Asthmatic Care For Asthmatic Children

If you are caring for someone you love who suffers from asthma and especially if that someone is your child, you undoubtedly understand what it is like to live with the anxiety of knowing that at some point something will trigger an attack. It is not an 'if' situation. And while you personally may be doing all that you can to learn about and improve their circumstances, it is important to remember that you can only go so far. Some circumstances will be beyond your control, despite all the preparations you make ahead of time on asthmatic care.

When your child starts to go to school and looks to act more independently it will become apparent that he or she will have to take more responsibility for his or her health and condition. However, as a parent most of the responsibility falls upon you to care and to help your child to learn on how to manage his or her asthma.

Before you can effectively care for your child, it is very important for you to understand what happen to his or her body during an asthma attack. Your doctor will be the best person to explain to you all you need to know about asthma, asthmatic care and what you can do to help your asthmatic child. With this knowledge in mind, you are better prepared to cope and manage your child's asthma.

As a start, it is vitally important for you to seek out and take note of anything that seems to create discomfort for your child and try to eliminate these irritants from him or her. It may be necessary to consistently explain the cause and effect to you little ones to make him or her understand your action. As an example, some children can be extremely reactive to pet dander and dust mites. While you may be able to create a hypo-allergenic environment in your home, it will be necessary to help your child understand the reaction that follows being close to certain animals - no matter how lovable they may be.

Foods can be an issue for many asthmatics children and it will be helpful, if they are too young to remember all the details, carry with them a list of foods that need to avoid.

Another important issue in your care of asthmatic children is that if they require inhalers, make sure that they have it with them at all times. Especially, of course, their blue puffer inhaler, that has the rescue medicine and that may be required during an asthma attack. Along with this, it is good to have in place an "asthma action plan" which detailed down what symptoms to watch for, what they mean, how to adjust the medicine in line with the symptoms, and when the symptoms become serious enough to call 911. If possible, have this information printed and laminated on a card so that they can carry it with them at all time.

Your child will need to learn how to properly use the inhaler. If they have any difficulty in getting the hang of it, you, your doctor or a trained asthma specialist should teach them how to use the inhaler effectively.

Ultimately it is good to realize that children can be wonderfully adaptable. When parents demonstrate a calm and sometimes matter-of-fact forthrightness, children will then often respond calmly and reassured as well. This can be so important especially when an attack is under way.