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Asthma – What are Childhood Asthma Treatments? | Treatments for Childhood Asthma | Asthma Treatments For Children

The first steps in treating asthma are to diagnose the disease, and then to recognize the early signs of an asthma attack. If the symptoms are mild or occur infrequently, a bronchodilator drug such as an albuterol inhaler or nebulizer may be all that is needed. However, since most children will have symptoms more often even though they are mild, a daily controller medication such as a corticosteroid in a nebulizer or inhaler, or an oral medication such as montelucast should be prescribed.

Allergy immunotherapy may be recommended if there is a reasonably clear indication that exposure to the allergen is a trigger for the asthma symptoms. The goals of asthma therapy are to prevent your child from having chronic and troublesome symptoms, to maintain your child’s lung function as close to normal as possible, to allow your child to maintain normal physical activity levels, to prevent recurrent asthma attacks and to reduce the need for emergency department visits or hospitalizations, and to provide medicines to your child that give the best results with the fewest side effects.

Medicines that are available fall into two general categories. One category includes medications that are meant to control asthma in the long term and are used daily to prevent asthma attacks. These can include inhaled corticosteroids, inhaled cromolyn or nedocromil, long-acting bronchodilators, theophylline, and leukotriene antagonists. The other category is medications that provide instant relief from symptoms.

A common reason for not getting better despite being on a good medical regimen is noncompliance. The medications can’t help if your child isn’t taking them appropriately.If your child is having frequent symptoms, frequent asthma attacks or he has a limitation in his physical activities, then you should see your Pediatrician or Pediatric Lung Specialist to reevaluate his treatment plan and possibly change or increase the amount of daily medication he is taking.

Childhood Asthma Treatments are:

1.Have had wheezing 4 or more times in the past year lasting longer than 1 day and affecting sleep and who have atopic dermatitis or a parent with asthma.

2.Consistently need treatment for symptoms on more than 2 days a week for longer than 4 weeks.

3.Have severe attacks more than once every 6 weeks.

4.Have had wheezing 4 or more times in the past year lasting longer than 1 day and affecting sleep and two of the following four symptoms:

5.A high eosinophil count. Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell often present in allergic reactions.

6.Evidence of sensitivity to some foods.

7.Allergic rhinitis.

8.Wheezing not associated with colds.