Infants or young children should have written asthma action plans prepared by their health care providers that can be used to monitor and manage their asthma just like older children with asthma. However, infants will need some special considerations particularly because they can’t use peak flow meters to gauge how much air is moving in and out of their lungs. Instead, you will need to review other signs such as their asthma symptoms and breathing rate to determine if they are in one of three zones:

• The green zone means the child is doing well in terms of breathing and her asthma symptoms appear well-controlled. There is no coughing or wheezing. Only routine controller asthma medicines are used, or in many babies, no medicine is needed here.
• The yellow zone means some symptoms are present, such as wheezing or mild coughing, and caution is needed. An inhaled quick-relief medication might be prescribed by your health care provider, in addition to any controller asthma medications if they have been prescribed in the past, to help with your child’s breathing. The plan should state when to contact your health care provider and what to do if your child’s symptoms fail to improve.
• The red zone can potentially mean an emergency is occurring. Even just one of these symptoms such as persistent coughing, breathing difficulties that interfere with eating or sleeping, sucking in of the chest, or flared nostrils means the child is in the red zone. In addition to the quick-relief medication, your health care provider might add an oral corticosteroid. An emergency contact for your health care provider should be listed, along with information on how and when to call 911 or emergency help.

Remember to keep this asthma action plan with you at all times, and to distribute it to relatives, daycare workers, babysitters, or other individuals who take care of your child. Also, remember to continually update the document as your child gets older noting changes in symptoms and medications.

As your infant and young child grows and develops, her asthma action plan and peak flow meter readings (if she is old enough to perform them) should include her updated “personal best” rate.

An asthma action plan for a young child can give you an idea of what your child’s breathing capacity should be. This is helpful as you determine what zone your child is in. Finding the breathing capacity for young children is different when compared with older children. Lung function or spirometry tests are breathing tests conducted in a health care provider’s office or health care facility that measures a child’s lung capacity when he blows into a tube connected to a computer that measures many aspects of his breathing capacities.

This type of test, though, is difficult for young children to use. New technology, called an impulse oscillometry system, is now being used at some major medical centers. In some studies, it has demonstrated airway abnormalities in children as young as two years old. The test can show how severe a young child’s asthma is, and can assist health care providers in initiating appropriate treatments.

For more information on how to treat bronchial asthma and protect your loved ones to suffer bronchial asthma again. Please go to The Asthma Relief Report.

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Home may be where the heart is, but it is also where your child’s asthma attacks could be triggered. Dust mites, cockroaches, pollens, animal dander, and molds may sound like something from a horror movie, but the truth is they are found in all homes even yours. This certainly doesn’t mean you’re a poor housekeeper. But, there are steps you can consider to get many of these microscopic organisms and other asthma-provoking allergens out of your house and away from your child.

Tiny organisms and particles that can trigger asthma symptoms are found everywhere. While you’ll never be able to totally eradicate them, you can find ways to substantially decrease their numbers within each room of your home.

But before you take aim, check with your child’s health care provider to see exactly what triggers might be causing his asthma symptoms. These should be included on your child’s asthma action plan completed by his health care provider.

Eradicating these allergens, though, will involve some tough decisions such as whether to ban a pet from a room or a house. It may mean replacing carpeting, draperies, and upholstered furniture with materials and fabrics that are easier to clean and maintain. Or, it may mean changing the way items such as toys, clothes, or shoes are stored and maintained, or looking at how the air is cleaned and humidified in your house.

These are issues that you and your child will need to discuss so you can come to an understanding of what the culprits are and how they should be addressed. It also will take multiple efforts throughout your home generally on a room-by-room basis to get effective results. Not all results will be seen immediately for example, it can take weeks to months for pet dander to be minimized in a house despite your best efforts.

