Breathe Easier This Summer: Tips To Control Your Child’s Asthma (NAPSA)—Asthe school year draws to a close and the temperature rises, children and families everywhere start to look forward to the simple pleasures of summer—jump rope, sunshine, playing ball, and cookouts. However, for the one in every 11 children in the United States who has asthma—including one in every six African-American chil- dren—summer can also bring wheezing, coughing and trouble breathing. The joys of summer can be challenging if your child has asthma, a common but serious chronic disease. Summer’s long afternoons spent playing outside can expose children with asthma to triggers that can bring on attacks, such as increased pollen and allergens from blossoming plants and trees, and increased air pollution on some especially hot summerdays. “While controlling asthma requires daily attention, your child doesn’t have to be sidelined,” said James P. Kiley, Ph.D., director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s (NHLBI) Division of Lung Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. “With proper treatment, most children who have asthma can avoid attacks, experience fewer symptoms, be physically active and enjoy summertime.” To makesure your child doesn’t miss a thing this season, the NHLBI recommends that you work with your child’s doctor and ask him or herto take the following key actions that can help your child—and you—breatheeasier. Tell you what medication your child needs to control asthma symptoms. Inhaled corticosteroids, taken daily, are the most effective medication for reducing the inflammation that causes asthma symptomsin people who have persistent asthma. Give you a written asthma zi (2) . Children and their parents may both breathe easier when asthma is under control. action plan that spells out what to do every day to control your child’s asthma, and how to handle symptoms or asthmaattacks. Check your child’s asthma control at regular visits, and adjust medication as needed to keep your child’s asthmain control. *Schedule regular follow-up visits (at least every six months). eWork with you to identify your child’s asthma triggers, such as allergens like pet dander and pollens and irritants like tobacco smoke, sprays and pollution, and talk about ways your child can avoid them. Ask before you leave the doctor’s office or pharmacy for someone to show you and your child how to use each prescribed medication and device correctly. You can visit the NHLBI’s website at www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/ health-topics/topics/asthma for more information, and to order publications from the NHLBI’s National Asthma Education and Prevention Program: So You Have Asthma, How Asthma-Friendly Is Your School?, Asthma & Physical Activity in the School and a sample AsthmaAction Plan.
