Asthma is a lung disease that lasts for a long time. It affects your airways, which are the tubes that bring air into and out of your lungs. When you have asthma, your airways can get red and narrowed because of the inflammation.
This can make you wheeze, cough, and feel tight in the chest. An asthma attack or flare-up is when these symptoms get worse than usual. Let’s see what exactly asthma does to kids and how kids get asthma.
What Does Asthma Do To Kids?
Usually, before age 5, asthma starts in children. Asthma is the most common kind of long-term illness in children. Children can miss school and end up in the hospital because of it. But asthma can be controlled by learning natural ways of treatment and medicine. Now move to our next question.
What Makes Kids Get Asthma?
No one knows for sure what causes asthma. Most likely, some kids get asthma because of their genes and some because of where they live.
One study reveals that children who have had at least one asthma exacerbation in the past year are most likely to have another one, no matter how severe or well-controlled their asthma is.
An asthma attack can happen when your child is around an asthma trigger. A thing that can cause or make asthma symptoms worse is called an asthma trigger. Different things can cause different kinds of asthma:
Allergens are what cause asthma caused by allergies. Allergens are things that make people with allergies sick. Some of them are
- Dust mites
- Mold
- Pets
- Pollen from grasses, trees, and weeds
- Pests like cockroaches and mice leave behind waste.
- Nonallergic asthma is brought on by things that aren’t allergens, like
- Taking in the cold air
- Some medicines
- Chemicals in home
- Colds and the flu are examples of infections.
- Outdoor air pollution
- Tobacco smoke
Exercise-triggered asthma happens when people work out, especially in dry air. Each child’s asthma triggers may be different and may change over time. Let’s discuss the signs of asthma that vary among children.
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What Are The Signs Of Asthma?
These are some of the signs that a child has asthma:
- Pain in the chest
- coughing at night or early in the morning
- problems with breathing, like being short of breath, breathing quickly, or gasping for air
- Feeling tired
- Eyes with dark circles
- Being irritable
- Wheezing, which makes a whistling sound when they breathe out
- Not able to eat or drink (in infants)
- These symptoms can vary in how bad they are. They might happen often or not at all.
When kids with asthma have an attack, their symptoms get a lot worse. The attacks could happen slowly or all at once. They can sometimes be very dangerous. According to the top pulmonologist, Dr Noor ul Arfeen, a severe attack can be recognized by severe cough, trouble breathing, and a face, lips, or fingernails that are very pale or blue. If your child has these signs, you should take him or her to the doctor right now.
After reading all about it, you must be looking for facts like who is most likely to get asthma answer is mentioned here below.
Who is most likely to get asthma in children?
Some things make it more likely that a child will have asthma:
Early Exposure To Smoke
Being exposed to secondhand smoke when their mother is pregnant with them or when they are young.
Genes And The History Of A Family.
If one of their parents has asthma, especially if it’s the mother, the child is more likely to get it too.
Race Or Background
People who are black, African American, or Puerto Rican are more likely to have asthma than people of other races or cultures.
Having Other Illnesses Or Conditions
According to the top reviewed pediatrician in Karachi, Dr. Syed Uzair Maqsood “Children who have other illnesses like being overweight or having allergies are more vulnerable to asthma. when they were young, they often got respiratory infections caused by viruses.”
Sex Orientation
More boys than girls have asthma when they are young. Teen girls are more likely to have it than boys.
How Do You Diagnose About Asthma In Children?
When a child is young, it can be hard to tell if they have asthma. Asthma has symptoms that are similar to those of other childhood illnesses. And some kids may not have asthma symptoms very often, so it might look like they have a cold instead.
Your child’s doctor may use any of the following to figure out if he or she has asthma. Physical exam, the past use of medicine, x-ray of the chest, ultrasound test, and lung function tests, like respiratory function, are the tests to see how well the lungs work. Most kids under the age of 10 can’t do these tests. You can use skin or blood tests for allergies if you have had allergies in the past. These tests check to see which allergens make your immune system act up.
If your child is too young to do lung function tests, the doctor may suggest giving asthma medicines a try. For the trial, you will give the medicines to your child for a few weeks to see if the symptoms get better.
How Do You Treat Asthma In Children?
The doctor will make an “Asthma Action Plan” for your child based on his or her history with asthma and how bad it is. This plan will include:
- How and when to give your child asthma medicine.
- How to handle asthma when it gets worse.
- When your child needs help right away.
One study reveals that children with asthma can be in a lot of pain, but most of them can be helped with a series of objective tests and a step-by-step clinical approach. Make sure you understand this plan, and if you have any questions, you can ask your child’s provider. The Asthma Action Plan is a key part of being able to control asthma in children. Keep it close to remind you of your child’s daily asthma plan and to help you figure out what to do if your child starts to have asthma symptoms. In addition to following the Asthma Action Plan, try to limit (and, if possible, avoid) your exposure to things that can make your asthma worse.
Asthma medicines that adults and older kids take are safe for toddlers and younger kids to take, too. When a child needs to take medicine by breathing it in, the child’s age and ability may mean that a different device is needed.
If your baby or child has asthma symptoms that need to be treated with a rescue inhaler (a bronchodilator like albuterol/levalbuterol) more than twice a week, your doctor may recommend a daily controller therapy (such as an anti-inflammatory medication).
Bottom Line
Asthma can’t be cured, but your child can learn to handle it. They should have the skills.
Experts don’t know a lot about how an infant’s lungs work and whether or not they will get asthma. But they think that a child is more likely to have asthma by age 7 if they have had more than one episode of wheezing, if their mother has asthma, or if they have allergies
By learning about asthma and how to control it, you can help your child’s condition in a big way. Work closely with your competent doctor to learn as much as you can about asthma, how to avoid triggers, what medications do, and how to give treatments.
