Steps to keep asthma under control in young children

You can best manage your child's asthma with these tips.

Create an action plan

Your child's healthcare team can help you make a written asthma action plan. You can use the plan at home and share it with other family members, friends, preschool teachers and babysitters. A thorough plan includes such things as the following:

• Your child's name and age.
• Healthcare professional and emergency contact information.
• The type, dose and timing of long-term medicines.
• The type and dose of rescue medicine.
• A list of common asthma triggers for your child and tips to help stay away from them.
• A system for rating typical breathing, moderate symptoms and serious symptoms.
• Instructions for what to do when symptoms happen and when to use rescue medicine.

Monitor and record

Keep a record of your child's symptoms and treatment schedule. Share it with your child's healthcare team. These records can help your child's care team decide whether the long-term control treatment plan works well. The care team can change the plan as needed. Keep all checkups that your healthcare professional recommends too. Information you record should include:

• The time and length and of an asthma attack, along with what happened right before it.
• Treatment responses to asthma attacks.
• Medicine side effects.
• Changes in your child's symptoms.
• Changes in activity levels or sleep patterns.

Control asthma triggers

Work with your child's healthcare team to learn what things trigger your child's asthma attacks. Then help your little one stay away from these triggers as much as possible. You may need to make changes at home and other places your child often goes, such as child care centers. Depending on your child's triggers, you may need to make changes such as:

• Clean thoroughly to control dust and pet dander.
• Check daily pollen count reports.
• Remove cleaning products or other household products that may irritate your child's airways.
• Give your child allergy medicine as directed by the healthcare team.

It also can help to teach your child hand-washing and other habits to help prevent colds. Once kids are old enough, you also can teach them to understand and stay away from their asthma triggers.