What Is Asthma?
Asthma is a health problem that makes it hard to breathe. This happens because airways in the lungs swell up, fill with mucus, and get smaller. Some people say having asthma feels like breathing through a straw.If you have asthma, you're not alone. Lots of kids have it — and lots take medicine to help them breathe better. With the right medicine and care plan, asthma won't slow you down.
What Causes Asthma?
No one really knows why kids get asthma. Asthma tends to run in families, though. That means if a kid has asthma, he or she might have a parent, sibling, or other relative who has asthma or had it as a kid.What Happens in Asthma?
You take thousands of breaths every day. Normally, when you breathe in, air enters your nose or mouth and then goes to the windpipe, also called the trachea (say: TRAY-kee-uh). From there, the air travels into the lungs through breathing tubes. The whole process goes in reverse when you exhale.With asthma, breathing gets harder because airways narrow, swell, and fill with mucus. This makes it tough for air to pass through.
What's an Asthma Flare-up?
Asthma doesn't make your breathing harder all the time — just sometimes. This happens because the airways get more irritated than normal. When this happens, it's called an asthma "flare-up" or "attack."You'll know you're having a flare-up if you:
- have a whistling sound when breathing (this is called wheezing)
- cough a lot
- have a tight or painful feeling in the chest
An asthma flare-up can get worse if a kid doesn't use his or her asthma medicine as directed.
http://kidshealth.org/en/kids/asthma.html?WT.ac=ctg#catallergy
