5 Ways to Keep Your Child with Asthma Healthy

As one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood, asthma affects about five million kids in the United States. If your child is one of them, you know that an asthma symptom flare or attack can inflame their airway, constrict their chest, and leave them:

• Feeling short of breath 
• Wheezing, gasping for air 
• Coughing continuously

What you may not know, however, is that for more than two in five kids (44%) with asthma, the condition isn’t well-controlled. This means more frequent and severe asthma symptoms flares, more doctor visits, and sometimes, more trips to the ER, and more hospitalizations.   

Our team at The Center for Advanced Pediatrics knows that as a parent of a child with asthma, you want to do everything you can to keep them healthy, active, and symptom-free. These five asthma management strategies will help you do just that.   

1. Identify and manage asthma triggers 

When your child has asthma, the condition is always with them. But they only have symptom exacerbations, or asthma attacks, when something irritates their airways and lungs. Common asthma triggers include:

• Airborne allergens and irritants
• Respiratory illness (i.e., a cold)
• Exercise, especially in cold air
• Strong emotions and/or stress 

Figuring out your child’s asthma triggers is a vital first step toward asthma control. While you can help them avoid some triggers (i.e., getting an annual flu shot), more often, you’ll work to help them manage or minimize their triggers. 

For example, if a dust mite allergy triggers your child’s asthma symptoms, keeping your house (especially their room and bedding) as clean as possible can keep them breathing easily.

2. Have an updated asthma action plan

An asthma action plan is a detailed, written plan to control your child’s condition and prevent severe symptom attacks. It’s divided into three clear “action zones” that tell your child how to manage their asthma, depending on how they’re feeling:

Green zone 

Your child is symptom-free; they can participate in normal activities, provided they take their daily long-term control medication as prescribed and avoid asthma triggers. 

Yellow zone 

In the yellow zone, your child has mild asthma symptoms. They can participate in some, but not all, activities and must take additional medication until they return to the green zone.

Red zone

Your child is having severe asthma symptoms, which is a medical emergency: They’re very short of breath, their quick-relief medication hasn’t helped, or their symptoms are the same or worse after 24 hours in the yellow zone.

3. Adhere to your child’s treatment plan

Unless your child’s asthma is very mild, their asthma management plan includes at least two asthma medications: A long-term control medication they take daily and quick-relief medicine they use when asthma symptoms appear. 

Be sure they take their controller medicine every day, even when they feel well. Also, make sure they know how to use their quick-relief inhaler so they can effectively halt a symptom flare in its tracks. If they have trouble using an inhaler, we can give them a spacer or a mask spacer to make it easier. 

4. Recognize the early signs of an attack

You want to help your child avoid a severe asthma flare at all costs. Luckily, such symptom attacks rarely appear out of nowhere: Early onset symptoms, like a tickling cough, mild chest discomfort, or abnormal fatigue, typically occur well before a major asthma attack. 

When your child has an asthma flare, take note of the early signs that preceded it. Well before they’re wheezing and breathless — sometimes even a whole day before — they may complain that they “feel strange,” or their breathing, mood, or energy level may be “off.” 

This is when a simple medication adjustment, as detailed in their asthma action plan, can stop symptom progression and help prevent a major asthma attack. 

5. Take charge of uncontrolled asthma

The goal of an asthma action plan is to stay in the green zone as much as possible, get out of the yellow zone as quickly as possible, and avoid the red zone whenever possible. But what if your child is frequently in the yellow zone?

It’s important to recognize when your child’s asthma isn’t well controlled, as uncontrolled asthma is far more likely to lead to the red zone — a medical emergency — far more often. If your child starts to experience repeated “dips” into the yellow zone, see our team ASAP for a treatment plan evaluation and adjustment.   

Need help managing your child’s asthma? Schedule a visit at The Center for Advanced Pediatrics in Norwalk or Darien, Connecticut, today.