It has been a few years now since Sangeeta shared her experience with dealing with her son’s childhood asthma. Her son is now almost 12 years with little or no symptoms of his childhood illness. Sangeeta tells us how she managed this and has raised a little sportsman along the way and why she still stays vigilant.
Read the first part of their experience here
How is your son doing now? Does he get any symptoms of asthma?
He is doing absolutely fine. He has outgrown this condition as predicted by his pulmonary specialist. Ofcourse we were regular with the prescribed medication during the time he was facing the issue.
His pulmonologist had observed this in many children and was quite certain that with age and proper medication Siddharth will outgrow this issue.
Do change in seasons affect his asthma or allergies at all?
Yes they do. Pollen for example during spring season does trigger his asthma/allergies
Read more about Types of Asthma
What lifestyle changes, in your opinion truly helped with his asthma? Did you try new things along the way such as diet, home remedies etc?
We avoided food with artificial colour in it and junk food at large as much as we could and gave him healthy home cooked meals or ate at good restaurants with good hygiene and quality standards.
Exercise and sports were very helpful in dealing with this condition. Siddharth is big on sports and physically very active and that certainly has been helpful.
Consulting a good pulmonary specialist is very important and be regular with the medication prescribed
Read Mihir's experience: Running sensibly with Asthma
Playing in the mud/dirt often triggers allergies in kids. How have you managed that?
We could manage it only till he was 2 but after that it was difficult but we tried to avoid as much as we could.
We could only ensure that he was given a bath twice a day and while he was playing in mud we were careful he didn’t touch his nose and avoided mud/dirt on his face area.
You recently adopted a puppy? Has that helped build immunity?
Puppies are supposedly not good for asthma patients and apparently trigger the condition. This is what I was told.
However when I got the puppy, Siddharth as mentioned was already cured of his condition and puppy fur does not appear to be a trigger for him.
Read: It was heart wrenching to give away our dogs
What would be your advice to other moms on how to overcome childhood asthma?
- Seek advice from a good pulmonary specialist
- Regular medication as prescribed
- Be aware of all triggers
- Avoid all triggers
- Ask all questions and get all doubts cleared by the specialist
- Don’t rely just on what you read on google
- Take all precautions and be vigilant
- Keep emergency medications always handy – In the car, at home, in your purse
- Train people and help at home to give the medications when required/emergency in your absence
- Tell school/ teachers about your son's condition and always send emergency medication with the child or submit the same in school
- Make sure your child is physically active – like sports. But again it depends on condition to condition. Seek advice from the doctor
I have to admit I was a paranoid mother and hence did the above. Some other mothers with their kids having the same condition were less paranoid. But I wouldn’t change a thing of what I did because it does cause a lot of discomfort to children.
Some kids have faced nearly fatal attacks of asthma and having medication and being vigilant helps.
