Asthma UK are urging parents who have children living with asthma to get the new term off to a healthy start. The charity is highlighting that each year, at the start of the autumn term, there’s a big rise in the number of children who have to go to hospital with their asthma. This could be because there are more triggers around – such as mould spores, cold and damp weather, and the viruses that cause coughs and colds.
Or it might be because children have got out of the habit of taking their preventer medicines over the summer holidays.
Advice
Community pharmacy team’s can help manage children’s asthma by:
Providing advice on how a child uses their inhaler, explaining to parents the importance of their children using their preventer inhaler as well as their reliever inhaler
Highlighting why it is important their child takes their medicine as prescribed – even during occasions such as summer holidays when it is sometimes more difficult to stick to a routine. However, by doing so their child’s asthma will be better managed and is less likely to impact on family activities – particularly important if the family is holidaying abroad.
Asthma UK website has lots of tips on managing asthma in children which will help parents to feel confident that their child has the best chance of being symptom-free, and that asthma won’t get in the way of studying, trips and making new friends at the start of a new school year.
www.asthma.org.uk