Pediatric Asthma Treatment
If it’s correctly managed, most kids with asthma can live healthy lives full of running, sports, and play.
Our team works with each patient and his or her family to understand any environmental or activity triggers that may be making a child’s asthma worse and then develops a plan to control them. We educate patients and families on how to manage asthma at home, including flare-ups and how to monitor asthma severity over time.
We treat children with all levels of asthma—from mild to severe cases that sometimes require hospitalization. Our team has extensive experience treating critically ill asthma patients in the intensive care unit and preparing them to manage their condition after leaving the hospital.
Asthma treatment depends on a variety of individual factors, and we will work with your family to create a custom treatment plan for your child.
Depending on the patient, asthma treatments can include traditional medication, environmental changes, and integrative medicine—all designed to effectively control asthma symptoms with the fewest possible side effects.
Traditional medication
In general, asthma that is called “persistent” is treated with inhaled steroid medication to control the asthma. Some people are worried about possible side effects with inhaled steroids. Talk to your asthma specialist about these concerns. The aim of treatment is to provide enough asthma control using the lowest dose of medicine that a child can learn, sleep, and play without symptoms getting in the way and to prevent serious asthma flare-ups.
A rescue inhaler is also prescribed for times when quick relief is needed.
For more severe cases, other medications may be needed for control that may consist of combination inhaler medicines, other types of inhaled medications, and sometimes oral medications. The most severe asthmatics may require injected medicines that can be given in the office, at the hospital, or in home settings.
Our team provides patients and families teaching on how and when to use these. Written instructions are provided in the form of an “Asthma Action Plan.”
Environmental changes
The type of environmental changes that are recommended depend on what triggers an individual’s asthma. Things that can trigger asthma include poor air quality, tobacco smoke, viral respiratory illnesses, cleaning products, pets with fur or feathers, pests (such as cockroaches or mice), dust mites, and mold. Limiting, stopping, or preventing exposure to these triggers is an important part of asthma control.
Pediatric asthma treatment with an integrative approach
Integrative medicine uses a combination of conventional and nonconventional asthma treatments to improve health and asthma symptoms and even reduce the need for traditional medicine in some cases.
Regardless of which integrative therapy you’re considering, the best first step is to talk over your child’s options with a pediatric asthma specialist, who can discuss the risks and benefits of each option. While some high-quality studies have shown that certain nonconventional treatments are effective, others have shown mixed results, and some complementary treatments do not lend themselves well to traditional medical research.
Here are four of the most popular integrative asthma treatments to discuss with your child’s doctor.
