Below are five courses of action if you notice asthma symptoms in children such as frequent coughing, wheezing that gets worse at nights, breathlessness after physical exercises etc. While symptoms of asthma in children may be easily overlooked at first glance, if you start to suspect something don’t waste your time, but follow the rules below.
1. Do not panic!
Stay calm. Even if the asthma symptoms in case of your children seem to be quite severe, it’s not the end of the world. Modern medications are able to control even the worst cases of asthma and allow kids to live a normal life.
What is even more important, your children will panic the moment you start acting nervously – and that’s the last thing you need. Anxiety and stress will only aggravate asthma symptoms in children.
2. Confirm the symptoms of asthma in your children
If you think that your child suffers from asthma, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is indeed asthma. Some allergies, for example, have very similar symptoms to asthma. In the case of children such things may often come and go. Schedule an appointment with a doctor and ask him to perform asthma tests. Only when you are 100% sure about what is going on, can you act wisely.
3. Explain the symptoms of asthma to your children
Learn as much as you can about asthma, its symptoms and treatments and then tell your children what asthma really is. Try to make the information suitable according the children age (avoid technical language!) and learn your children what to do in case of the attack. The more they know, the less stressed they will be.
4. Oversee the treatment
Even in the case of older children, keep an eye on the treatment. Oftentimes as soon as the symptoms of asthma go away, children stop taking medications, usually because
+ They forget about it
+ Because they don’t want to do it – possibly because it interrupts something they’re doing or they don’t like taking pills (can’t blame them for that! :-)
+ Because they don’t want their friends to know they have asthma – most kids don’t like being ‘different’
If the symptoms of asthma in children come back, check (carefully!) to make sure that your kids have really taken the medications and restore the schedule if not.
5. Don’t let asthma interrupt their lives (too much)
Finally, don’t be overprotective. Unless the symptoms of asthma in your children are really severe, let them lead a normal life. Just teach them how to avoid triggers.
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