How to Manage a Child's Asthma


Having asthma is not a death sentence. When given proper guidance and medication, asthmatic children can (and often do) lead healthy, fulfilling lives. Here’s how.


Management of asthma is two-pronged: reducing the triggers that can attack the lungs from the outside and using medications to reduce symptoms from the inside.
normal">Avoiding Triggers
Doctors identify six major triggers that aggravate asthma:






Gasping for breath? Don't miss our Special Report on Asthma.

1. Allergens – These are substances that cause an immune response. Some allergies are obvious: a child wheezes and coughs around certain animals or when exposed to high levels of pollen, dust or mold. Children are often referred to a board-certified allergist who will try to identify and treat the allergy.

The primary line of defense is removing known allergens from the child’s environment, which can seem an overwhelming task. After receiving five pages of do’s and don’ts from her daughter’s allergist, Nancy Sander couldn’t imagine how she could afford to do everything. “I sat in the car and cried,” she remembers. “Then I started tackling it one piece at a time. Anything I did removed things from my daughter’s ‘allergy bucket.’”


normal">2. Irritants – These are airborne substances that cause coughing, wheezing, runny nose or watering eyes. They often act like allergens, but aren’t related to the immune system.


Parents can avoid the most common irritants by forbidding all cigarette smoking in the house, avoiding aerosol sprays and making the home as odor-neutral as possible. Outdoors, parents may have to restrict exercise or use medications on days when ozone levels, diesel fumes or other forms of air pollution are high.


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