These allergens can be found just about everywhere in your home. And, while you can’t see them with the naked eye, they are there often hidden in the dust. The National Institute of Environ- mental Health Sciences (NIEHS), a part of NIH, describes house dust as a component of who you are not just dirt but a mixture of potentially allergenic materials, such as fibers, food particles, mold spores, pollens, dust mites, plant and insect parts, hair, animal fur and feathers, dried saliva and urine from pets, and flakes of human and animal skin. The allergens most likely to be considered asthma triggers within that dust come from:

• Cockroaches, which are considered to have the greatest impact on childhood asthma in many American cities. Cockroach allergens appear to come from several sources such as saliva, fecal material, secretions, shed skins, and dead bodies.
• Dust mites, or more specifically, the feces of dust mites, which are microscopic relatives of the spider and live on mattresses, bedding, upholstered furniture, carpets, and curtains. These tiny creatures feed on the flakes of skin that people and pets shed daily and they thrive in warm and humid environments.
• Pets and animals, which have allergens that are actually proteins secreted by oil glands and shed as dander, proteins in saliva that may stick to fur when animals lick themselves, and aerosolized urine from rodents and guinea pigs.
• Molds, which produce tiny spores and can be found almost anywhere.
• Endotoxins, which are chemicals produced by bacteria.

And beyond the dust are triggers in the air that also could make your child’s asthma worse such as secondhand smoke from cigarettes, cigars, and pipes wood smoke or particulate matter that gets in the air from fireplace or woodstove use, nitrogen dioxide, an odor less gas from improperly vented fuel-burning appliances that can irritate eyes, noses, and throats and may cause shortness of breath, and chemical irritants that are found in some products in your home such as cleaners, paints, adhesives, pesticides, cosmetics, or air fresheners.

For more information on how to treat bronchial asthma and protect your loved ones to suffer bronchial asthma again. Please go to The Asthma Relief Report.

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How do you know if your child’s school will offer the proper support to keep her healthy and active with her asthma under control? As a start, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) developed a checklist:

• Is your school free of tobacco smoke at all times even during school-sponsored events?
• Does the school maintain good indoor-air quality, and does it reduce allergens or irritants that can make it worse? Have any of the following been found: cockroaches, dust mites, mold, pets with fur or feathers, or strong odor from items such as art supplies, paints, pesticides, perfumes, air fresheners, or cleaning chemicals?
• Is the school nurse available in the school every day? If not, is the nurse regularly available to help the school prepare guidance related to medicines, physical education, and field trips?
• Can your child take medicines at school as recommended by her health care provider? Can your child carry her own asthma medication with her in school?
• Does someone teach the staff about asthma, asthma action plans, and asthma medications?
• Does someone teach students about asthma and what they should do to help a classmate with asthma?
• Does your school have an individualized written emergency plan, and do the plans indicate what actions to take, whom to call, or when to call?
• Does your child have good options for safely participating in physical education classes or recess? Does she have access to her medicine before exercise? Can she choose alternatives when medically necessary?

If you can answer no to at least one of these questions, your child may be encountering a barrier to asthma control. But these barriers are not insurmountable, and they can be tackled with the cooperation of the school staff, health professionals, and you.

Partnership for Better Care

Working to get better care for your child should not be a solitary effort. A strong partnership that includes you, the school staff, other families, physicians and other health care providers, and even students is needed to help young people with asthma.

Consider working with other parents to develop a resource library for all school staff and students for obtaining additional information about asthma through pamphlets, brochures, and other publications. Many local and national organizations offer educational materials for this purpose.

A good partnership can improve communication among all parities. In turn, it will help to promote improved attendance, alertness, physical stamina, and educational outcomes for your child and other children with asthma.

School policies that are supportive of partnerships have a number of points in common. First, they encourage families to participate in managing their children’s asthma at school. They also provide opportunities for families to participate in decision-making regarding school policies and procedures impacting their children.

Working with Teachers and School Staff

Most schools are likely to have several students with asthma, which means that many teachers plus school nurses will be very familiar with helping children with asthma. However, you still have a role to play in making sure that your child gets appropriate attention for his condition and that all the relevant school staffers are familiar with what is needed to help your child during the school day.

Teachers and Asthma

In a classroom of about twenty-five students, teachers can expect to have at least two to three children with asthma. While you should check to see if your child’s teacher has his action and daily action plans on hand, you also should ask if that teacher has had additional training from the school to spot asthma symptoms and to immediately address any emergencies that could arise.

In-service or professional development courses can be taught by a school nurse, a local hospital, or community organizations that focus on children with asthma. These courses can discuss when to refer a child to a nurse because of symptoms (such as wheezing, a pale and sweaty face, repeated coughing, or low peak flow readings), or side effects that are interfering with breathing or performing school activities.

