Handling Your
Toddler's Asthma

What's a Parent to Do When Their Child is Diagnosied with Asthma?

By Carma Haley Shoemaker

Asthma is responsible for 17 percent of emergency room visits for toddlers, and cases of asthma in toddlers and children rose 138 percent between 1980 and 1998, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As more and more toddlers are being diagnosed with asthma, an increasing number of parents are becoming concerned with how having asthma will affect both their toddler's development as well as their quality of life.

Mosby's Medical, Nursing and Allied Health Dictionary defines asthma as "an obstructive respiratory condition characterized by recurring attacks of difficulty breathing, wheezing, prolonged expiration and an irritative cough that is a common, chronic illness in early and middle childhood."

The age of asthma onset in 1980 was between 3 and 8 years, but fell to as young as age 1 in 1998, according to the CDC. "The condition of asthma is as varied as the toddlers and children who suffer from it, thus the importance of seeking advice and treatment from a pediatrician." To: Because the severity of asthma can vary as much as the toddlers and children who suffer from it, it is important to seek advice and treatment from a pediatrician.

"Asthma is a respiratory disease," says Dr. Gabriel Aljadeff, a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago. "However, each case of asthma has different causes, is worsened by different factors, is at varying degrees of severity and may require different treatment. It is very important to have a toddler who suffers from asthma treated and evaluated frequently by a pediatrician who can monitor the disease and help determine the variations and needs of each toddler individually."

Asthma in toddlers is usually attributed to extrinsic factors, meaning most attacks are related to something outside their body such as a pollen, mold, dust, smoke, pet hair, feathers, chemicals or food. Dr. Aljadeff says allergies are the most common causative agent for asthma attacks in toddlers.

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• Talk about it!