Asthma in Children

Asthma is caused when the tiny airways, which carry air in and out of the lungs, are swollen or inflamed and as a result, the reduced airways make it harder to breath, causing coughing, wheezing and breathlessness.

Asthma is often caused by allergies from pollen, pets/animals, feathers and dust-mites as well as exercise, cold weather and following colds and flu, all of which act as a ‘trigger’, which is anything that irritates the airways and brings on the symptoms of asthma which, of course, differs from child to child.

Some children just develop a cough while others with mild asthma may get occasional wheezing and coughing as well as tightness in their chest.

Others can get bad asthma attacks, such as struggling to breath, severe coughing, wheezing and a tight chest, breathing very fast, too breathless to complete a sentence and a faster pulse.

Lots of children suffer from asthma and there are excellent treatments to manage and relieve the condition most of which are by using an inhaler such as a quick-relief inhaler or preventer inhaler.

Medicines such as Salbutamol (Ventolin and Airomir) or Terbutaline (Bricanyl) are suitable quick-relief inhalers and are designed to work as speedily as possible in helping your child to breathe in a normal and relaxed manner. Children that suffer from mild asthma problems may just need to use only one of these inhalers as the only treatment necessary.

Furthermore, in addition to quick-relief inhalers, your child may require other treatment to prevent asthma symptoms. The most common and best method is the use of a preventative steroid inhaler.

Steroid inhalers don't really help to stop an asthma attack once it's started as they are designed to work slowly over time to prevent asthma symptoms in the long term.

Excellent research has been gathered over the past few years suggesting that steroid inhalers help enormously in preventing an asthma attack while also helping your child’s lungs to work better in reducing wheezing while minimizing the need for your child to resort to using their quick-relief inhaler.

To help to keep your child’s asthma symptoms under control it’s important for them to use their prescribed medication with a regular reviews. This will help in monitoring and manage their condition in the best possible way as they grow into maturity.

To gain more information on Asthma visit the Asthma UK website:

www.asthma.org.uk