Training also can assist teachers in learning about how to stop an asthma attack by encouraging relaxation or deep breathing (possibly by modeling the technique), providing warm water to drink, and, if needed, using quick-relief or rescue medication. The message should be emphasized to your child that he must speak up and not be embarrassed to tell his teacher if he is experiencing any difficulties, such as labored breathing or wheezing, so the teacher can act promptly.

Additional training also can help teachers address the child’s feelings, for instance, of being somewhat different than her classmates, anxiety over the use of medications, or embarrassment of having an asthma attack.

You should receive acknowledgement from your child’s classroom teacher or teachers that they have received his asthma action plan. If possible (particularly for the elementary grades), review it with the teacher to see if any modifications are needed in the classroom such as removals or repairs to avoid various asthma triggers.

Alert!!
Ask the teacher to contact you if your child’s asthma symptoms are affecting his learning or interactions with peers. Concerns about possible side effects with medications such as nervousness, nausea, hyperactivity, or jitteriness should be reported to you.

For more information on how to treat bronchial asthma and protect your loved ones to suffer bronchial asthma again. Please go to The Asthma Relief Report.

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Portable and ready to go in a minute, peak flow meters can be an important tool in your child’s arsenal of devices to manage her asthma symptoms. This small hand-held device, which measures how efficiently your child can move air out of her lungs, can move you away from just visually looking for asthma symptoms.

By having your child blow into the plastic or metal tube, a little pointer can indicate how much her airways are constricted. It will let you know if she needs some additional medications to help her breathing. It also will let you know if she’s showing signs of exercise induced asthma. And, it will let you know if she needs her quick relief medication right now.

Basically, the peak flow meter focuses on getting a quick, objective measurement to comprehend how she is breathing at any given point in time. Peak flow meters are available over-the-counter from a variety of vendors, and they’re fairly easy for children at least five years or older to use.

Why Use Peak Flow Monitoring?

A peak flow meter lets your child measure variations in his breathing every day no matter where he is. When his asthma is under control, his airways are open and he can forcefully exhale more air into the peak flow meter. On those good days when he has few asthma symptoms, he can designate a “personal best” score obtained from peak flow readings taken twice a day over a two-week period that he can designate as a benchmark on his asthma action plan.

When his breathing is at or near this personal best, he is having a good day as indicated on the “green zone” (or in-control zone) on his asthma action plan. His peak flow rates will be 80 to 100 percent of his personal best an indication that his asthma is under control, and he has no asthma signs or symptoms. However, if his airways are constricted and inflamed, his reading will be lower. He will find himself in the yellow zone (caution) if his peak flow rates are 50 to 80 percent of his personal best.

If he no longer is able to blow as hard into the meter, this is a sign that his asthma is getting worse. If his peak flow rates are less than 50 percent of his personal best rate, he will be in the red zone (warning) on his action plan. This indicates an impending emergency where prompt action must be taken. This will make his peak flow rate lower.

When to Use It

Your child’s physician may recommend using a peak flow meter at least once a day usually before taking her asthma medication in the morning if she has moderate or severe asthma. Current guidelines usually do not recommended daily peak flow monitoring for patients with milder cases of asthma unless that patient, her family, and her health care provider find it useful in guiding treatment decisions.

To help better monitor her peak flow meter use, consider using it at the same time each day and recording her readings in an asthma diary. This actually can be any sheet of paper or a computer program where she can mark the reading and the data.

This information will help you, your child, and her physician to monitor and the severity of her asthma the effectiveness of her current treatment and asthma management plan, if certain medications should be added or stopped, if signs or symptoms appear to point to an asthma flare-up, if emergency care might be necessary and if exercise-induced asthma is being triggered.

Peak flow readings that show little change when your child is feeling well and when she is having what appear to be asthma symptoms indicate that it might not be asthma at all. But, if the peak flow values drop by more than 20 percent between that period of feeling well and feeling symptomatic, it may be signs of asthma.

