There are around seven million children in the US alone who have asthma. Shockingly, over one million of these children are less than five years old! Asthma can cause children to miss school and have a serious negative impact on health. The symptoms of asthma include shortness of breath, wheezing and a sensation of tightness in the chest.

Everyone experiences asthma attacks in varying degrees of severity. The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program update asthma guidelines. They are a means for parents and children to find ways to control their asthma.

Doctors use the asthma guidelines as a way to manage a childs asthma. How they manage the asthma attacks will depend on the childs symptoms and the severity of the attacks. Doctors will monitor the childs ability to control their asthma attacks with the medications they have been prescribed.

If a child is showing signs of improvement then the doctor may decrease the medication in the hopes of being able to take the child off it completely. If the child worsens then the doctor may increase the medication or try a combination of medications to control the attacks.

The asthma guidelines set forth goals that the doctors try to meet when determining a plan of treatment for a child with asthma. If the goals are not being met then the doctor will re-evaluate the childs condition and make adjustments. Some of the goals the doctors are looking for are if your childs asthma is limiting their activities such as playing with other kids or missing school.

Your doctor will also watch your childs progress, especially in the first few days to monitor for side effects and for how well the medication is doing in preventing asthma attacks in your child.

The asthma guidelines classify childhood asthma into different types based on severity. The least severe is mild intermittent, where the child only has asthma symptoms once or twice a week. This is followed by mild persistent, where symptoms are seen more than twice a week and as much as once per day.

Moderate persistent is when the child shows daily symptoms or more than one night a week. The highest level is called severe persistent. This is when the child shows daily symptoms and frequently at night as well. If your child has asthma, you should become familiar with the asthma guidelines and discuss the different classifications with your doctor.