100 Questions & Answers About Your Child's Asthma (100 Questions & Answers about)

295 Pages·2007·2.46 MB·English

by  Claudia S. Plottel

100 Questions & Answers
About Your Child’s Asthma
Claudia S. Plottel, MD, FACP, FCCP
New York University School of Medicine
B. Robert Feldman, MD, FAAAI,
FACAAI, FAAP
Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons/
Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Plottel, Claudia S.
100 questions & answers about your child’s asthma / Claudia S. Plottel, B. Robert Feldman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7637-3917-1
1. Asthma in children—Miscellanea. I. Feldman, Bernard R. II. Title. III. Title: One hundred
questions and answers about your child’s asthma.
RJ436.A8P62 2007
618.92'238—dc22
2007013968
6048
2587
Printed in the United States of America
11 10 09 08 07 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface v
Acknowledgments vii
Dedication ix
Part 1: General Information 1
Questions 1–23 answer basic questions about asthma, including:
• What is asthma?
• What causes asthma?
• Why is asthma so common?
• Can asthma be cured?
Part 2: History, Symptoms, and Physical Examination 51
Questions 24–32 describe the physical signs that might indicate a child has
asthma, such as:
• Do all children with asthma have similar symptoms?
• What exactly is a wheeze?
• What does my doctor mean by an exacerbation of asthma? Why are the
terms attacks and exacerbations both used?
Part 3: Diagnostic Evaluation and Workup 69
Questions 33–40 discuss how asthma is identified in children, including:
• How can I find out if my child has allergies?
• How does a doctor diagnose asthma?
• How will I know if my son’s asthma attack is severe enough to require a trip
to the emergency room? Are there specific signs and symptoms that can
help me make that decision?
Part 4: Diagnosis and Differential Diagnosis 87
Questions 41–47 outline other conditions that may be related to or mistaken for
asthma, such as:
• Are there other conditions that can be confused with asthma because of a
similar pattern of symptoms?
1 0 0 Q & A A b o u t y o u r C h i l d ’ s A s t h m A
• What specific symptoms should make me suspect that my child has asthma?
• What is the difference between allergy and asthma?
Part 5: Treatment 103
Questions 48–70 discuss treatment options, including:
• What medications are helpful for treating asthma?
• Why are so many asthma medicines in inhaler form?
• What are corticosteroids (steroids) and how do they work?
• How do the different medicines my son uses actually work?
• Is it necessary for him to carry his “puffer” all the time?
• Do children with asthma have to take their medicine continually?
• Why is environmental control important in managing my child’s asthma?
Part 6: Recommendations 161
Questions 71–88 offer recommendations for handling your child’s asthma,
including:
• What is a written asthma action plan? Should I expect my daughter’s doctor
to give her one?
• What is a nebulizer?
• How do I determine what asthma medicines are best for my child?
• Is it necessary for my child to get the flu vaccine every year?
• Is it necessary for my daughter to see a specialist, or can her primary care
doctor diagnose and treat her asthma?
Part 7: Specialized Situations 207
Questions 89–100 describe specific circumstances that may affect children with
asthma, such as:
• Is there anything I can do during pregnancy to prevent my unborn child
from developing asthma?
• How can I make sure that my son’s school can cope with his allergies and/or
asthma?
• Will my child’s weight affect his asthma?
• What sports should be encouraged for children with asthma?
Appendix 231
The Appendix contains a selective listing of resources, publications, and
references for further information on asthma.
Glossary 247
Index 267
iv
PrefaCe
The question that immediately presents itself as you thumb through 100
Questions & Answers About Your Child’s Asthma is: “Why write a book for
parents about asthma in children?” One answer would revolve around
numbers. We are, after all, in the midst of an asthma epidemic. The latest
statistics indicate that asthma, the most common chronic disease of child-
hood, affects an estimated 6.5 million children in the United States. You
thus probably know at least one child—perhaps a relative, a friend of your
child’s, or a neighborhood youngster—who has asthma. If you are the parent,
family member, or caregiver of a child with asthma, you likely want to know
more about pediatric asthma, understand the condition better, learn about
contemporary developments, and obtain the best care for your child.
