Is Medication the Only Option for Your Asthmatic Child?

When your child’s wellness is affected by asthma, it can feel like you have no choice but to give them medicine so that they can make it painlessly through the day. However, in most cases, these have been designed for adults, and so if you’re worried about the effects asthma medications can have on your child’s wellbeing, there is another way of reducing their pain.

When you have asthma, the airways of your lungs narrow, and are often inflamed or filled with mucus, which makes it difficult for air to flow in and out of your lungs. The respiratory condition is on the rise around the world, and the rate of childhood asthma has roughly doubled in the last 10 years, now afflicting one in five children with symptoms such as shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing. Asthma can come from internal triggers, such as food, or else the attacks are brought on from outside sources, like pollen and air pollution.

Usually, childhood asthma is treated by identifying and avoiding the triggers, and then using medication that either relaxes the muscles surrounding the airways (bronchodilators) or helps to dampen the immune system’s inflammatory response (steroids). A campaign recently launched by the Ministry of Health and the Kenya Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease aims to raise awareness about asthma and improve provision of medicines and health care workers, but is there something more to the condition?

Could diet have a part to play in asthma? Many asthmatic cases are triggered by certain foods, with scientists now believing that food sensitivity accounts for almost 75% of the cases of childhood asthma. As kids eat so many different things, it can be difficult to know where to begin, but common culprits to start with are wheat and dairy products, and milk and cheese in particular. By cutting these types of foods from your child’s diet, you could see their condition drastically improve, even within a few weeks.

Another food trigger of childhood asthma appears to be the supposedly healthy polyunsaturated fats, which are found in margarine, vegetable oils and processed and convenience foods. According to a number of studies, these omega-6 fats can promote inflammation in the body, and this initiates the underlying processes that lead to lung constriction that is characteristic of asthma. However, you can reduce your child’s inflammation by eliminating this fat from their diet, and replacing it with omega-3 fats, such as those found in oily fish.