Putting the Peak Flow Meter to Use

Using the peak flow meter to determine your child’s peak flow rate requires just a few easy steps. Remember to have him hold the meter without holding the numbers and to remove any food or gum from his mouth:

1. Move the marker to the bottom of the numbered scale.
2. Connect the mouthpiece to the meter.
3. Stand up and then take a strong, deep breath (to expand his lungs).
4. Place lips around the mouthpiece, and blow hard and quickly in a single breath.
5. Review the final position of the marker. This will indicate his peak flow rate.

After repeating this procedure twice, have him record the highest reading of the three in his asthma diary for the next two to three weeks. And remember, to keep the peak flow meter operating correctly, continue to clean it following manufacturers’ directions. Finally, bear in mind that as your child grows, his “personal best” peak flow will increase as his height increases, requiring that a new “personal best” be documented in his asthma action plan.

For more information on how to treat bronchial asthma and protect your loved ones to suffer bronchial asthma again. Please go to The Asthma Relief Report.

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Children, even as young as preschoolers, should have an understanding of what their condition is and how severe it could be. Talk with him about what signs and symptoms make him uncomfortable, and when he should mention them, for instance, to you, a caretaker, a teacher, or a coach.

These are symptoms maybe a feeling of tightness in the chest or breathing problems while playing a sport that might not be immediately apparent to those watching over him but may signal an asthma problem.

He should be familiar with what his green zone (doing well), yellow zone (getting worse), and red zone (medical alert) mean on his asthma action plan or daily management plan prepared by his health care provider.

This should be on file with his daycare provider and/or school. And, he should be aware of the potential “triggers” such as dust mites, pollen, or air pollution that could affect his asthma symptoms

Dissolving the Myths

Aside from talking to your child about what asthma is, you need to emphasize what it is not:

• Asthma cannot be cured. However, its symptoms can be controlled with medication and management. Among some children, symptoms such as wheezing or coughing may improve as a child gets older.
• While asthma is a common chronic condition, it is not an infectious or contagious disease. While this may be an obvious point to adults, it may not be to children who today are constantly bombarded by news headlines about outbreaks and diseases. Let her know how asthma is related to heredity (possibly other family members have it) or to various triggers.
• Asthma is not a condition to be ignored even when your child feels better. When she feels healthy and free of her

For more information on how to treat bronchial asthma and protect your loved ones to suffer bronchial asthma again. Please go to The Asthma Relief Report.

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If your child has asthma one of the most common chronic diseases among children in the country today you may be worried that you have your work cut out for you. In a way, you do. Asthma, especially with more severe cases, is not something you take lightly. But, you’re not alone. Guidance from health care providers, use of effective medications, better identification of asthma triggers, and more can make that work a little easier and help you address asthma in a way that is smarter not harder for you and your child.

When you heard that your child was first diagnosed with asthma, what first ran through your mind? Days lost at school for your child or at work for you because of symptoms related to asthma? Repeated trips to the hospital emergency room when severe attacks occurred? Your child sitting on the sidelines while her friends enjoy themselves the playground or soccer field?

Could these scenarios happen? Yes, they could if your child’s asthma is ignored or left untreated. But does it have to happen? Absolutely not. Today, working with your “team” including you and your child, your health care provider, your child’s school staff, your child’s sport coach, your child’s caregiver, and even your health plan you can erase these troubling scenes from you mind.

Instead, you and your child can become knowledgeable about what asthma is and the best way to manage it. Whether it will be easy or difficult is not easy to predict. There are so many variables: the age of your child, the locale where you live, the availability of health insurance, the sensitivity and communication skills of your health care provider, and even the environment inside and outside of your home.

For some children, their asthma symptoms will disappear as they grow older. But, there’s no guarantee that will happen. For now, it’s important to find out how you and your family can help your child manage her condition each day as it comes.

With a better understanding of what causes your child’s symptoms plus use of appropriate medications and various lifestyle changes and your child can grow up with her family and friends being healthy, happy, and active.

Communicating with Your Child

How you talk with your child about his asthma and related symptoms is very important. Communications, of course, will vary with the age of a child, and the messages will evolve as well as he grows older. But, it is important that as a parent you anticipate what to expect, and help guide your child toward appropriate asthma management and daily activity decisions.

As your child’s understanding of asthma grows and develops, he will need to take more and eventually all responsibility for his care. Allow your child to participate in care as his age permits, and teach him appropriate words and terms for communicating symptoms, as well as the names and appropriate use of medications and equipment.

