Mistakes parents need to avoid when children have cough and asthma

Some common mistakes parents make when their children have asthma are not accepting the doctor's diagnosis, being too afraid of the side effects of medication, and not following the treatment regimen.

Children's coughs are always a concern for parents. Coughing is the body's reflex to expel foreign objects. In asthma attacks, the cause of coughing is due to the constriction of the airways in the chest. Each time they constrict, they manifest as symptoms of wheezing, difficulty breathing, and chest tightness.

The ideal way to prevent asthma is to avoid its triggers.

Every year, the time when many children often have asthma attacks is from July to November, with the peak in October and November. This is the transitional season, and if the weather has additional storms and tropical depressions, the number of sick children will increase due to their susceptibility to viral infections.

There are cases where the whole family has the flu, cough, runny nose, cold, etc., which is also one of the reasons why children are more likely to have asthma attacks. In addition, there are many other triggers such as strong odors, cigarette smoke, animal hair, pollen, aspirin, stress, etc.

The most ideal way to prevent asthma is to avoid triggers. Nowadays, with the development of science and especially according to the guidance of GINA (Global Asthma Management), asthma can be prevented by using or not using medication. When using medication, it must be followed correctly, regularly and the child must be re-examined periodically. Of which, cough medicine during an asthma attack is the thing that needs the most attention. Because when the child is having an asthma attack, is it really necessary to use cough medicine? The answer is NO. Because the most important thing is that we should use bronchodilators to open the airways, thereby helping the child overcome an acute asthma attack.

Dr. Dang Thi Kim Huyen - Department of Respiratory Function Testing (Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital), signs of asthma in children need to be closely monitored, simple symptoms such as coughing and wheezing should not be ignored. Especially in the first 2-3 years of life, if children cough, wheeze, and have difficulty breathing repeatedly during the changing seasons, parents should not be indifferent and should take them to see specialists to determine whether or not they have asthma.

Dr. Kim Huyen recommends: Some mistakes that parents often make when their children have asthma are not accepting the doctor's diagnosis, being too afraid of the side effects of the medication and not following the doctor's treatment regimen, leading to the disease progressing more severely.

On the other hand, when children have an acute asthma attack, parents do not have the ability to handle the situation properly or resort to some folk remedies such as drinking grilled lizards or termites, or even eating them raw by opening their mouths and pinching the lizard's tail to let it enter their mouths, etc. These remedies have no scientific evidence to prove their ability to cure asthma./.

According to VOV