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Asthma is common among children of school age. Around one in eight children has asthma. However, it's often mild and despite the fact it's common, asthma is NOT contagious.
Asthma is a condition that affects the airways - the small tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs. Children with asthma have airways that are extra sensitive to substances which irritate them (known as 'triggers'). Common triggers include cigarette smoke, colds or flu, pets, pollen and house-dust mite. When the airways come into contact with an asthma trigger, the muscle around the walls of the airways tightens, so that the airway becomes narrower, making it harder for the air to move in and out. That is why your child will find breathing difficult and you might hear a wheezing noise.
Asthma symptoms vary. Some people cough. Others feel short of breath or get a tight feeling in their chest. This is because their lungs have to work extra hard to get air through the narrowed airways. Other people wheeze when they breathe in and out. This is because the air in their lungs is being forced through a narrower tube - like breathing through a straw.
The following quotes are from a few of the 10,000 children who responded to the National Asthma C ampaign (NAC) and Blue Peter Asthma Survey.
"If feels like someone is standing on my lungs."
"It feels like I'm being squashed."
"When I'm having an attack it feels like a rope is being slowly tightened around my chest."
However, asthma varies in severity. Some children will experience no more than an occasional cough or wheeze. There is nothing to stop children with asthma achieving their full potential. Many famous and successful people have asthma including gold medal-winning athlete Paula Radcliffe, footballer Paul Scholes and TV presenter Ian Wright. |
