Diagnosing asthma early enables doctors and parents to come up with an asthma care plan that limits asthma flare-ups and keeps the child healthy and active. — TNS
Asthma is a chronic breathing condition that can affect nearly every part of a patient’s life.
It is one of the main reasons kids miss school and is a leading cause of childhood hospitalisation.
Research shows that a family history of asthma increases the chances that your child may develop it too.
Early allergy symptoms are another possible warning flag, such as eczema or atopic dermatitis, and nasal problems like stuffiness, runny nose, etc.
Exposure to tobacco, vape or e-cigarette smoke, air pollution, or high temperatures (or a combination of these) can also increase asthma risks in kids.
Babies and toddlers are especially vulnerable to colds and respiratory infections such as rhino/enterovirus or RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).
In a child’s early years, doctors might notice wheezing – a high-pitched whistling sound when a child breathes during illness – and treat with medications for asthma.
Respiratory infections with wheezing are another sign that your child might be at higher risk for asthma later in life.
ALSO READ: When a child's cough could mean asthma
Their paediatrician will look for other signs too.
Your child’s doctors may use tools such as the Asthma Predictive Index (API) and/or the Pediatric Asthma Risk Score (PARS).
The API is based on a study of 1,000 children diagnosed with asthma aged five years or below.
The index suggests that children three years old or younger who have had four or more episodes of wheezing are likely to develop asthma if they also live with eczema – a condition that causes dry, itchy skin that may look reddish or purplish – or has at least one parent who has asthma.
In addition, the API suggests children could be at risk if two or more of the following factors are present:
- Food allergies, which are indicated by immediate symptoms such as hives, swelling or vomiting, after eating specific foods
- High levels of blood eosinophils – a type of white blood cell often seen in people with allergies or eczema
- Wheezing that occurs when they are NOT sick with a cold or respiratory virus.
The PARS tool was developed using data from the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study.
Each factor gets a point of two if present.
PARS predicts the odds that a child will develop asthma at age seven or later based on six risk factors: parents with asthma, eczema, early wheezing, wheezing when healthy, ancestry and allergies.
As the API and PARS show, kids with allergies face higher risks for asthma than allergy-free kids.
Conditions like eczema, eosinophilic oesophagitis, food allergies, and nasal allergies or allergic rhinitis, can develop slowly from birth, signalling a “march” toward an asthma diagnosis.
This is why it’s so crucial that your child’s doctors work together to track symptoms and coordinate care.
Children with asthma may need regular medications to manage and control their breathing, and prevent asthma flares.
Without these medicines, they can experience dangerous asthma flare-ups that may send them to the ER (emergency room), and even threaten their life.
An early diagnosis can help your child’s asthma care team prescribe the medicines they will need, along with other lifestyle changes that help keep symptoms under control and decrease asthma flare-ups and injury to their lungs, and help keep them healthy and active.
These medications will become part of an asthma action plan that spells out exactly what to do when asthma symptoms flare up.
Your child’s action plan should give clear guidance for all the adults who spend time with your child, from daycare providers to teachers, coaches, camp counsellors and others.
ALSO READ: Parents, set up an asthma action plan for your kid
With this plan in place, you can feel confident that these adults know how to respond to an asthma emergency. – By Dr Clinton Dunn and Dr Addie Dodson/American Academy of Pediatrics/Tribune News Service
Dr Clinton Dunn is a paediatrician and allergist/immunologist, and Dr Addie Dodson is a paediatrician, who is currently completing her fellowship in paediatric pulmonology. They are both members of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