100 Questions & Answers About Your Child’s Asthma reveals how far medical
science has advanced in understanding asthma and how much progress we
have achieved in addressing and controlling the disease in young people.
New, more effective medicines have made their way into clinical practice to
take their place alongside older, proven remedies. Modern asthma treatment
includes more than the prescription of medications, however: there is now
a greater emphasis than ever before on addressing the role that environ-
mental factors play in asthma. Recognizing the importance of a therapeutic
partnership between the child with asthma, the parents, and the treating
physician is another key component of effective care for any youngster with
asthma. Individualized asthma self-management programs provide a useful
framework for parents and children to learn about asthma in general and
to decide how asthma is best treated in their child in particular.
We are board-certified physicians who specialize in the care of infants,
children, adolescents, and adults who have asthma; together, our combined
practice experience exceeds sixty years. We recognize on a daily basis our ob-
ligation as physicians to provide clear and exact disease-specific information
to our patients and to their families. We chose to step out of the office and
1 0 0 Q & A A b o u t y o u r C h i l d ’ s A s t h m A
the clinic to collaboratively write answers to the questions most frequently
asked of us in caring for persons diagnosed with asthma. The result now lies
in your hands. The one hundred questions that we selected as the backbone
of 100 Questions & Answers About Your Child’s Asthma are real questions,
ones we find ourselves answering again and again in our professional lives.
The format of the book mirrors the sequence of a medical consultation,
but the question-and-answer format allows you to flip through the book
and read ahead to those topics that most interest you, in any order that you
prefer. We have included a listing of asthma resources for further reading
after Question 100 and have composed a glossary of important vocabulary
terms to facilitate your reading and understanding.
100 Questions & Answers About Your Child’s Asthma provides scientific, ac-
curate, and timely information that reflects both the medical profession’s
current understanding of asthma and our own experience as practicing
asthma specialists. It also incorporates the experiences of people who have
seen pediatric asthma up close. Frank Lomascolo, now a college student,
has carried a diagnosis of asthma since childhood, and Kerrin Robinson is
the mother of a toddler with asthma. Both have most generously offered
their complementary yet honest perspectives on living with asthma. Their
unique contributions to our book significantly enhance its value and use-
fulness. We wish to acknowledge Christopher Davis, Executive Publisher
for Medicine at Jones and Bartlett Publishers, who has been steadfast in
his support for 100 Questions & Answers About Your Child’s Asthma. We are
especially grateful to Elizabeth Platt, Special Projects Editor at Jones and
Bartlett Publishers, for her enthusiasm about our project, her profession-
alism, her top-notch editorial expertise, and not least, her unfailing good
humor. We have greatly enjoyed writing the book you now have before you.
It has made us think about how best to communicate medical information
and how to present the “doctor’s side” of asthma while striking a balance
between complex scientific information and everyday practicalities. We hope
that you will learn as much from reading 100 Questions & Answers About
Your Child’s Asthma as we did from writing it.
Claudia S. Plottel, MD, FACP, FCCP
B. Robert Feldman, MD, FAAAI, FACAAI, FAAP
May 25, 2007
New York City
vi
aCknowledgments
To my husband, Larry Stam, MD, who with Elisabeth and Charles Stam
consistently encouraged my efforts and listened to my ramblings about
sentence structure and grammatical construction: thank you from the bot-
tom of my heart.
—Claudia S. Plottel
To my wife, Clare, who has been my constant source of encouragement for
the past 46 years; my son, David, whose assistance as a critic and my techno-
advisor has played an invaluable role in the production of this book; and
to my daughter, Janet, who never stops telling me that “I’m the best”—you
have my never-ending love.
—B. Robert Feldman

dediCation
Dedication
For Charles and for Elisabeth.
Love you always, now and forever . . .
CSP
To all the patients I have cared for who never
stop asking questions, this book will hopefully
provide you with some of the answers.
BRF