Asthma Treatment for Children
Children belong in the great outdoors. But sometimes, allergies and asthma symptoms can slow them down. At Watkins Allergy and Asthma Clinic, we apply the right amount of patience, understanding, and knowledge to get them the relief they need to feel like kids again.
TREATMENT TO LET KIDS BE KIDS
The goals of our asthma therapy are to:
- Prevent your child from having chronic and troublesome symptoms
- Maintain your child’s lung function as close to normal as possible
- Allow your child to maintain normal physical activity levels
- Prevent recurrent asthma attacks
- Reduce the need for emergency department visits or hospitalizations
- Provide medicines to your child that give the best results with the fewest side effects.
Medicines we may prescribe fall into two general categories. One category includes medications that are meant to control asthma in the long term and are used daily to prevent asthma attacks (controller medications). The other category is medications that provide instant relief from symptoms, known as rescue medications.
ASTHMA TREATMENT PLANS FOR CHILDREN
Every child needs to follow a customized asthma management plan to control asthma symptoms. In general, we start with a high level of therapy, following an asthma attack. We then work to decrease treatment to the lowest possible level while still preventing asthma attacks and allowing your child to have a normal life.
The severity of a child’s asthma can both worsen and improve over time, so the type (category) of your child’s asthma can change, which means different treatments can be required over time. Treatment should be reviewed every 1-6 months, and the choices for long- and short-term therapy are based on how severe the asthma is.
If your child suffers from asthma, contact us or schedule an appointment and let us help your child breathe easier.