Growing out of asthma

Do children really grow out of asthma? If so, when?

And any ideas why?

[Hidden]

Quite a lot of children do grow out of asthma, in fact more do then don't and even if its not 'grown out' of it often gets milder. If a child were to grow out of their asthma theres no set age at which it will happen and it can still get milder at any point. Some people find that they can gradually step down their medication and eventually not need it at all and get no more symptoms. However this is not the same for all children it can get worse or it can appear to go away but symptoms can re-ouccur later.

Signs it might be improving or being grown out of are fewer symptoms, less need for reliever treatment and increased ability to join in excercise or other things which they may previouslys have struggled with. Even if it does seem to be improving don't step down any treatment without discussion and monitoring from a GP/Nurse/Cons.

Annie x

[Hidden]

I had (have?) astmha till I wasd 16 years, that was when I last had a real attack and have never used inhalers since. I'm now 30 years. I still however get breathless especially when running and get very chesty if get a cold. i think my asthma was not severe as a child, comparerd to my sons and my mothers. I think my lungs matured and can cope now with things which would have caused an attack when I was younger. my mother never grew out of asthma, I have two nieces one who had mild asthma and is now 14 and rarely needs any inhalers and one 17 years who is still on a lot of medication. whether I've grown ot of asthma, I'm not sure, maybe its so mild and so well contained I just have been lucky to not have attacks.

[Hidden]

Hi, my 3 children all have asthma, my eldest had it quite bad as a baby and through the early years, but thankfully now he is in his teens his asthma is nearly non existent ! he only suffers now if he has a cold or virus etc, our docs said this is due to him growing and having more lung space and he is a keen sports player so it does 'look' like he is growing out of it ! My middle son started with symptoms at the age of about 10 and he is getting worse as he gets older same as I did, I developd it at 14 years old, my younget son has had it since he was a baby so we have quite a while yet to see if he grows out of it. My experience is the younger you are when you develop it the more chance you grow out of it, if you develop it as you get older ... you never get rid ! X

x

[Hidden]

Hi Sox

All 3 of us have had asthma at different times in our lives.

Son who is now teenage started at 18months after bronchiolitis and then a heavy cold. Was so bad for 2 years he was hospitalised every attack. 'Grew' out of it at about age 8 but still carries inhalers and always gets a cough after a cold.

Mum had bronchitis as a toddler (probably asthma) every winter and 'grew' out of at about age 8 too. Sadly the symptoms seem to have come back at 50+ but this time the triggers are also dust, air conditioning and fine spray like deoderant or perfume. Still having tests as it may not be asthma (father had emphesyma)

Dad had sudden onset hayfever combined with asthma at about age 10 and was really bad every summer with asthma until about age 30. Then it went as suddenly as it came. Still a bit wheezy with exercise but not on medication.

All of us also have slight eczema/very sensitive skin.

[Hidden]

I can definately agree that some children do grow out of asthma, my brother was diagnosed at about the age of four or five and when he hit ten his sensitivity to pollen died down until by twelve his lungs were sound as a bell and to this day he's not even had a chest infection since then. In his case it was a simple case of his symptoms tapering off until we suddenly realised that he hadn't had an attack in months and months, even though his medication had been gradually decreased on the GPs advice.

(Which only made it the more difficult to explain to him last month that as an adult my own asthma wasn't going to simply go away some day, although I'm aiming for it to not be noticeable day to day.)

[Hidden]

Yes they do and when depends on the child. Eldest son could not even get from front door to car in the winter without having a neb on the short drive to school when he was 7, it was heart breaking. He lived on nebs and pred then he hit puberty. He is still asthmatic and uses a neb every now and again although I suspect that if he were compliant with his seratide he would not need nebs anymore. However he is now 21 6ft works and plays hard and won't be told I guess at some point he will realise that using an inhaler twice a day is actually far less fuss that GF having to travel across town with his neb because he has forgotten it and his inhaler is not helping.

[Hidden]

My son was really bad as baby and then when he turned 3 and was put on a stronger preventor his asthma improved and then they started reducing the preventor and still stayed controlled but sadly last year his asthma took a turn for the worse. The doctor believes he started out-growing his asthma but then he had a horrid chest infection and since then it is all over the place. We are are know battling again to get his green inhaler back. 5 days into the new school term and he is struggling again. At the moment he seems to be worse dueing school terms but hopefully once we have the green inhaler back we can get him back to where he was dueing the winter when we had controlled asthma again.

