Childhood Asthma Triggers

Of the estimated 20 million Americans suffering from one type of asthma or another, there are approximately 9 million cases of childhood asthma or asthma in children. Your child's asthma symptoms are brought on by them coming into contact with things that their airways really don't like. These things are called your child's asthma triggers.

Asthma Symptoms

Symptoms to look for in your child are:

• Coughing - a persistent cough where you are also coughing up gunk or mucus.
• Wheezing - a kind of whistling sound, usually when you breathe out.
• Tightness in Your Chest - the muscles around your airways are getting tight.
• Shortness of Breath - you are having problems getting a good breath of air.

Asthma Triggers

Childhood asthma symptoms are brought on by specific triggers or irritants in your child's day to day life.

If your child comes into contact with any of these triggers, their airways will become extremely irritated causing the above symptoms to show up.

There is no common list of triggers that every child with childhood asthma has. It appears that everyone who has asthma also has their own list of asthma triggers. Even if your child's list is similar to someone elses, they will both be affected differently. Your child might react very strongly to coming into contact with animal dander while another child's reaction could be much milder. And your child's reaction could be different every time they come into contact with a particular trigger.

Here Are Some Of The More Common Asthma Triggers

• Certain foods - could be just about anything, even food additives or preservatives.
• Air pollution - could be outside air or even the air inside your home.
• Aerosol sprays - cleaning products, cooking products, hair spray, etc.
• Animal dander - all pets give off dander.
• Car exhaust fumes
• Cleaning products - certain chemicals or combinations might be on your list
• Cockroach droppings - will need to eliminate them from anywhere that you might go.
• Dust mites - they are in your bedding, carpets, etc.
• Gas fumes
• Grass - could be any kind of plants, etc.
• Mold - you will need to search everywhere to find it and eliminate it.
• Paint fumes
• Pollen - any kind of pollen could be a problem.
• Smoke - cigarettes, fireplaces, etc.

Other Things That Could Be Triggers For Childhood Asthma Symptoms

• Certain types of weather or weather changes
• Getting emotional
• Exercising
• Things like colds, pneumonia, sinusitis
• Reflux disease(GERD) or heartburn
• Certain medications

Finding the triggers specific to your child with childhood asthma will go a long way in helping them to lead a much more normal life. Once the triggers are identified, you will need to make every effort to avoid those triggers. Every trigger will need to be addressed individually.

Asthma Needs To Be Taken Seriously

Even if your child's asthma is infrequent and seldom leads to asthma attacks, you will still need to treat it as the disease that it is. Unfortunately, many parents mistakenly think that just because the child's asthma may not be serious that they don't have to take it seriously. If the swelling and irritation in your child's airways is not controlled, your child's asthma could end up lowering your child's quality of life.

Prescription Asthma Medications

The medical community freely admits that prescription asthma medications will not cure childhood asthma or any other types of asthma. These medications do attempt to control your child's asthma symptoms. Most times you will need at least two different medications to get even some relief. Each of these medications has possible short term and long term dangerous side effects associated with them.

Natural Asthma Treatments Are A Better Treatment Option

It will be worth your while to investigate the natural asthma treatments that are available that can actually cure childhood asthma. These natural remedies work to strengthen the body and get it back to working the way that it was meant to. They will attack your child's asthma at the cause and will do so with no dangerous side effects.

Childhood asthma is a very serious condition and the number of children that have it is actually going up despite the billions being spent on prescription medications.