Bronchial asthma: signs of a child

In most cases, the cause of the development of bronchial asthma is an allergy. It manifests itself in the form of inflammation of the respiratory tract, in which acute bronchospasm is accompanied by an increase in the secretion of mucus.

Symptoms of the disease

Every parent should know how asthma can manifest. Symptoms in a child are usually pronounced. The baby begins bronchospasm, which doctors call bronchial obstruction. It is expressed as follows. The child begins a paroxysmal dry cough. Over time, viscous sputum begins to form.

Understand that the obstruction began, you can by breathing. If a healthy child has an equal duration of inspiration and expiration, asthma develops shortness of breath. It is characterized by a short inhalation and a long exhalation. In this case, the patient has wheezing, which can be heard from afar.

There are also the so-called first signs of asthma in children, which are observed even before the onset of the attack. So, the baby starts coughing, nasal congestion and skin itching are observed.

In case of an attack, older children may complain of a feeling of lack of air, squeezing in the area of the chest. The babies are disturbed by sleep, they become whiny, irritable, sluggish.

The provoking factors

To prevent the development of the disease, you need to know what exactly can lead to problems. To provoking factors, experts refer to air pollution, differences in atmospheric pressure, flowering of allergenic plants and even unfavorable psychological atmosphere in the house.

If you have people with hereditary allergic diseases in your family, you first need to find out how asthma can manifest in a child. You need to know the symptoms in order not to miss the beginning of problems. Also at risk are children with exudative-catarrhal diathesis.

An allergen that leads to bronchospasm can be plant pollen, certain foods, tobacco smoke, medicines, household dust. The reaction can begin from the inhalation of cold air or from physical exertion.

At the first contact the organism as though gets acquainted with a foreign substance, and here at the subsequent "meetings" already starts to react violently. The immune system produces antibodies, and they, in turn, release biologically active substances, which cause the development of asthma in children. Signs and symptoms in the form of shortness of breath, an obsessive cough and shortness of breath it is difficult not to notice.

Characteristic features of the disease in infants

All children before the onset of asthma are marked by the so-called prodromal period. At this time, one can observe deviations from the respiratory organs. From the nose begins to emit liquid mucus, there is itching and associated with it a constant sneezing, dry cough. The doctor can listen to a single dry rale, see edematous tonsils. These are the first signs of asthma in a child up to a year.

Also, the disease affects the nervous system. The crumb becomes restless, irritable, his sleep spoils. Disturbances are also observed on the part of the digestive system - constipation may start or a loose stool may appear.

Asthma develops in babies, as a rule, against the background of respiratory diseases. Only in exceptional cases, its appearance may be due to stress. In this case, the signs of asthma in infants appear gradually. This is due to the fact that the edema of the bronchial mucosa and hyperemia are increasing at a slow pace.

The attack itself can last from several minutes to several days. It will be accompanied by wheezing, which is audible even at a considerable distance, with expiratory dyspnea.

It is worth noting that sometimes the first signs of asthma in children under one year remain unnoticed. They can manifest themselves sporadically without any regularity, at different times. At the same time they can pass by themselves, without any therapy. And in the period between attacks, parents do not notice any deviations.

Children of preschool age

It is not always possible to suspect the development of the disease in older children. Symptoms of asthma in a child in 2 years can be blurred. For example, they can get fast and get intermittent breathing during sleep. This also happens during physical exertion.

Typical manifestations of the disease include frequent sneezing, periodic coughing, restless sleep. Often children do not even notice that they are coughing in their sleep. It happens reflexively. If the child sleeps separately, the parents may not even hear a cough. Therefore, it is necessary to observe the child, if the teacher from the kindergarten says, the baby coughs during sleep.

Preschoolers can not always describe their feelings, so parents should monitor their condition. For example, the signs of asthma in a child of 5 years can be manifested during active games. It is necessary to consult a doctor if after a short run the baby begins to cough. Active movement can cause pain in the chest, a feeling of squeezing.

Signs of asthma in school children

The older the child, the more detailed and more precise he can describe his state. Therefore, it is already a little easier to determine the disease in schoolchildren. But you can do this only if you know what signs of asthma in children can be.

As in preschool children, in school-age children, the disease is indicated by coughing in sleep and after physical exertion. Patients can tell about the emerging pressure in the chest area. In addition, catching the connection between physical stress and the emerging discomfort, children try to run as little as possible, avoiding any active games. Even in the absence of complaints, it is necessary to monitor students who refuse to attend physical education classes, try not to run, sit quietly at the changes.

If a child has a fit of coughing, it's hard for him to sit upright. He tries to ease his condition, bends, humpbacks, moves forward. You can also notice excessive pallor. Preschoolers and children of primary school age may get scared and cry even during an attack.

