All About Asthma
Want to learn more about asthma? Here is some useful information taken directly from our Resus Rangers resources!
What is Asthma?
Asthma is the narrowing of the airways caused by an irritant such as dust, exercise, or smoke. This can usually be identified by difficulty in breathing, a wheezing cough, difficulty speaking in sentences, and hypoxia (causing a blue tinge to the lips). This is known as an asthma attack.
Children who know they have asthma should have access to their own inhaler at all times - you never know when an asthma attack may come on!
How to Help:
If you can see that a child is having an asthma attack, you should reassure them and ask them to breathe slowly and deeply. Identify where their inhaler is help them to administer treatment. If they do not have their inhaler on them or on the premises, call 999 immediately.
Continue to monitor their breathing and response. Most children will recover after one or two puffs on their inhaler. If it worsens or they lose consciousness, call 999 immediately and seek medical advise. This is very rare, however.
Interesting Facts:
1 in 11 children (roughly 1.1 million) are receiving treatment for asthma.
Most children grow out of asthma, but others carry it into their adult years, and can even worsen in some cases.
On average, there are three children with asthma in every classroom in the UK.
There is currently no cure, but there are simple treatments available to make it more manageable.
If you wish to learn more, visit Asthma UK to learn key information or speak to an expert.