Setting The Tone

The key to communicating with your child is to first understand you own reaction to the diagnosis of asthma. Initially, learning that your child has asthma can be confusing and upsetting. You may wonder “Why my child?” Or, you may feel angry with yourself that you don’t recognize that symptoms such as coughing or wheezing were actually related to asthma. Those feelings are natural among arenas and families.

Children may internalize that worry afraid to run, exercise, or with other children. This could lead to other problems in the run for them, such as poor physical conditioning and lack of socialization skills. Increasingly, it appears that obesity may even be another factor that can make asthma worse.

If you find yourself extremely anxious about your child’s condition talk to your health care provider about your feelings, or find her parents of asthmatic children in local support groups. While’s understandable for you to be cautious when it comes to asthma symptoms, you also want your child to feel confident that she can manage her condition in a variety of situations.

For more information on how to treat bronchial asthma and protect your loved ones to suffer bronchial asthma again. Please go to The Asthma Relief Report.

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This reflex is still at work in modern women. When they go on a weight loss diet, serotonin levels fall, and this reflex forces women into abnormal behaviors designed to maximize their weight and sustain their ability to act as the food source for their babies.

Here is how the starvation response works in modern times. When women start a diet she expects to experience some fatigue, food craving, and mental discomfort. She probably considers these problems an inevitable price to pay for a slim body. However, these problems intensify as she continues to deplete her serotonin.

After a few weeks or a few months, the serotonin problem becomes intolerable. The dieter falls into a minor depression. Food craving become obsessive, so she gives in and cheats on her diet. This immediately elevates her serotonin, making her mind more peaceful and content. Thus, she is rewarded for overeating. So she cheats on her diet again. The cycle of cheating and reward continue until she has totally abandoned her diet and regained her lost weight.

She decides to favor her mental health over losing weight. Of course, when a woman cheats on her diet does not say, “I am going to feed my serotonin by eating these fattening foods.” She instinctively knows those foods make her feel better. Never does she realize that an ancient reflex has ensured her.

The starvation response forces a dieting woman to alternate between losing weight and having serotonin levels. Because the starvation response is unleashed by weight loss, it vanishes when a woman starts overeating. This is why woman have been forced to choose between losing weight while suffering from low serotonin or giving up dieting and feeding their serotonin needs.

Unfortunately, modern women are fighting a battle with an opponent so powerful it insured the continuation of the human species. No wonder it’s such a struggle to lose weight! This is why over 98 percent of all diets fail.

We hope this help women lighten up and stop being so hard on themselves. Until they take care of their special needs there is a no way woman can easily lose weight. It’s not just matter self control and discipline.

Resource:
10 Revealing Interview With A “Renegade” Fitness Guru .

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The starvation response afflicts all women, not just dieters. Today’s women still carry the genetic instructions for the starvation response and low serotonin. This makes a woman’s serotonin system respond differently to modern foods than a man’s. The wrong foods more easily inhibit a women’s serotonin and make her suffer.

Today’s diet is very high in protein and high in sugar foods. Nearly every meal contains meat, fish, poultry, or diary protein. Much of the modern diet consists of baked goods, candy, and processed foods, which are high in sugar. Unfortunately, these types of foods attack a woman’s serotonin.

Excess protein evokes the starvation response simply because excess meat is one of the ancient signals that a woman faced starvation. Animal protein formed a higher percentage of our ancestors’ meager daily caloric intake during times of starvation.

Our ancestor had a diet that consisted primarily of gathered plants and the occasional carrion, the remains of dead animal. It was hard to hunt with primitive weapons. Eating meat was rare event. However, in time of general starvation many animal died, and our ancestor feasted o the fallen bodies. At the same time the plant life disappeared. Therefore, excessive meat is a signal that brings on the starvation response.

Another signal for the starvation response is food high in sugar. Ancient fruit and vegetable has less sugar content than today’s varieties. The only time our ancient ancestor ate fruit and vegetable with a high sugar content is when starvation force them to eat rotting vegetables, and dried remain of vegetables, both of which have higher than normal sugar content. Thus, high sugar, insulin producing fruits and vegetables are associated with time of starvation.

