5 Surprising Asthma Triggers for Your Child

5 Surprising Asthma Triggers for Your Child

Imagine the terror. You try to take a breath but nothing gets into your lungs. Your bronchi have blocked access to your lungs. If you don't do something within a few moments, you will lose consciousness. You could be suffering from heart disease or brain damage due to lack of oxygen. You could die. You are alone. You can't call for help because you need to breathe to have a voice. You fumble and finally bring your inhaler to your mouth. Two quick bursts of the medicine and you can immediately feel the bronchi opening, allowing breath and much-needed oxygen into your lungs. You'll be safe until the next time you encounter a trigger for your asthma.

Triggers are usually things that wouldn't bother other people, but can bring an asthmatic to the brink of death. The majority of asthmatics are children. Their parents live in fear that their child will not be able to get their inhaler on time. It's important to be aware of any possible triggers your child is susceptible to. Asthma triggers in children are as individual as children themselves. It is a long, arduous effort to meet with doctors to figure out which triggers send each child into an asthma attack.

Some of the most common asthma triggers in children include:

1. Cold – Yes, a cold, which is generally a respiratory infection, often triggers an asthma attack in children. It's bad enough for a child to have a cold, coughing, sneezing, congestion and on top of that...asthma!

2. Smoking – You usually don't need to warn asthmatics not to smoke. But sometimes their parents need to be reminded of what breathing secondhand smoke does to an asthmatic.

3. Medications like aspirin – That’s right, even something as beneficial to many people’s health as aspirin can send an asthmatic into a severe attack. This is perhaps the most surprising in a list of asthma triggers in children. Asthmatics need to be careful with the medications they take, especially over-the-counter medications.

4. Prolonged Laughing or Crying – Can you imagine what asthmatic children have to do to regulate their emotions because the fear of laughing or crying might make them stop breathing? Without such strong emotional reactions, life can be quite boring. Parents often overprotect their asthmatic children. They tend to live rather isolated and antisocial childhoods, unable to do as many of the things that other children do.

5. Cooking fumes – While many of us love coming into a kitchen filled with the wonderful aroma of our favorite foods, asthmatic children usually can't take advantage of this opportunity. The smell of certain foods can trigger an asthma attack. Because they don't know what could trigger an attack, all they have to do is stay away from the kitchen. That would be very difficult for some of us!

There could be an endless list of asthma triggers in children. These are just five examples of the ones you might not have expected.

Inspired by Christine Mattice