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Health & Wellness > Ask
The Doc: Wheezing
Ask The Doc: Wheezing
The board certified pediatricians at After Hours Pediatrics Urgent Care (www.afterhourspediatrics.com)
want to answer your questions regarding urgent care. To submit a question to be
answered in the next issue of Families on-the-go, please email your question to
info@afterhourspediatrics.com.
How do I know if my child’s wheezing is asthma?
Many children will have an occasional wheezing episode in their early childhood.
Rather than call it asthma -- which is a chronic, recurrent illness --
pediatricians initially call this wheezing ‘reactive airways.’ The typical child
develops a runny and stuffy nose or viral cold symptoms, and within one to three
days, a tight, dry cough develops. Most parents do not hear wheezing until after
the cough develops. If the wheezing becomes chronic and matches certain
criteria, your child may be given a diagnosis of asthma.
Medicines used to relieve wheezing depend on whether the child needs quick
relief or needs a maintenance medication to prevent wheezing. In the child who
is wheezing and needs quick relief of respiratory symptoms, bronchodilators and
steroids are typically used. Rapid acting bronchodilators are medicines that
relax the muscles that surround the large breathing passages in the lungs, while
oral steroids are used to quickly reduce inflammation in the breathing passages.
Long-term controller medications are used for children who have frequent
wheezing. These medicines focus on preventing wheezing when the child is exposed
to a trigger, such as a viral illness or allergen. Long acting bronchodilators
help keep the muscles around the breathing passages relaxed. Inhaled (not oral)
steroids assist in reducing inflammation over time. At times, different types of
these controlling medications are combined in a single medication.
It is very important that if the child is using long-term controller medications
and starts to wheeze, the quick relief or ‘rescue’ medications must be used to
relieve the wheezing. Simply giving more of the controller medications will not
work, and your child will not improve.
Learning to use the right medications at the right time for your child can
sometimes be confusing. Be sure to discuss the types of medications your child
is using with your doctor and write down the proper way to use them.
Dr. Paula Rooney is a board certified pediatrician at After Hours Pediatrics
Urgent Care (www.afterhourspediatrics.com).
Please email your question to info@afterhourspediatrics.com.
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