Your Eyes Open

Childhood asthma is one of the common chronic lung diseases which have affected over 4 million of children below the age of 18 years. This can be managed if the ward and the parents are well aware and educated enough to handle the dreaded disease properly. This disease may have a delayed effect which can remain hidden for some time, after a recovery from severe cold and bronchitis. This condition is called hidden asthma. This stage of childhood asthma can be diagnosed by testing the child’s pulmonary functions which may exhibits only mild unrecognized symptoms sometimes.

It is very important to keep a close check on your child if he experiences shortness of breath along with cough and wheezing. If your child’s face turns pale, appetite becomes low, child feels uncomfortable after running or any other kind of physical activity, coughs continuously, feels inflammation in the chest, then all this needs to be evaluated for childhood asthma. This is a disease in which the child feels inflammation of the bronchial airways, which as a result produces excessive mucus, due to swelling of the respiratory muscles. This makes the child to cough or wheeze continuously for some time.

 

This can be even as fatal as death if the child is too young to tell about the problem he is experiencing. Feeding the child with some water or milk to relieve from the irritation of the throat can be dangerous. According to many experts the cause of childhood asthma cannot be due to a single factor. This may be hereditary, or may be caused by a prolonged viral infection or it may result from allergies that are airborne or the child having asthma may suffer from pneumonia or bronchitis type of recurrent respiratory infections, more often than other normal children.

 

Childhood asthma is more critical to handle because educating the small child to manage breathing and to exercise through inhaling and exhaling patterns is impossible. So it is important to look out for your child’s warning signs. These are as under:

 

 

It is important that caretakers and parents should take extra care of their ward when there is change in weather conditions. When the child moves out of perfectly warm indoors to windy or chilly conditions outside, then ensure that the child is properly packed to keep cold away. Do not expose the child to air which may carry dust pollen. Try to keep the child calm and relaxed so that emotional stress due to anxiety, anger, or frustration can be kept at bay. Herbal inhalers and air purifiers often come handy when a child suffers from an asthmatic attack. Administering of the medicines can be done after the child starts to breathe normal again.

 

Experts strongly recommend vaccinations for the young and the newborn to prevent the child from childhood asthma, which is a fatal ailment. Asthma can not be cured but can be managed effectively if good care is taken. It is best to prevent the little child from having asthma from post-natal days onwards itself.