Adolescence

As a rule, by 12-14 years the diagnosis is already established. At this age it is important to teach the child to recognize when asthma begins. Symptoms in a child, as a rule, are always similar. He should always have with himself a special inhaler prescribed by a doctor. Parents are required to ensure that the medication does not run out and change the used capacity in time.

Symptoms of the disease in children of middle and senior school age are not particularly different from those that occur in babies. But adolescents are already able to control the disease, which means that they are able to prevent an exacerbation.

It is worth noting: despite the fact that many seizures begin precisely during sports, teenagers with asthma need physical activity. Just before the stresses, it is necessary to take the medicine prescribed by the doctor and monitor the breathing. It should be smooth and rhythmic.

Seizures can cause allergens. But teenagers should already know which substances provoke the disease. If possible, they should avoid them. If allergic seizures provoke seasonal plants, then it is necessary to take regular medicines that block their development.

Often at this age, the process of remission begins. All signs of asthma disappear, and parents decide that their child simply "outgrew" the disease. But in fact, the hyperreactivity of the bronchi persists. If a teenager encounters several provoking factors, the disease can return. Sometimes it happens in adulthood. Quite often there are situations in which asthma disappears in adolescence and appears again in the elderly.

Diagnostics

To accurately determine if there is asthma in a child, it is not enough to know the first signs and the main symptoms of this disease. Shortness of breath, rapid and shortness of breath, an obsessive cough may appear in obstructive bronchitis. Therefore, without consulting doctors can not do. First of all, you need to visit a pediatrician. He will already give directions to all the necessary tests and send you to an allergist. If necessary, it may also be necessary to consult a pulmonologist.

In addition to general studies of blood and urine, it can also be taken for sputum analysis. With asthma, it has an increased content of eosinophils, Courshmann spirals (mucus from the respiratory tract), Charcot-Leiden crystals (lysophospholipase released from eosinophils), Creole bodies (accumulation of epithelial cells).

To establish the diagnosis, the doctor must deal with the details of the baby's life. He needs to know how and when the seizures begin. Even according to this description, sometimes it becomes clear to a specialist what exactly is the allergen for the baby. It is also important for the doctor to know how the child reacts to bronchodilators. About asthma will indicate a temporary improvement in the state against the background of their use.

Diagnosis is the conduct of special tests. One of the most common are allergic skin allergies. For these purposes, on the slightly scratched parts of the forearm crumbs are put potential allergens. After 20 minutes the doctor evaluates the results. They look at which areas the skin is most red.

This allows you to identify the allergen, but does not provide an opportunity to understand if the work of the respiratory system is impaired. Determine this can and the parents themselves, knowing the signs of bronchial asthma. Cough for children requires more thorough diagnosis. To determine the working volume of the lungs, a special examination is carried out-spirometry. With its help, the degree of disruption of the respiratory system is assessed.

To do this, measure the amount of exhaled inspiratory effort and total lung capacity. The first time these measurements are done without any medications. Then the examination is repeated after taking bronchodilator medication. If the lung volume increases by more than 12%, then the sample is considered positive.

Also assess the hyperreactivity of bronchial tubes after exercise. If the volume of forced expiration decreases by 20%, this indicates that the patient has asthma. Symptoms in a child, however, can be so pronounced that they do not always prescribe such a detailed examination.

Clinical manifestations

It should be understood that in infants it is often impossible to diagnose because of the obstructive syndrome in bronchitis. For a few days they develop a cough, symptoms appear that testify to breathing disorders, whistling rales are heard. As a rule, the treatment is not only in taking brocholytics, but also antibiotics, antihistamines. Symptoms of pulmonary obstruction may appear in subsequent SARS.

Signs of asthma in babies are sufficiently lubricated, so special attention is paid to anamnesis, the questioning of parents about the onset of the development of diseases and physical examination.

The course of the disease can be divided into 3 conditional stages:

1. Directly attack. Developed acute choking due to difficulty in entering. It is preceded by an entrepreneurial stage, which can last from a few minutes to 3 days.
2. Period of exacerbation. Characterized by difficulty breathing, the emergence of periodic whistles, obsessive cough and difficulty in sputum discharge. At this time, recurrent episodes of acute attacks can occur.
3. Remission. The period is different in that a child can lead a normal life, he does not have any complaints. The remission can be complete, incomplete (determined by the parameters of external respiration) or pharmacological (it is preserved when certain medications are taken).

It is important to be able to determine the first signs of asthma in children to prevent the development of an acute attack. If it was not prevented, then the parents and the immediate environment of the child should know what to do. It is also important to understand that seizures are distinguished for the severity of bronchospasm.

