Exercise-Induced Asthma in Children

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KEY POINTS

• Asthma is a long-lasting (chronic) lung disease. Exercise-induced asthma is a form of asthma that causes shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, and sometimes chest tightness during or after physical activity.
• Exercise-induced asthma can be treated with long-term control medicines and rescue inhalers. As advised by your child’s healthcare provider, this is the one of the only times that your child should use a rescue inhaler 15 to 30 minutes before exercise to prevent symptoms.
• To help prevent exercise-induced asthma, know what triggers your child’s asthma. Wearing a mask or scarf when your child exercises may help protect your child from cold, dry air, air pollution, dust, or pollen. Doing warm-up exercises before a workout may help prevent an asthma attack. Your child can usually avoid symptoms by using a rescue inhaler 15 to 30 minutes before exercise.

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What is exercise-induced asthma?

Asthma is a long-lasting (chronic) lung disease. Exercise-induced asthma is a form of asthma that causes shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, and sometimes chest tightness during or after physical activity.

What is the cause?

In exercise-induced asthma, an attack can occur:

• During or after physical activity and when breathing is hard, heavy, or fast
• When the air is cold
• When the humidity is low or high
• When there is a lot of air pollution
• When there are a lot of allergens in the air

For many children, running or riding a bike in the cold air may trigger symptoms. Crying and temper tantrums may also trigger an asthma attack in young children.

What are the symptoms?

The symptoms of exercise-induced asthma include:

• Wheezing
• Coughing
• Shortness of breath
• Chest tightness
• Fatigue

You may also see that your child does not want to play or do physical activities. Babies may have trouble sucking or feeding.

How is it diagnosed?

Your healthcare provider will ask about breathing problems during or after exercise. He or she may ask you to run on a treadmill to see if you are wheezing after the exercise.

You may do special breathing tests before and after exercise. These tests measure how fast you can exhale air in one breath.

How is it treated?

Exercise-induced asthma can be treated with medicine.

Your child may need one or more of these medicines to control asthma:

• Controller medicines help prevent asthma attacks and control your child’s symptoms. When a steroid inhaler is used with certain medicines such as formoterol, your child gets both rapid relief and control. There are several kinds of controller medicines for asthma.
• Rescue inhalers, also called reliever or quick relief medicines, act quickly to reduce symptoms. These medicines are used as needed to treat asthma attacks. Rescue inhalers work fast to relax the muscles of your child’s airways and keep the muscles from getting too tight. Your child should learn to recognize the symptoms of an asthma attack and take these medicines as soon as symptoms start. To prevent asthma attacks, your child may need a different type of medicine called a controller.

How can I take care of my child?

If your child has exercise-induced asthma, let coaches and teachers who are with your child know what to do to help your child.

Your child does not need to avoid all exercise and other physical activity. Doing warm-up exercises before a vigorous workout may help prevent an asthma attack.

Some children have more symptoms during strenuous activity in cold, dry air. During the winter, your child may need to exercise indoors or wear a mask when exercising outside. Wearing a mask or scarf warms the air before your child inhales it. You may also need to be aware of conditions such as air pollution or allergens such as dust or pollen.

As advised by your child’s healthcare provider, this is the one of the only times that your child should use a rescue inhaler 15 to 30 minutes before exercise to prevent symptoms.

Your child may need a few days to recover from a viral illness. In this case, your child may need to avoid gym class or sports for a short time.

If your child regularly has a lot of symptoms even after using a rescue inhaler, talk with your child’s healthcare provider.