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Overview of asthma in children

Mō te mate huangō ki ngā tamariki

Important

Call 111 and ask for an ambulance if your child:

has severe difficulty breathing
is too breathless to talk
is floppy and very tired
is becoming less responsive
has blue lips and tongue
has periods of stopping breathing.

Illustration showing an asthmatic airway with an inflamed and thickened wall and a asthmatic airway during an asthma attack with an inflamed wall and tightened muscles. When you have asthma, the small airways in your lungs are sensitive. This causes inflammation, which causes the airways to partially close up, swell inside and make more mucus (sputum or phlegm) than usual. This makes it hard to breathe in and even harder to breathe out.

Asthma is common in New Zealand and it can start at any age. We don't know the exact cause of asthma. But it's associated with allergies and it runs in families.

Symptoms of asthma may be triggered by something in the environment or something that you do.

Colds and flu (viral infections) are the most common triggers for asthma in children. Other common triggers include:

cold air
various allergies including pollen, cats and house dust mites
exercise
smoke.

Some children only get a wheeze when they have a cough or cold caused by a virus. This is called viral wheeze. If your child has viral wheeze, it doesn't usually mean they have asthma.

Symptoms of asthma

Children with asthma may have:

a cough, which can be worse at night, in the morning, or with exercise
wheezing (a whistling, musical or squeaky noise in the chest)
difficulty breathing, feel out of breath and not be able to keep up with other children running around
a tight feeling across their chest.

Diagnosing asthma

Usually children under the age of 1 year aren't diagnosed with asthma because many of the symptoms (wheeze, cough, shortness of breath) are caused by viruses in this age group. Most children under 1 with these symptoms don't go on to have asthma.

Asthma can be difficult to diagnose especially in young children as the symptoms can be caused by other conditions.

Your doctor will ask about the pattern of symptoms you've noticed such as if they come and go and if they seem to be triggered by certain things. They will also want to know if your child or a close family member has a history of hay fever, eczema or asthma.

Your doctor will listen to your child's chest and check their height and weight to make sure they're growing normally. Your doctor may also suggest:

keeping a symptom diary for three to four weeks
trialling a reliever inhaler to see if this helps.

Many children will not need any tests to diagnose asthma. A chest X-ray may be helpful to check for other causes of cough.

In children over 7 years a spirometry test maybe used. This involves them breathing into a machine that measures how the lungs are working.

Treating asthma

Your child may be given an inhaler (puffer) to treat their asthma. The type of inhaler depends on your child's age and how bad their asthma is. See Asthma medications for children for more details.

You can also do a number of things to help your child's asthma detailed on the Helping my child with asthma page.

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