3 Tips For Managing Your Child's Asthma

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Having a child with asthma can be very challenging. You may be worried about them doing normal activities or being away from you for too long since an asthma attack can happen at any time. Although asthma cannot be cured in many cases, there are some things that you can do to manage the symptoms.

1. Talk To Your Doctor About Steroid Treatments

One of the best things you can do for your child is to stimulate the lungs. When the child has an asthma attack it causes the lungs to constrict. This makes it challenging for the child to breath and can even become fatal if the lungs constrict too much. Steroids are one of the best ways to suppress the immune system and relax the lungs so that they don't swell and constrict. If the child is having attacks often, you may be asked to do the treatments nightly before bed or in the morning before the child does any kind of strenuous activities.

The steroid is usually given through a mist in a nebulizer. This is a mask that the child puts over their mouth and uses to breathe in the medication. The mist makes it easier for the child to take in the full amount and can even be used with young children.

2. Investigate Additional Allergies

Asthma often occurs due to an allergy and it is closely related to other allergic reactions in the body, which is why it is important to explore other allergies that the child might have. This could be making the asthma worse. For instance, the child may have an allergy to milk, and this allergy is causing their immune system to act up more than it should. By taking out certain foods and testing for allergies to certain environmental factors you can catch the culprit for the attacks and avoid problems.

3. Cool Mist At Night

Although a lot of asthma attacks happen while exercising, it is also normal for children to have attacks at night. This is why many parents put cool mist humidifiers in the child's bedroom at night. This helps keep the air moist and from over heating. A heated humidifier can have the opposite effect; thus, try a cool mist to see if it helps prevent the attacks at night.

Talk with a doctor at a clinic like Cookingham Allergy & Asthma Associates, P.C. to learn more about asthma treatments that may help.


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