Asthma
Asthma is common in children and adolescents. Very often you read: ‘Asthma is the most common chronic condition in children’. That may be a difficult sentence. It means that asthma is the most common of all diseases that you can get as a child or adolescent. Much more common than, for example, diabetes or eczema.
What could be bothering you?
When you suffer from asthma, you often have to cough a lot, or it feels like something is very heavy on your chest. Sometimes there is a sound coming from your lungs. We call that wheezing. You may also have a stomach ache, or a headache, or that you are often very tired. Fortunately, you usually don’t have all of these, but it is not fun.
When do you suffer from asthma?
Every person is unique, so we cannot say in advance when exactly you will suffer from your asthma. One child will suffer a lot from shortness of breath when doing sports, another will have to cough a lot when the weather outside changes, for example in rain or fog.
For the treatment it is important that we find out together when exactly you are suffering. You or your parents probably already know how that is for you. Or maybe that is very difficult. Together we will find out when you are suffering from your asthma and also what that is like for you and your family. What we can do about that, you can read in the section about the treatment.
Consequences of asthma
It is never fun to suffer from something. Asthma is a disease that you have every day, but that you do not have to suffer from every day. That is nice and difficult at the same time. Nice, because you do not suffer all the time, but also difficult because you can suddenly start suffering. We also say that asthma is ‘capricious’. That is really annoying, because it can make you find certain things exciting. For example, gym or sports at school, or staying over at a friend’s house. We also sometimes hear that children are bullied at school because of this, which is of course nasty and certainly not the intention.