The easiest degree is the most secure. With such an attack, a spasmodic cough begins, breathing is slightly difficult. The overall well-being of the child remains good, it does not break.

At an average attack the signs are more pronounced. The child's well-being worsens, he becomes moody and restless. Cough is of a paroxysmal nature, a thick, viscous, hard-to-treat sputum is released. Breath noisy and wheezing, dyspnea present. The skin becomes pale and the lips become bluish. Children can speak only in single words or short phrases.

A severe attack is characterized by the appearance of dyspnea, which is audible at a distance. Palpitation in babies becomes more frequent, a cold sweat appears on the forehead, a common cyanosis of the skin is observed, lips are blue. Symptoms of asthma in children 6 years and older are characterized by the fact that the patient can not speak, he is able to pronounce only a few short words. Kids, as a rule, can not explain their condition, they just cry and express anxiety in all available ways.

The most severe cases are called asthmatic status. This is a condition in which a severe attack of the disease can not be stopped for 6 or more hours. The child develops resistance to prescribed medicines.

Features of the course of the disease

It is important to know how asthma can manifest before the onset of an attack. Symptoms in a child can be such: moodiness, irritability, tearfulness, headache, obsessive dry cough.

In most cases, attacks begin in the evening or at night. In the beginning there is a cough, noisy breathing, shortness of breath. Children often get scared, start crying, tossing in bed. The initial manifestations of asthma in infants are often expressed in the form of bronchial obstructive syndrome in ARI. Also against the background of catarrhal diseases, an asthmatic bronchitis attack may begin. It is characterized by shortness of breath, which makes breathing difficult, and a damp cough.

Atopic bronchial asthma is characterized by a rapid development of the attack. The timely use of bronchospasmolytics allows him to stop. But with an infectious-allergic form, seizures develop slowly, the symptoms grow gradually. It is not possible to stop an attack with bronchospasmolytic therapy immediately.

After normalization, the sputum begins to clear, the dyspnea passes. In some cases, the condition improves only after vomiting.

Actions of parents

Regardless of the age of the child who has been diagnosed with asthma, his relatives should be careful to prevent the development of seizures and reduce their frequency. To do this, it is necessary to strictly follow all the recommendations of physicians, drink prescribed medications and avoid potential allergens.

In the kindergarten, all caregivers, a nurse, a musician should be aware of the situation. It is also important to name them a list of allergens that are the cause of the onset of asthma in the baby. Symptoms of the onset of an attack should also be advised. In this case, they will be able to send the child to the health worker in a timely manner or call the parents.

If caregivers will know what the child is allergic to, they can help avoid contact with these substances. For example, you can replace flowers in a preschool, if any of them provoke the onset of an attack. Teachers also have the power to monitor the baby's nutrition. Of course, even two-year-olds need to explain that they can not eat. But not always children can control it themselves.

At school, teachers should also be aware of the child's problems. First of all, it is necessary for the class teacher to tell that the child has asthma. In children, signs and symptoms can appear gradually. For example, if the school had contact with an allergen, the child at night can restlessly restless, cough during rest, his breathing can become inconsistent. In this case, it is necessary to ask the child in detail about what he did during the day, what he ate and in what rooms he was.

Teachers should also be warned. But if the doctor sees it as a necessity, he will send the child to a commission where he will be given partial or complete exemption from physical exertion in the school.

But keep in mind: the child must be gradually accustomed to an active lifestyle. Asthma does not interfere with most sports. Even some Olympic champions suffered from this ailment in childhood. It is important to simply teach the child to monitor his condition and be able to recognize the first signs of bronchial asthma. Children should work well protection mechanism. Just need to explain to the child that it is important, even with the appearance of minor discomfort to stop and restore breathing.

Tactics of treatment

It is impossible to figure out what to do if there are first signs of asthma. Treatment should appoint an allergist, sometimes complex work and involvement of a pulmonologist is required. The correct behavior of parents is also important. You do not need to panic, but do not act idly. With the baby it is necessary to conduct a conversation, discuss possible causes of the development of the disease, tell what can and can not be done.

How to deal with such a condition as bronchial asthma in children? Treatment (Komarovsky, by the way, claims that it is simply necessary) consists in the use of medications to prevent the development of an attack and to introduce a patient into a state of remission.

You can stop the condition with glucocorticosteroids. First, use rapid inhalation agents. Therapy should be supportive. If you can not achieve the desired effect with the aid of the "Nedocromil" or cromoglycic acid, then inhalations of glucocorticosteroids are made.

The targeted therapy should be on:

- elimination of clinical manifestations;

- improvement of the function of breathing;

- reduced need for bronchodilators;

- prevention of development of life-threatening conditions.