asthma - a paroxysmal, often allergic disorder of respiration, characterized by bronchospasm, wheezing, and difficulty in expiration, often accompanied by coughing and a feeling of constriction in the chest.
“asthma.” Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 18 Jul. 2008. .

Basically, the airways in your lungs are inflamed and swollen causing the chest to hurt, which in turn can affect the ability to breathe. Now, how can you tell if your toddler or preschooler has asthma when they wouldn’t know the words to describe it? By watching for the symptoms and if you think your child does don’t be afraid that you might be over reacting. Asthma can be a life threatening disease if gone untreated.

Symptoms to look for in toddlers in preschoolers. Coughing, sometimes after playing hard or intense crying, or repetitious coughing at night when sleeping or early morning. Symptoms are usually worse at night. Dark circles under eyes, shortness of breath, wheezing — a whistling sound due to the closed off airwaves. It tends to be commonly linked with allergies.

Triggers. Exposure to allergens, most commonly animal dander, dust mites, and mold, can prompt the asthma symptoms or bring on an attack. Common colds and illnesses, tobacco smoke, and in some cases exercise can also perpetuate the affliction.

If the child has some or all of these symptoms you need to consult your pediatrician immediately. It might be just a cold but if it isn’t, you want the child treated before a full blown asthma attack. The pediatrician will assess the child and make a determination if it is in fact asthma or something as simple as a common cold. If it is asthma, it’s important you work closely with your health care provider to come up with a treatment plan.

First, figure out what is triggering the child’s episodes. Three-feet-of-fun has asthma and he was allergic to pet dander so in order to try and avoid attacks we gave our cats away to a good home. There are medicines for cat allergies but the only truly effective one is in shot form and my husband and I decided that until he could make the choice for himself we’d be pet free — we couldn’t inflict shots on him on top of everything else.

They will also teach you how to use a nebulizer, a machine that turns liquid medicine into a mist that goes through tubing into a face mask for the child to inhale. With that, there are too kinds of medicines: a preventative medicine and a quick reliever. The preventative won’t do anything for a child in arrest only the quick reliever will blast the child’s airways open, enabling them to breathe.

Asthma happens. There is no sure fire way to prevent your child from succumbing to it and there is no cure. You can help their chances to avoid it by keeping your house vacuumed, keeping the child away from smokers and smoke in general, keeping the house pet free if the child shows pet allergies, and diminish mold in the home.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Exercise, Exercise, Health, Healthy Living, Uncategorized, Weight Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.