Is It a Cold, the Flu, or Covid?
December is prime time for seasonal respiratory viruses. As a parent, are you ready to identify the health concerns surrounding your child and other family members from cold, flu, or Covid-19? We’re here to help.
Is Asthma a Life-Threatening Condition?
Predicting how an asthma diagnosis will affect your child’s life is difficult in the early stages, because the condition varies widely from person to person. The intensity and frequency of asthma attacks have no pattern between children, and these can change as your child gets older.
While asthma can be managed with medications and lifestyle adaptations, it can also produce medical emergencies. Severe attacks can be life threatening, since these interfere with normal breathing.
Understanding your child’s asthma and how to control it is key to avoiding dangerous attacks. Partner with DR2KIDS, Smita Tandon MD and her team. As asthma specialists, they have the expertise to develop an asthma management program and the experience to share their knowledge with you.
What is asthma?
Asthma is a lung condition produced by narrowing airways that can also include excess mucus production. Breathing becomes difficult and coughing often begins. Your child feels out of breath while producing the characteristic wheezing sound that signals an asthma attack.
Thought to be the result of both genetic and environmental factors, asthma can’t be cured. However, many children outgrow symptoms as their lungs develop, though the condition could reappear later in life.
Individual asthma attacks often start with exposure to certain triggers that vary between patients. These triggers include:
- Airborne particles like pollen, dust, and pet dander
- Physical activity
- Pollutants like smoke and chemical fumes
- Respiratory infections including colds and influenza
- Stress or strong emotions
Tracking and then avoiding the conditions that trigger your child’s asthma is part of a management plan.
Life-threatening attacks
As you work with Dr. Tandon, your child receives the asthma care they need to minimize the impact of the condition on their health. Using medications as instructed and avoiding asthma triggers whenever possible reduces both the frequency and severity of asthma attacks.
Recognizing an asthma emergency is vital to assure your child receives medical attention as soon as possible after a serious attack begins. Since you’ll become familiar with your child’s regular asthma attacks, an emergency should be easy to recognize. Symptoms include:
- Wheezing and breathlessness that gets worse quickly
- Your child is able to speak just a few words at a time between breaths
- A rescue inhaler produces no breathing improvement
- Your child’s lips and fingernails change color toward gray or blue
Your child may be straining hard to breathe and their distress may be obvious. Sometimes, you can anticipate a serious attack is coming by observing your child. If they’re using their rescue inhaler more often or if breathing and coughing interfere with their sleep, be ready to respond.
Adults are more likely to die from asthma attacks than are children. If your child is following their asthma plan, the chances of a dangerous attack reduce significantly.
Discussing not only your child’s asthma, but the way it changes over time with Dr. Tandon may also help prevent serious attacks. It’s normal to adjust and modify an asthma treatment plan over time to assure its continued effectiveness.
Call or click today to schedule an asthma update visit with DR2KIDS, Smita Tandon MD.
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