How important is it for us to find a new home for our pet? It is crucially important that you relocate your pet to a new home. If your child is allergic to the family pet, and especially if the pet allergy is a trigger for your child’s asthma, it is in your child’s medical [...]

Yes, your smoking will affect your child with newly diagnosed asthma. Smoking should be categorically banned from any household in which a child has asthma of any severity. Your smoking affects your child in many different ways. Every child today knows that smoking is bad for you. Some are aware of the links between cigarette [...]

Our 10-year-old daughter who has asthma wants to go to sleep-away camp next summer. Should she attend a regular camp or a camp for children with asthma? The answer to what type of summer camp might be best for your daughter with asthma depends on several factors. Considerations include the severity of her asthma, her [...]

The best way to make sure that your son’s school is in a position to handle his asthma is to continue to teach him about his asthma and the medicines he takes and to establish effective communication with all of his teachers and the school nurse. Your son’s ability to recognize and act on his [...]

No, absolutely not. Your child’s asthma should be brought under good control, and then she should be encouraged to participate fully in all aspects of school life, including fit-ness and sports. A diagnosis of asthma should never automatically lead to curtailed physical activity. Participation in physical education and in team sports is an important component [...]

Asthma is never outgrown. Asthma is a lifelong diagnosis. Symptoms of asthma, however, can become absent for long periods of time, on the order of years in many cases, and thus lead to the impression that a child has out-grown the disease. The state of baseline hyperreactivity (discussed in Question 12) that defines asthma never [...]

Should I take my 4-year-old to a physician who specializes in asthma? Of the nearly 7 million children with asthma in the United States, the majority are diagnosed and initially treated by their primary care physician. If your child’s asthma is mild in severity and well controlled, there may be no reason to see an [...]

But that asthma cannot be diagnosed until my son is older than 2 or even 3 years old. Why is that? The observation that your young son is wheezing does not necessarily mean that he has asthma. Wheezing in infancy is never normal and should be reported to the pediatrician. Many children do wheeze during [...]

Milk is not a cause of increased mucus production, nor is it considered to be an asthma trigger. Consumption of milk has no effect on lung capacity, either deleterious or beneficial. It is a myth that milk is somehow harmful to children with asthma. A recent study on the effects of milk consumption in asthma [...]

Maybe not, but asthma is very likely. Repeated bouts of wheezing in school-aged children—boys and girls—are almost always caused by asthma. The likelihood of asthma is even greater when a cough accompanies wheezing. A family history of asthma or allergy is an important risk factor for the development of asthma. Not all children who wheeze, [...]

Yes, but only as children. As young children, boys are almost twice as likely as girls are to develop asthma. Interestingly, the pattern is reversed when looking at asthma in older age groups. An article published in the medical journal Chest in October 2003 found that 62% of children with asthma (asthma patients younger than [...]

Absolutely not! Asthma is not an infectious condition. It cannot be transmitted from person to person, nor can it spread between people. Remember that there is an inherited component to the development of asthma and it is well established that the tendency to develop asthma runs in families. If one parent has asthma or certain [...]

Yes, you will certainly be able to breastfeed if you wish to. Asthma medicine, especially that administered in inhaled form, is not a contraindication to nursing your infant. Breast-feeding has many advantages for both mother and child and may even have beneficial effects in delaying or perhaps avoiding altogether the development of asthma in young [...]

Studies have been carried out all over the world to help doctors decide which asthma medicines are safest in pregnancy. The single biggest risk to an asthmatic woman’s pregnancy is poor asthma control in the mother. Uncontrolled asthma is very harmful to the developing baby and can result in devastating complications for both mother and [...]

The fact that you have asthma does not necessarily mean that your child will develop asthma too. Your asthma diagnosis does, however, place your son or daughter at higher statistical risk of inheriting asthma as compared to a child born to parents with no personal history of asthma. Although there are no specific actions that [...]

Yes, while you are pregnant, you should see your asthma specialist more frequently than before. In my practice, for example, I ask my pregnant patients with asthma to schedule a monthly visit, about as often as they visit the obstetrician. Some women may require more frequent appointments, and some less. Now that you are pregnant, [...]

How will pregnancy modify or affect my asthma? Pregnancy will not necessarily make your asthma worse or more symptomatic. Studies of asthma in pregnancy reveal that about one third of pregnant women with asthma will have no change in the degree of their asthma; one third will experience a lessening of their asthma symptoms and [...]

No! Asthma is definitely not a psychological disease; it is a physical condition that affects the lungs and its bronchial passages. The concept that asthma is somehow a disease of the mind or an emotional disturbance is false (Table 54). A person experiencing difficulty breathing with cough, increased chest pressure, and wheezing is physically extremely [...]

I am a meticulous housekeeper, so why does my house harbor dust mites? Should people with asthma encase their bedding? Is it a good idea to invest in an air purifier? Dust mite is a common indoor year-round allergen; allergy to dust mites has been associated with allergic rhinitis and asthma in children, as well [...]

What is influenza? Why should I get a flu shot (influenza vaccination)? Will the flu shot make me ill? Influenza is a serious respiratory disease caused by the influenza virus (Table 49). Influenza viruses are classified as types A, B, or C. Influenza A, the most common, is the type of influenza that causes most [...]