Robyn's Nest - The Parenting Network

Childhood Asthma

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Asthma FACTS:

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood.

An estimated 3.8 million children under 18 years old have had an asthma attack in the past 12 months, and many others have "hidden" or undiagnosed asthma.1

Asthma is the most common cause of missed school days, 1 accounting for 10.1 million missed school days annually.2

Asthma is a disease of all age groups, but the steepest recent increases in asthma cases have been among the young.

Working parents of children with asthma lose an estimated $1 billion a year in productivity.3

In 1998, 5,438 people died from asthma.4 Asthma was mentioned as a contributing cause on the death certificates of an additional 6,850 people.4 So asthma-related deaths in 1998 totaled 12,288.

Even though asthma cannot be cured, it can almost always be controlled. The better you and your child understand asthma and its treatment, the better you will be able to control it.

Asthma is an inflammatory condition of the bronchial airways.

This inflammation causes the normal function of the airways to become excessive and over-reactive, thus producing increased mucus, mucosal swelling and muscle contraction.

These changes produce:

airway obstruction
chest tightness
coughing
wheezing
If severe - shortness of breath and low blood oxygen

Each individual suffers a different level of severity. All children with asthma, however, do enjoy a reversal of symptoms until something triggers the next episode.

Episodes of asthma often are triggered by some condition or stimulus.

Common triggers of asthma are:

Exercise

Infections

Allergy

Irritants

Weather

Emotions (infrequent)

Childhood asthma is a disorder with genetic predispositions and a strong allergic component. Approximately 75 to 80 percent of children with asthma have significant allergies.

Studies indicate that allergic reactions produce both immediate and late phase (delayed) reactions. Research indicates that approximately half of the immediate allergic reactions to inhaled allergens are followed by a late phase reaction.

This late phase reaction produces more serious injury and airway inflammation. This airway inflammation leads to irritability or hyperresponsiveness of the airways. In addition, prolonged airway inflammation can cause scarring.

Signs and Symptoms:

Wheezing, though characteristic of asthma, is not its most common symptom.

Coughing is noted with even "hidden" asthma when wheezing may not be apparent to the patient, his or her family or the physician.

Any child who has frequent coughing or respiratory infections (pneumonia or bronchitis) should be evaluated for asthma.

The child who coughs after running or crying may have asthma.

Recurrent night cough is common, as asthma is often worse at night.

Infants who have asthma often have a rattly cough, rapid breathing and may have an excessive number of "pneumonias," episodes of bronchitis or "chest colds." Obvious wheezing episodes might not be noted until after 18 to 24 months of age.

Chest tightness and shortness of breath are other symptoms of asthma that may occur alone or in combination with any of the above symptoms. Since these symptoms can occur for reasons other than asthma, other respiratory diseases must always be considered.

In a young child the discomfort of chest tightness may lead to unexplained irritability.

Remember: Any child who has frequent coughing or respiratory infections (pneumonia or bronchitis) should be evaluated for asthma.

Do kids outgrow asthma?

About half the children diagnosed with asthma do 'outgrow' the disease when their airways reach adult size, but for the remainder it is a lifelong condition.4

1"The American Lung Assn" http://www.alact.org/
2"Trends in Asthma Morbidity and Mortality," American Lung Association, January 2001.
3 "NHLBI Reports New Asthma Data for World Asthma Day 2001," National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, May 3, 2001.
4"New Asthma Estimates: Tracking Prevalence, Health Care, and Mortality," National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 2001.

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Childhood Asthma