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Every single day… a pill before bedtime and two different kinds of inhalers throughout the day…
All of this to keep 14-year-old Jack McNeil’s asthma under control…
“It’s just like brushing my teeth, like taking a shower or something. It’s just part of my life. It’s easy to forget that it can be so deadly,” says Jack.
“Easy to forget”
In fact, a new survey of over 1000 asthmatic teens found that 27 percent had attacks so bad they thought their life was in danger.
And yet…only half of all kids with severe asthma take their medication every day.
Experts say many kids become complacent.
“Even though the child might have mild symptoms… a severe flare up can happen at any time,” says Randall Brown, M.D., a Pediatric Pulminologist with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
The survey also found 40 percent of parents didn’t know their children had experienced an asthma attack in the past month…
“As children get older we become less involved in their minute to minute, hour to hour lives,” says Dr. Brown.
And kids encourage that, he says. they don’t tell parents… or anyone else… about their asthma attacks because they just want to fit in and be like everyone else.
That means that they may not try to call attention to themselves when they actually do need to seek medical attention… when they actually do need to reach for an inhaler,” says Dr. Brown.
He says parents need to remind themselves and their child… asthma can be deadly.
And look for symptoms, don’t wait for your child to say something…
“You need to stay on top of it….it’s your child’s health,” says Jack’s mother, Hillary.
“You know one instance, a bad asthma attack, you don’t have your inhaler with you, you know… you don’t know what can happen,” adds Jack.
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