HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — May is Asthma Awareness Month, and while millions of children in the U.S. are impacted by the disease, a Huntsville doctor tells News 19, with proper care, they can live normal lives.
Dr. Kym Middleton, a pediatric hospitalist at Huntsville Hospital for Women and Children, said parents can watch for several behaviors that could indicate their child has asthma.
“If they notice that their child has a lot of nighttime coughing or they frequently have issues with weather changes whenever they’re sick,” Middleton said. “They need to have albuterol or a rescue inhaler. If they’re getting admitted a lot to the hospital with respiratory issues or needing lots of steroids for respiratory diseases, they may have asthma, and they should talk with their primary care doctor.”
Middleton says diagnosing asthma usually begins with an exam.
“If the patient is having trouble breathing, either they don’t have good air movement or they’re so tight that you can’t hear wheezing, or you hear significant wheezing and trouble breathing, respiratory distress, then we will usually go ahead and try albuterol,” Middleton said.
Some patients may take allergy medicine in addition to albuterol.
“People with asthma do not always have symptoms all the time, but they are typically triggered by something, whether that’s an illness or allergens or environmental exposures, like smoke,” Middleton said.
An asthma attack can cause wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and fatigue, but Middleton said, with proper care, a child with asthma should be able to run and play like kids without asthma could.
“The big thing I always stress with families, though, is that if the child has asthma and takes their daily medications as directed is they should be able to have a life like kids who don’t have asthma.”
In addition to taking medicine, Middleton said it is important to keep kids with asthma healthy. She said making sure they wash their hands and stay updated on their vaccines can help prevent a virus that could make them very sick.
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