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Breathe Easy -- Asthma is
a Treatable Illness By Carma Haley
"My youngest daughter has asthma -- she's 4 years old," says Yvette De Luca, of Phoenix. "When she was six months old I noticed her wheezing and having breathing difficulties. I suspected asthma because of family history. (Her asthma) is triggered by pollution, dust, exercise, smoke and milk. Even though she has exercise-induced asthma, I don't limit her activities. If she seems wheezy or is coughing, I will make her do a breathing treatment before going outside to play."
Once a diagnosis of asthma is given, parents should not attempt to protect or shield their child from going outside or playing with other children, according to Mount Sinai. Instead, attempting to identify a child's "triggers" to limit the number of asthma attacks or episodes of shortness of breath will more beneficial. Triggers are simply what make a child's asthma symptoms occur -- such as sneezing, coughing, wheezing or losing their breath. As each trigger is different for each child, parents need to identify what their child's triggers are and attempt to remove them from the home as much as possible.
"The worst [triggers] are cigarette smoke and cockroaches," says Dr. Gabriel Aljadeff, a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital. "Some of the other common triggers include mold, dust mites and animal dander -- the tiny flakes in the hair of cats and other pets."
Removing a child's triggers may be as simple as finding a new home for the pet or removing old carpeting and replacing it with hardwood flooring. However, often a child's trigger may be something that cannot be removed.