school stress and asthma

My daughter has just gone into year 6 , she has had problems with being bullied over the last 4 yrs and the start of this term seems no different.

i have spoken to her new class teacher who seems as if she is going to be a lot more proactive unlike previous who have been weakly reactive.

But for some reason the recurrence of the bullying has caused a quite noticable downtur in Chloes asthma. Over the summer she has been very stable and we even manged to reduce her meds but 4 into the new school year shes coughing considerably more and her pfs have dropped. She has no sypmtoms to suggest its viral or allergic(her 2 main triggers)

Im really not sure what to do, i know asthma can be stress induced but how can you deal with that in a 10yr old girl. I spoke to my practice asthma nurse and all she wanted to do was up her meds again but im not convinced they will help a reat deal.

Any thoughts or suggestions most gratefully welcomed

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Hi hops I know stress can make things worse but i would reconsider the allergy side of things esp as she would have been stressed about going back to school and may have got wheezy before term started. My daughters are off and wheezing again just as new term starts am convinced it's a combination of the paint fumes and chemicals from the redecorated school and all the dust in the classroom having been in it. Have you been in to make sure they haven't done anything daft like spraying air fresheners everywhere.I went into the office and found the new head teacher has decided the school needs more plants and there were fresh flowers and cushions everywhere and reception now has a hamster!!!

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Hi Kirsten, sorry to hear Chloe is having such a rough time. I guess as Marmite says there may be different allergens in the school classroom so it might be worth checking that out. As for dealing with stress, don't know if I have any great ideas, but is it worth looking at self esteem building with her - there are some Guide age resources that look quite good you could use - that might help her cope with the bullies.

Also general relaxation stuff might help, but I haven't used it in children. The kind of tapes/cds where you think of dolphins or whatever.

No real suggestions other than that, just hugs and prayers that it will get better.

S

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Hello. My daughter has also had bullying problems over the last couple of years. I never thought this affected her asthma as like your daughter her main triggers are viral or allergic. She was fine all summer and then a few days before she went back to school she started coughing & her peak flow dropped - no other triggers I could find and I was a bit confused!!! It was actually a friend of mine who suggested stress as a trigger. Like you I wasn't quite sure what to do (she is 9 and yr 5) I have talked to her about the bullying and tried to reassure her that this teacher (who I have had previous experience of) is not likely to let these girls get away with it but what else can you do??? I am hoping that she will settle down and her stress levels will drop a bit or maybe we will discover its something else! Sorry no helpful suggestions... hope your daughters teacher will sort it out.