Recently diagnosed

[Leahg93]

Hello, I'm new to this, my almost 7 year old son has recently been diagnosed with asthma, he uses a blue inhaler and his brown one. Looking for advice from other parents on how they deal with there child having asthma on a day to day basis. He's struggled for years with breathing, at times being admitted to hospital for not being able to breath but always told he's okay. Many thanks

[twinkly29]

Hopefully his new inhalers (particularly the brown steroid one) will be very helpful for him. A friend's nephew struggled til he was 3, in and out of hospital, doctors refused a brown inhaler. At 3, on holiday elsewhere in the UK, he had an a&e visit and the doctor there was appalled he wasn't on a brown inhaler. 8 weeks after starting it things were so very different for him and 2.5 years on he's had hardly any issues.

EmmaF91 has some good ideas about explaining stuff to children - I'll let her pop along and add them though 😅

[Leahg93 in reply to twinkly29]

Thankyou so much!

[EmmaF91 Community Ambassador]

Hi

I’m not sure whether you’re looking for a parents perspective on things (which I can’t help with 😅) or general ways of helping explain asthma etc to kids.

If it’s the latter you might find this post helpful; healthunlocked.com/asthmauk...

It’s focused on a 5yo but you can probably do most of the things with a 7yo 😉

If he doesn’t have an asthma plan yet I really advice getting one sorted ASAP, so that you, he and his school/extra curricular activities will all know what to do when! ( asthma.org.uk/advice/manage... )

I hope this helps even if it’s not exactly what you’re looking for 😅

[Leahg93 in reply to EmmaF91]

Thankyou very much!

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador]

Hi - not a parent and others can advise more and better on this, but I was a 7yo with asthma once (a while back lol - diagnosed at 7). As Emma has said, I'd advise getting an asthma plan from his GP/asthma nurse and giving a copy to his school. The issue I remember most, which can apparently still be an issue, is where the blue inhaler is kept.

It is possible from an understanding/appropriate use point of view for some primary age children to keep their own reliever on them and use it when needed, but the school/modern laws may have different ideas - my experience was early to mid 90s. My primary was fine with it and then in year 9 a different school tried to say I couldn't keep it with me, even for PE - my mum did step in there and say no that's ridiculous, especially as exercise was a trigger for me, and they agreed I could have it on me.

If they say he can't have it on him, it needs to be nearby (eg classroom, or PE teacher has it with them when he does PE) and discuss the system if he needs it (or even about telling people he's used it if he does keep it on him). At that age I'd have felt really uncomfortable about putting my hand up and asking for it mid lesson, or about what to do if the teacher pushed back and asked me to wait or that I didn't need it (can happen). The bonus is that other kids will have asthma so they should hopefully already have standard procedures on how to handle all this! Open windows (potential pollen/cold air issues) for COVID precautions may however be an extra wrinkle I never had to deal with.

I would also say that your son's triggers are his triggers and aren't necessarily the same for other asthmatics - at school I do remember a lot of 'X has asthma and can do that, so why can't you?' - even from a PE teacher. Hopefully won't be an issue but just flagging.

Others can advise better on the specifics of handling this, but hopefully it's helpful to hear from someone who was in your son's position once!

[Leahg93 in reply to Lysistrata]

Thankyou so much, printed off a plan & spoke with asthma nurse