Childhood Asthma

• The GP will diagnose your child by offering asthma medications to see if this will improve your child’s symptoms, they may also need to do some additional tests if medications are not giving best results
• The GP will show you and your child how to use an inhaler with a spacer device.
• The GP will provide a personal asthma action plan which will remind you what to do every day to keep your child well.
• The GP will offer a review of your child’s asthma every 12 months
• The GP may suggest keeping an asthma diary to record your child's symptoms and the medicines they use. You can also write down when and where symptoms happened to help you identify possible triggers.

Regular exercise may help your child's asthma because:

• Improves how well your child’s lungs work so they have more stamina and get less out of breath
• Boosts your child’s immune system so they’re less likely to get coughs and colds which will make their asthma worse
• Improves your child’s mood and self-esteem which can influence how well they manage their asthma
• Helps your child feel more confident about their asthma, and what they can achieve.

One way to help manage your child's asthma is to avoid asthma triggers. Triggers are things that can make asthma attacks more likely to happen.

Common asthma triggers include:

• respiratory infections, like colds, the flu, or COVID-19
• allergies to things like pollen, mould, and pet dander
• irritants and pollutants in the air, like cigarette smoke or smog
• weather conditions, like cold and dry air, or hot and humid air
• strong emotions, like laughing, crying, or feeling stressed
• exercise

Children can't avoid all triggers all the time. But watching carefully to learn what those triggers are and then helping your child avoid them can keep asthma symptoms under control.

Triggers are different for each child. Some might cause asthma symptoms only at particular times of the year. Others might stop being a trigger as a child gets older and "outgrows" asthma.

It is impossible to avoid all allergens, but you can minimize them by attempting to avoid the following potential triggers:

• Smoking, breathing in someone else’s smoke, or vaping.
• Avoid dust by vacuuming and dusting weekly, get rid of clutter, give away unneeded stuffed animals and wash other stuffed animals in hot water regularly.
• Avoid damp by ventilating damp areas like bathrooms and laundry rooms.
• Check your local air pollution and pollen count readings and plan indoor activities for windy days, which can lead to high counts.
• Help your child stay active, as long as they are managing their asthma well.
• Help your child to avoid colds. Teach everyone in your family to wash their hands well and often.
•  Vaccinating the whole family against viruses is an important way to help protect children with asthma, who are at greater risk for health problems if they get infected.

Visit the Asthma + Lung UK website for guidance, and to watch an informative video about helping your child use a Spacer.

• When the dose counter of your child’s inhaler reaches zero, there will be no further doses left in it.  The inhaler must not be used from that point, even though it will still ‘puff’ when it is pressed.  
• Take your childs empty inhalers back to your community pharmacy for safe disposal.
• Never throw used inhalers into your normal waste bin as they may end up in a landfill site, where any remaining harmful greenhouse gases in the canister can then escape into the atmosphere and worsen global warming.
• If your child is using a ‘spacer’ device with their inhaler, you should check the information leaflet to find out how to dispose of it (spacers are not widely recycled and so you may need to dispose of it in normal household waste).

Visit the British Red Cross website for information about how to help a child having an asthma attack. 

Visit your local GP for support 

Asthma and Lung UK 

Moving on Asthma