Want more iVillage? Sign up for our
Newsletters
Asthma in Children - What Happens
SYMPTOMS & TREATMENTS
- Overview
-
Health Tools
- FAQs
- Cause
- Symptoms
- What Happens
- What Increases Your Risk
- When to Call a Doctor
- Exams and Tests
- Treatment Overview
- Prevention
- Living With Asthma
- Medications
- Other Treatment
- Other Places To Get Help
- Related Information
- References
- Credits
Asthma often begins during childhood or the teen years and may last throughout your child's life.
Asthma is classified as intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent, and severe persistent.
It can be hard to know how severe your child's asthma attack is. Knowing this is important, because severe attacks may require emergency treatment. But in most cases you can take care of your child's symptoms at home with an asthma action plan, which is a written plan that tells you which medicine your child needs to use and when you should call a doctor or seek emergency treatment.
Asthma attacks and what makes them worse
An asthma attack occurs when your child's symptoms suddenly increase. While some asthma attacks occur very suddenly, many get worse over a period of several days.
Things that can lead to an asthma attack or make one worse include:
- A cold or another type of respiratory illness, especially one caused by a virus, such as influenza.
- Exercising (exercise-induced asthma), especially if the air is cold and dry.
- Triggers, such as cigarette smoke, air pollution, dust mites, or animal dander.
- Changes in hormones, such as during the start of a girl's menstrual blood flow at puberty.
- Medicines, such as aspirin (aspirin-induced asthma) or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Most asthma attacks result from a failure to control asthma with medicines. When your child strictly follows his or her asthma action plan and takes all medicines correctly, it is possible to prevent attacks.
Effect on your child's life
At times, the
inflammation 
found in asthma causes your child's
airways to narrow and produce
mucus, resulting in asthma symptoms such as shortness
of breath.
Loss of lung function in asthma appears to start early in childhood.3 Asthma also may increase the risk of a partial collapse of lung tissue (atelectasis) or a collapsed lung (pneumothorax).
Sometimes asthma does not respond to treatment because children are not taking their medicines or are not taking them correctly, are not avoiding triggers, and are otherwise not following their asthma action plan. It is very important that you and other caregivers make sure your child is following his or her action plan to keep asthma from getting worse and to reduce the risk of death from asthma.
By following asthma plans, most children who have asthma can live a healthy, full life.
| By: | Healthwise Staff | Last Revised: March 17, 2011 |
| Medical Review: | E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine Lora J. Stewart | |
© 1995-2011 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
Welcome to Care Circle, an exclusive tool to help you take care of yourself and your loved ones. Here's how it works:
- Create profiles for yourself and your loved ones.
- Select the topics and conditions that interest each of you.
- Get customized news updates, original content, tools, and expert advice for each Care Circle member delivered directly to your personalized homepage.
The information you input is strictly private; you choose who has access to your Care Circle.
How do I add myself or someone else to my care circle?
Click on "Add someone." Fill out the short profile. Choose an avatar. Select the topics and conditions that interest this person from the pulldown menu. You can select as many as you want, but you must choose at least one. Click on "Add Someone" again. You should start getting updates immediately.
How do I save content to my Care Circle?
Click on "Manage My Care Circle." Select the tab of the person for whom you're saving content. Put your cursor over the piece of content that you want to save; a disk icon will appear in the righthand corner. Click on the disk and the piece of content will be moved to a save folder.
How do I add additional topics and conditions for someone in my Care Circle?
Click on "Manage My Care Circle." Select the tab for the person whose preferences you'd like to update. Under "Add More to Follow," select additional topics and conditions.
How do I delete topics and conditions for someone in my Care Circle?
Click on "Manage My Care Circle." Select the tab for the person whose preferences you'd like to update. Under "Follows," scroll over the topic or condition you want to delete. An "X" should appear on the righthand side. Click on the "X" and the topic or condition will be deleted from the list.
To manage your Care Circle, Please
Sign In.
