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Explaining Asthma to a Child: Asthma is something that
makes it hard for you to breathe.
What
Does Asthma do?
To understand asthma, you
have to first
understand your lungs. When you breathe, your body uses air sacks that work like balloons to take in air and to push it out. These air sacks are your lungs. They are in your chest. When you breathe air in through your nose or
mouth, your lungs fill with air--just like a balloon. When you breathe
out, they flatten--just like when you let the air out of a balloon.
When you have asthma, things in the air, like pollen and smoke, can scare your lungs. We call these things triggers. When
you breathe in triggers, your lungs become afraid. Then, they close
themselves, so no more triggers can get in and make them more
afraid.
We talk about some of the
triggers below:
- Allergens
are
things your body doesn't like. If you eat or smell allergens, your body
fights them off by doing things like closing your lungs so you can't
take in any more of them. Allergens are different for different people.
Common allergens are peanuts, milk, and wheat.
- Infections are
sicknesses that fight to make your body feel better. Your body does not like to be sick. When you get an
infection, your body fights really hard to get better. It fights so
hard, that it heats up and gets hot. When your body gets hot from fighting
disease,
we call this increased heat a fever.
- Exerciseis
when you move your body and start to sweat. Some exercises are running,
jumping, and playing. When you have asthma, your lungs are not
always strong enough to handle a lot of exercising and playing.
Sometimes, when you
have asthma, your lungs get tired and close themselves off.
- Abrupt
weather changes are when the weather changes quickly. This
is like when it is very warm in the winter, then, the next day, it
starts to snow!
- Airway
irritants
are things that upset your breathing. Your body does not like to
breathe them in. Some common irritants are fireplace and cigarette
smoke.
When your lungs close off
to keep these
things out, you are having what is called an asthma attack. During an
asthma attack, you have a hard time breathing. Sometimes, you may make
funny sounds when you breath, you may cough, or your chest may feel tight and
hurt. When you have an asthma attack, you may feel afraid. It is ok to feel afraid
because asthma attacks are scary.
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