Asthma - Protect your child

It’s easy to see how routines can go out of the window once summer hits, which is why Asthma UK has launched a campaign urging parents to maintain their child’s usual preventer medicine routine over the school break. This will help to protect their child from an asthma attack both during the summer holiday and once they go back to school.

Every 10 seconds someone has a potentially life-threatening asthma attack in the UK, and three people die from an asthma attack every day.

In September, children are nearly three times more likely to be admitted to hospital because of an asthma attack than in August, partly due to seasonal triggers such as cold and flu viruses.

If a child hasn’t kept up their preventer medicine routine over the school holidays, they will be at greater risk of reacting to these triggers.

The good news is that by taking a few simple steps, parents can keep children as well as possible and reduce the risk of this happening:

Keep up your child’s usual preventer medicine routine (usually a brown inhaler)

Make sure your child has an up to date written asthma action plan and share this with any other carers; people with asthma are four times more likely to end up in hospital if they don’t use one

Track your child’s asthma symptoms using a diary or a symptom calendar

Prep for going back to school by arranging an asthma review to check your child’s medicines, and make sure your child has spare, in-date reliever inhalers to take into school.

Find out more at www.asthma.org.uk/advice/safer-school-holidays.

Sonia Munde

Head of Helpline and Nurse Manager at Asthma UK