Kids with Asthma

Lots of kids have asthma. Asthma can make it hard to breathe sometimes. Lungs look like upside down trees. 

 

You breathe in air through your nose and mouth. The air goes through tubes called airways. Airways are in the lungs. Airways have muscles wrapped around them. They look like stripes on a candy cane. There is lining inside the airways. This lining makes mucus. When the airway is open, air can get in and out easily. This picture shows what the inside of the airways might look like when you are breathing normal. 

When you have asthma, your airways can get tight and fill with mucus, making it hard to breathe. This picture shows how the inside of the airways might look during an asthma attack.

If your airways are tight and filled with mucus, you may make a whistling noise, called a wheeze, and you may cough a lot. To explain to other people how you feel, ask them to take a breath in, then without letting their air out, take another breath in, and another. It can feel very scary to have an asthma attack. 

Asthma can be started by certain things, called triggers. One that many people with asthma have is pets that have fur or feathers.

Other things, like cigarette smoke, colds or playing hard can also make children’s asthma get worse. Most of the time, children with asthma can play like everyone else.  Sometimes, they need to take a special medicine before they run or play hard.  It’s important to find out what triggers your asthma.  

By learning what causes your asthma to start, you can stay away from the triggers, or plan to take medications if you can’t stay away from it. 

If you feel like your asthma is starting, tell a grown-up right away. Ask your parents or your doctor if you have questions about how to take care of your asthma.

Click here to go to a website that has a wizard to teach you more about asthma in English or Spanish.

Adapted from "Your Asthma Can Be Controlled: Expect Nothing Less," National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, NIH Publication No. 92-2664, 1992.