I was told by my GP and asthma nurse that as children grow and there lungs develop and grow larger they can tolerate more. And because of this their asthma symptoms reduce to nothing and this is when they decided to start the weaning process to see if they still need the medication or not and if they do infact still have asthma or if it is certain times of the year that they get symtoms and properly medication dueing those times only. This is how I loved to get my son but at the moment I can't see that happening.

But I suffered with problems withmy chest as a child and then at the age of 5 they stopped treatment. But sadly again at the age of 11 I started having problems again with my chest and since then I have been on lots of different coktails of medication

[Hidden]

Hi Sox,

I dont want to be negative so early in the morning, but some children dont grow out of it. The first thing I did when I was born was have an asthma attack and as a child I was always told ""dont worry you'll grow out of it"" by almost everyone from family friends to hospitals docs. I'm now 33 and am still maintained on a number of medications with several exacerbations a year.

On a more positive note though, as an adult (with big ole lungs...I can blow a good 650 peak flow when well :)I am much better at managing my symptoms and more concordant with medication regimes and so the effects are not as limiting as they were.

I'm sorry I hope me being ms doom and gloom doesnt depress you, but you know what they say fore warned is fore armed...or something like that ?!?!?!?!!?

[Hidden]

I grew out of asthma when I was a child which had been caused initially by trauma. My mother was and still is an acute asthmatic, it touched on my generation, me when I was young and my elder brother when he was in his 40's, and now my daughter is a brittle asthmatic.

So the answer to you question is 'yes' it can happen - hope it does for your offspring.

[Hidden]

growing out of asthma linked to changes in breathing habit

Some background info:

I suffered asthma since 6 months old and I waited and waited to grow out of my asthma....it never happened.

I spent my twenties ""trying to expand my lungs"" with little success in teh belief that i wasnt getting enough air in.

In my early thirties, i learned to breathe a different way that initially i was very sceptical about but it seemed to make sense. I quickly found i had far greater control and the method was very successful to me.

Back to the post and the question it poses:

Yes, i believe children can grow out of asthma, it has happened regularly enough for doctors to believe that it is significant although anecdotal. They cannot pinpoint exactly what is happening.

I believe that a child ""grows out"" of asthma, or indeed an adult, when there are small changes in the underlying breathing habit. This can come from changes from moving home or town (away from mould dust or other triggers), or moving from a seaside to city (or viceversa), reductions in stress, prolonged (but chance) avoidance of colds/flus allowing immune system to recover, increased levels of fitness, new healthy eating habits, drinking extra water (reversing dehydration), better lifestyle habits, changed sleeping posture. Many of these changes can be self-imposed and conciously steered in the right direction. It could also be from the correct level of medication resulting in the body not being under strain all the time (it is very strenuous to maintain poor control on your breathing).

This change in breathing habit often goes unnoticed by the person , the family around them and the doctor but makes all the difference. The small, noticeable but overlooked, changes in everyday breathing result in ""growing out"" of asthma. This may be most noticeable at night where they stop snoring.

I believe there are a few clues in what people have replied that back up what i am saying.

For example, Pebbles (sorry!) says of her son that "" he only suffers now if he has a cold or virus etc, "". Could this be that when the cold/virus occurs then his nose blocks as a result? This short term increase in the breathing volume (reversion to mouth breathing habit or perhaps just an increase in nasal minute volume) leads to symptoms that fade away again when the cold/virus is gone. Small changes in breathing habit are not examined closely enough. They are overlooked as insignificant rather than imperceptable.These changes are vital clues in realising how much an effect mouth breathing has on our very sensitive breathing systems - even for short periods when under stress like when having a cold or virus.

The most simple explanation relates to nasal v mouth breathing (about 25% of it). THere is another factor (75%) unfortunately overlooked by buteyko-lite advocates), minute volume, the amount you breathe in a minute. Given a nasal breathing habit then it is still very possible to overbreathe or hyperventilate (asthmatics breathe 4-6 times the volume of everyone else -hmmm is that food for thought about asthma..somehow related to breathing). It is possible to maintain hyperventilation by a single sigh every 5 minutes. Or sniff, or cough. Or sleeping breathing through your mouth. There are other exercises that can be practiced to reduce breathing volume. Or not noticing your breathing throughout the day (for example walk, don't talk (but be able to talk or Breathe in through your nose when speaking). If you can hear your breathing then you are breathing too much. Same goes for kids. BTW I have 3, the youngest has inherited his father's big breathing habit and suffers from excema. He is definitely a heavy breather and i believe most of his symptoms are because of this (close links between excema and asthma).

I echo the recommedation not to reduce any medication without medical approval and supervision.