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Asthma in children: Maintenance & care
Some people regard asthma as less menacing than cancer or diabetes, although many are not aware of its lifetime chronicity.
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Regular care: People who have asthma should use their inhalers regularly for proper and effective prevention or treatment. (Shutterstock/File)
Parents with asthmatic children should pay close attention to their patterns of activity to prevent sudden recurrences.
A study released by the Health Ministry’s Basic Health Research 2013 showed that asthma attacks caused children to be absent from school 5-7 days in a year.
Children with asthma are even affected by growth retardation, and their medical treatment may also increase their parents’ expenditure.
Darmawan Budi Setianto, a pediatric respiratory disease specialist, described asthma as a chronic inflammation of the airway that causes obstruction and hyperactivity of the respiratory tract in varying degrees.
Asthma, he said, was the world’s most frequently found chronic illness affecting both children and adults, who usually have difficulty breathing and make a wheezing sound when it recurs.
There are several causes of asthma attacks in children, including dust, fur and fabric fibers.
“Some of their symptoms resemble those of allergies, but asthmatic children will wheeze when they breathe,” Darmawan said during a recent health discussion in Jakarta.
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Asthma can be passed down from asthmatic parents, but parents who don’t have asthma can also have asthmatic children.
An individual’s asthmatic condition is detectable as a child or a young adult. But as asthma is often mistaken for common allergic reactions, the disease may be diagnosed only after it has worsened.
Unlike diabetics who need to maintain a proper diet, asthmatics must observe their individual situations and environmental conditions in order to prevent or minimize unexpected attacks, such as their daily activities or their exposure to asthma triggers. They must also take care in carrying preventive medication.
Darmawan said parents with asthmatic children should play an active role in controlling their children’s activities.
“Although they can’t get too tired, it’s surely hard to forbid kids from running around with their schoolmates,” said Inge Sasmita, whose 9-year-old son has asthma.
Inge’s friends and schoolteachers have trouble with handling the child when the disease is triggered. Inge has also received reports of her son’s asthma attacks at school.
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Cooperation between parents and teachers is therefore needed to handle asthmatic students.
“Parents can inform teachers of what should be done when their child’s asthma recurs,” advised Darmawan.
Teachers can control the child’s regular medicine, while parents can also leave relief medications with teachers to overcome sudden asthma attacks.
Two kinds of drugs are familiar among asthmatics for managing asthma attacks: one is for quick relief and the other for prevention.
“The relief drug is in the form of an inhaler, or an injection if the attack is very severe,” Darmawan explained, adding that the drugs served to open the airway and relieve chest tightness. While anyone can use an inhaler, only a doctor or a paramedic should provide the injection.
He said asthmatics should carry an inhaler with them at all times. It is sprayed into the mouth and then inhaled. “This is to be done regularly so it can work properly,” said Darmawan.
Some adults find it difficult using inhalers, so parents and physicians should provide guidance on its correct use for children.
He said that apart from medication and regular medical checks, asthmatics should particularly observe their surroundings to make sure they were in a clean environment. One asthma trigger to be avoided is cigarette smoke.
Although physical exhaustion may trigger an asthma attack, regular exercises in the right proportion will strengthen the respiratory system and help prevent attacks.
Living in an environment with clean air and minimal pollution could also prevent the recurrence of asthma.
Damar Wahyudi, who has had asthmatic since he was a child, said that he rarely experienced a recurrence of asthma since he moved to Sweden. “It’s cold in Sweden and actually, the weather used to be one of my triggers,” he said.
