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Teaching Yourself and your child how to live with asthma

As a mother of a child with asthma I understand how difficult it is to live with your child's illness. You don't like seeing your child have problems, but by educating them as well as yourself, you can help them to lead a normal life.

If your child is diagnosed as an infant or toddler, it is difficult to teach them about asthma. In the case of my daughter, she was only 16 months old when she started having frequent URI's (upper respiratory infections) and coughing.

The first thing you need to do is to educate yourself. Ask your doctor or clinic for pamphlets and brochures on asthma in children. Search the Internet for information, books, and join support groups. By joining support groups you have other mothers who are going through the same thing and they have the knowledge to help you with things you don't understand.

Asthma is the leading cause of chronic illness in children. It affects approximately 10%-12% of children in the US and for unknown reasons is climbing steadily. It can occur at any age but most children exhibit their first signs by the age of 5.

There are many risk factor for childhood asthma including family history of allergies or asthma, frequent respiratory infections, low birth weight, exposure to smoking in utero and/or secondhand smoke,and low socioeconomic status to name a few.

You need to know the signs and symptoms of asthma. Asthma symptoms are different in children than with adults. Asthma in a child presents itself as lack of energy when at play, loss of appetite, fatigue and tiredness, neck and chest muscle tightness,nasal flaring, chest congestion, labored breathing(shortness of breath)at rest, and retractions (see-saw motions in between the ribs and in the clavicles(shoulders)when breathing. Episodes of coughing can be present at any time of day. Cough may occur at rest, during sleep, when playing or even laughing. Sometimes cough is the only symptom. Cough is often a later symptom. Sometimes, if you think back, you will remember seeing the other symptoms in your child but these are sometimes overlooked because the early signs like tiredness and fatigue could just be your child needing a nap. Last, you will notice whistling or wheezing when your child breathes. This is usually one of the later signs and if you notice wheezing it is time for emergent treatment.

My daughter started with frequent URI's or colds from the age of 16 months. She was very sleepy and didn't want to eat

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