Archive | April, 2007

Asthma Treatment

There are a few different treatment options for your child’s asthma. The most typical treatments include inhalers. Inhalers are usually packed with corticosteroids that will help with the inflammation of the bronchial tube. These steroids will even help prevent or eliminate the inflammation. Another treatment involves the use of beta 2 agonists that will actually dilate the bronchial tube to prevent and eliminate the problems of the swelling. Other than the common inhalers, there can be different treatments that last for up to a few hours that can be used to lessen the inflammation for a certain duration of time. These are very expensive, and are usually used by college or professional athletes that suffer from the affliction.

Probably the most important part of your child’s asthma treatment will be the plan of action drawn up by your doctor. The plan will include what medicine or procedures to take if your child is having an attack or feeling the onset of an attack. It will also tell you where to call and when to call for immediate medical assistance. Another important part will be the determination of any asthma triggers, like allergens, that cause your child to have an attack. This may require a normal allergy scratch test.

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Asthma Diagnosis

Getting diagnosed with asthma is a long process. There isn’t a simple test than can determine the presence of the affliction. Instead, your doctor will do many things to determine that there is not another disease causing the problem. The first thing the doctor will probably do is have your child inhale deeply and exhale into a tube like device that will measure how much air is exhaled. This is to determine if your child is having trouble drawing oxygen in the lungs.

Secondly, your doctor will do a physical examination on you child to listen to listen for wheezing or any blocked respiratory passages. The doctor will ask a lot of questions about the medical history of your child and about their conditions at home. For example, if your child is exposed to a lot of cigarette smoke or if you have pets, both of which can cause allergies. Also, your doctor may suggest that a chest x-ray is taken to determine that your child’s problems aren’t caused by another disease. After they have exhausted all other options, your child will be diagnosed with asthma and you can be treatments.

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Asthma Symptoms

The symptoms of asthma are very hard to distinguish. Even if your child has asthma, the symptoms may be so mild that they’re not even noticeable. The symptoms can be very severe and occur daily, or they can be somewhere in between the two. Most likely, the severity of the symptoms and frequency change throughout the year. This may be due to allergies that your child also suffers from.

A typical indication of asthma is wheezing. This is defined as the high pitched noise that occurs when the bronchial tube has inflamed and your child is breathing. It can be a loud or quiet whistling sound, but it’s there. This is the most common and easily distinguishable symptom. Along with wheezing comes coughing. This is different from a normal cough when your child has a cold as it is a dry cough that doesn’t produce much mucus.

Another symptom is chest tightness and shortness of breath which obviously leads to shortness of breath. This is caused directly by the inflammation of the bronchial tube, the definition of asthma. If untreated, this chest tightness can become permanent as there is irreversible damage to the bronchial tube and the lungs. This rarely happens. Your child may tire easy if they are doing any form of exercise because they cannot draw the required amount of oxygen into their lungs.

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Causes of Asthma

There has been much money and time invested in trying to find the exact causes of asthma, but at this point, there is still no answer. However, there has been some advancement in the knowledge of asthma. Researchers have found different reasons for the inflammation in the bronchial tube that causes asthma attacks. Remember, that if you for any reason believe your child has asthma to schedule an appointment with a doctor immediately. Untreated asthma can cause permanent damage to bronchial tubes, the lung and the respiratory system in general. In fact, it can even cause death.

Many researches believe asthma is hereditary. If the child’s parents have had bouts with either allergies or asthma, then it’s likely that your child will fight with the afflictions as well. Allergies usually play an intricate roll in developing asthma, however not every child with allergies will develop asthma. With allergies, exposure to different allergens will cause the immune system to release chemicals that trigger the inflammation in the bronchial tube. There are many different allergens that can produce these effects, but some common ones include dust mites, pet dander and roaches.

There has been new research to suggest that asthma is a direct result of the enormous amount of pollution. It can also be due to different issues with the immune system, but all of this is still being sorted out.

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Solutions and Tips for Colic

So your doctor told you your baby has colic. But what can you do about it? It must seem like your baby is suffering from all the crying, and to be honest, you probably are too. It can get frustrating when you babies cries hard with their back arch and fists clenched for hours and hours, but remember, it will get better soon. There are few tips that can help to try to ease the constant crying, but remember it won’t get rid of it. Colic is not your fault and it’s not your baby’s fault, it’s something that cannot be healed with anything but time. With that in mind, you can try to help your baby by doing a few of these things.

Try to find a pattern within your babies crying. Is it at certain times throughout the day? If so, try to be sure to keep the house quiet and dim the lights so you can rock your baby during these times. Also, many babies are relaxed by a car ride or a walk in a stroller, so you can try that method. Many babies, too, are relaxed by a constant droning noise, so try to place a fan near your baby or let them listen to the clothes drier. If you are becoming frustrated, try to get a friend or family member to give you a short break, it can do wonders for a parent.

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What is Asthma?

Asthma has been deemed as the disease that causes children to miss the most school. Many children are affected by some form of asthma. But what exactly is asthma? Asthma is a disease that varies greatly. It can be very severe or it can be very mild. Either way, asthma affects your child’s ability to breathe. It does this by trigging the muscles in the bronchial tube to inflame which restricts the ability of air to get into the lungs, almost choking your child from within. This is what’s known as an “asthma attack.” While asthma can be something that your child has to deal with for their entire lives, most will grow out of it.

Most asthma attacks come on suddenly, but others pick up strength over the course of several hours or several days. Most doctors will give a written action plan detailing the medicines to use based on the severity of the attack and when to call for medical assistance. Some asthma attacks can cause death, therefore it’s important to see a doctor if you believe your child may have asthma. If your child does have asthma and you allow it to go untreated, it will cause permanent damage to the bronchial tube and lungs.

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What is Colic?

Does it seem like you can’t get your baby to stop crying? It may be suffering from colic, a temporary affliction that causes babies to cry uncontrollably when they are very young. Colic is at its worst between the ages of 21 days and 90 days. It may become frightful or frustrating if you can’t get your baby to stop crying, but it’s a completely normal occurrence. It happens because some babies’ nervous systems are not fully developed and they begin to cry very easily or have trouble making themselves stop.

 To diagnose this, the doctor will follow the rule of 3. To have colic, your baby must cry longer than 3 hours for 3 days a week for 3 weeks in a row. If this is the case, you should be happy that it is just colic affecting your baby and not something serious. It is important to emphasize that colic is not threatening and will eventually go away. If your baby is suffering from diarrhea, has blood in their stool or any other serious symptom, it is not colic and you must contact your doctor immediately. If you feel your baby is crying from pain, then contact your doctor because this is not colic.

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