Children With Asthma - How to Take Care of Them

Children with asthma have difficulty in breathing. Breathing difficulties may occur from time to time or, in severe cases, every day. Bronchial asthma may manifest during the entire childhood (chronic disease) but can be kept under control with proper medication. Asthma causes difficulty breathing, because the inflammation of the bronchi (the main branches of the trachea that penetrate the lungs) reduces the child's capacity to breathe out. Air gets trapped inside the longs causing them to inflate. Inflammation begins gradually and over time can cause muscle contraction located around the bronchi.

This effect can lead to narrowing or blocking the airway of the child, causing difficult breathing, which is called the acute episode of asthma (also called attack, exacerbation or crisis). Acute episodes of asthma can be rare or frequent, mild to severe. Most often the symptoms can be controlled at home, using an action plan (written plan stating which medicines are needed and the circumstances in which the presence of a medical specialist is required).

If the crisis is severe, it may require emergency treatment. This exacerbation may lead to death, but only in rare cases. Even if your child has fewer acute episodes, the inflammation of the airways persists and needs treatment. If inflammation is not controlled, asthma can lead to permanent changes in the bronchi, affecting the child's lungs and thereby the risk of complications like bronchitis and pneumonia increases.

Asthma symptoms can be mild or severe. Children may be asymptomatic (have no symptoms), have severe symptoms every day or, more commonly, symptoms are situated somewhere between these two extremes.

The most common symptoms are:

- Coughing, which sometimes may be the only symptom, usually dry (without mucus) and more frequent during night time
- Tightness (tightening) of the chest
- Dyspnea (difficulty breathing, rapid, shallow breathing)
- Sleeping problems
- The child gets tired quickly during physical exercises.

Many children show symptoms of asthma worsening at night. Normally, physiological lung function changes during day-night cycle. Asthmatic children are more sensitive to this variation. Coughing and dyspnea occur oftentimes during sleep. If children wake up because of these symptoms, it means the asthma is poorly controlled.