Many modern women eat diets high in protein and full high sugar foods. This means that even women who do not “watch” their weight can go through life impaired by low serotonin. Most women will experience symptoms of low serotonin at some point during their lives, although they will not be clinically ill. Their symptoms will be milder and still strong enough to impair daily activities, but not strong enough to attract the attention of a doctor who might assume these problems are “just part of being women.”

Resource:
10 Revealing Interview With A “Renegade” Fitness Guru .

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Women need different foods because their brains have much more serotonin than men. Maria Carlsson and her colleagues at the University Gothenburg Sweden, found that the serotonin neurons of the female brain have a greater storage capacity, a higher enzymatic activity with a higher rate of serotonin synthesis and are thus generally more developed than in the make. This difference arises because female sex hormones enhance serotonin activity, while male hormone inhibits serotonin.

Women’s higher levels of serotonin may be of fundamental importance for such functions as appetite, sexuality, impulsive behavior, and aggression. Serotonin also controls the way women eat, drink, and even seek pleasure. Serotonin is like a surrogate parent, discouraging negative actions and comforting us during hard times. Serotonin is what gives women the power to better withstand stress and be more nurturing, serene, and peaceful than men.

Women are not as subject to impulsive behaviors. They’re more cooperative. They’re more intuitive. Simply put, serotonin makes women different from men. So our gang of wonder women met, worked, and lived together. We cried, laughed, and teased each other. I don’t remember a moment of jealousy, envy, or proprietary behavior. In fact, each of us was more concerned for the others than we were for ourselves.

Women with low serotonin cannot experience a sense of well being. Low serotonin creates a sense of panic, anxiety, and depression. Without the help of serotonin, small problems can become large. Think of serotonin as being the police force that prevents a small disturbance from escalating into a riot.

At some time, almost every woman has suffered from some preventable malady brought on by low serotonin. It affects every woman differently. Some woman knows they are ill. Others think their infirmity is just a normal part of living, the result of age, or just another “women’s complaint” that must be endured. The vast majority are not even aware that low levels of stress are not an inherent part modern life but rather symptoms of a nutritional disease. Symptoms of low serotonin include, weight gain, depression, stress, tendency toward substance abuse, PMS, food craving and eating disorder, sexual dysfunction, anxiety and disturbed sleep.

Resource:
10 Revealing Interview With A “Renegade” Fitness Guru .

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Women have long known what modern medicine has just discovered. Any women will tell you her body responds differently to food than a man’s. She gains weight more easily, loses weight more slowly, and has food carvings and obsessions rarely seen in men. Her reaction to food is more physically responsive and emotionally changed.

A starting new discovery explains why women are so different from men when it comes to food and will forever change the way we think about dieting and a women’s nutritional needs.

The key to this discovery is the brain chemical serotonin and how it affects women’s well being. At some point in her life, the average women eats the wrong foods or goes on a diet, and the resulting serotonin is the reason she gains weight and has more food cravings, mood swings, and many of the problems that preferentially afflict women.

We are going to gave to change the way we think about women’s physical, emotional, and mental health. Women are much greater than their food allows them to be. None of the symptoms of low serotonin are an inherent part of being a woman.

It is possible to have it all. A slim body, a powerful mind, and freedom from women many “women’s complaints.” All a woman has to do is eat foods that sustain her serotonin chemistry.

Our society’s reliance on weight loss diets designed for the male body previously forced women to choose between three unacceptedable alternatives. One, they could continue on male oriented diets but would suffer from the many problems brought on by low serotonin. All conventional diets lower a women’s serotonin. High protein, low fat and high carbohydrate diets all bring on abnormal serotonin. Even conventional serotonin boosting diets fail to meet women’s special needs, and may lower serotonin.

Two, they could choose an increasingly popular alternative and continue with male oriented diets and take serotonin stimulating drugs such Prozac, Redux, or fenfluramine. However these drug as expensive and carry the risk of harmful, and even fatal, side effect.

Or three, they could choose what was previously the only non pharmaceutical way to support serotonin - abandon dieting. The foods that women turn to when they leave their diet are almost always fattening foods that restore serotonin levels to normal.

This meant that as long as women continued to ignore their special needs there was no non pharmaceutical way to both diet and support serotonin.

Resource:
10 Revealing Interview With A “Renegade” Fitness Guru .

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