Asthma in Children

Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood that affects your airways. Your airways are tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways become sore and swollen. South Africa has the world’s fourth highest asthma death rate among five- to 35-year-olds. Of the estimated 3.9 million South Africans with asthma, 1.5% die because of this condition every year.

Symptoms: Most children with asthma have symptoms before they turn 5. In very young children, it may be difficult for parents, and even doctors, to recognize that the symptoms are due to asthma.

Common symptoms include:                             

•         A chronic cough (which may be the only symptom)
•      Rapid breathing (intermittently)
•      Frequent coughing spells, which may occur during play, at night, or while laughing or crying
•          Feelings of weakness or tiredness
•      Less energy during play
•      Tightened neck and chest muscles
•      See-saw motions in the chest from labored breathing. These motions are called retractions.
•      Complaint of chest tightness or chest "hurting"
•      Shortness of breath, loss of breath
•      Whistling sound when breathing in or out -- called wheezing.

     Your child might have suffered from any of the mentioned symptoms. You may think it’s just a cold or bronchitis. If the symptoms again and again it seems to be an indication that your child is affecting suffering from asthma.

Management and Treatment

Though the symptom may be mild, or severe but still even mild symptoms can quickly become life-threatening. It’s very important that an asthmatic child receive proper treatment.

To deal with childhood asthma, the doctor may prescribe two types of medicines:

• Quick relief: -

Child who is suffering from asthma needs this type of medicine to treat the noisy part of the disease — the coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing that occur with symptoms or an asthma attack. This medicine looks like an inhaler should always be with the child for use at the first sign of symptoms.

• Long-term control: -

Most of the people who are suffering from asthma needs daily use of long-term control (LTC) medications for asthma symptoms and to prevent asthma attacks. It is taken daily to prevent asthma symptoms and attacks.

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