Take extra precautions for children with asthma

The American Lung Association reports that there are more than 6 million children who have asthma.

If you are a parent of a child with asthma, you should take some extra steps to help them stay healthy.

To ensure that your child’s asthma is under control, schedule a check-up with their doctor. Take advantage of this doctor visit to discuss medication, physical activity limits and other concerns that you might have.

Also, try to get you and your child vaccinated as soon as possible against the seasonal flu, especially since asthma sufferers are usually more vulnerable to the flu. Try to stay on top of any swine flu vaccine updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You can do this by watching the news, reading the paper and asking your health-care facility if they email with updates on vaccination information. If they don’t, most health-care offices have updated recordings about flu vaccine information when you call. Of course, a doctor, doctor’s assistant, or nurse can answer your questions and concerns if you want to talk to an actual person.

At your child’s school, make sure you give their teachers, coaches and school health personnel an action plan with details about your child’s symptoms, medications, activity restrictions, and directions on what to do when an attack occurs. Also, if someone takes care of your child after school or other times when you are not around, make sure you give them the same information and action plan. An action plan can be downloaded from the ALA’s Web site.

For more information about asthma, go to www.lungusa.org.