When your child has asthma, as a parent it is your responsibility to ensure s/he knows exactly what is going on.

It may not be scary for him when it starts, but as the time goes by, s/he may become worried and depressed, if s/he doesn’t understand the whys and wherefores.

As your child will have to deal with asthma throughout his/her life, it is best to take the secrecy out of what is wrong with their respiratory system and involve them in the aspects of the treatment.

Don’t go behind closed doors with doctors or teachers because this may scare them even more.

Discuss the child’s health condition with him/her and explain that it is nothing to be depressed about. Let them know that they are the same wonderful kids as they have always been, but things will be a little different from now.

Useful tips to prepare your kids for an asthma attack

1. Educate your kids about the most serious asthma attacks. Some children may experience only minor difficulties with breathing, while others have most serious and intense asthma attacks. To be on safe side, explain the most serious asthma symptoms to them. But remember, don’t scare them!

Inadvertent exposure to latex poses a “serious health risk to millions of Americans,” Dr. Donald H. Beezhold, chair of the Latex Allergy Committee of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) warns.

Allergic reactions to latex — which can range from a poison ivy-like rash to life-threatening anaphylaxis — are common in hospitals and other medical settings, where rubber gloves are plentiful.

But less-visible products in other environments can also pose danger, according to the AAAAI.

“Consider,” said Beezhold, “that restaurant meals are frequently prepared by cooks wearing latex gloves. In schools, the cafeteria may be a threat, but there is also potential exposure to latex in school supplies.”

Estimates of the prevalence of latex allergy vary, but the condition disproportionately affects healthcare workers and other populations frequently exposed to latex.

Allergy to proteins in natural rubber latex, which became a significant concern by the late 1980s, is believed to have originated from an increased use of latex gloves due to infection precaution policies instituted at health care facilities over the last decade, according to the academy. However, new cases of latex allergy leveled off in the 1990s.

Read more at Reuters

According to new research, children with asthma whose parents have high expectations for their ability to function normally, are less likely to have symptoms than other children dealing with the condition.

A new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Boston University, has found parents’ expectations and perceptions are key factors which influence how well their children’s asthma is controlled, and how effectively they use medications.

Dr. Tracy Lieu, the study’s senior author says raising parents’ expectations for how well their children can do with asthma may be one of the keys to reducing racial/ethnic disparities in asthma outcomes.

The research also revealed that children are more likely to use asthma controller medications appropriately if they have a routine for taking medicine and if their parents clearly understand how well symptoms can be controlled.

Asthma is one of the most common childhood chronic illnesses and the most frequent cause of children’s hospitalization and racial and ethnic minorities and families of low socioeconomic status are at increased risk of having poorly controlled asthma.

For the study, the investigators surveyed more than 700 parents of children aged 2 to 12 years with persistent asthma.

Do you suffer from allergies? When you or any member of your family suffers from an allergy, it is essential to consider certain preventative steps to remove the obvious sources of allergens from your house.

The flooring of your house, in particular, has a definite impact on your allergy symptoms. So you need to be extra cautious when selecting flooring for your house.

Various types of materials for floors which are suitable for allergy sufferers are available.

They provide a viable alternative to conventional carpeting. Hypoallergenic flooring materials include:

Cork flooring

This is a natural choice for people looking for a strong, comfortable, allergy-free and environmentally sustainable floor cover. Besides preventing absorption of dust, which precipitates allergy symptoms, cork flooring is free from toxic substances which are usually present in carpets and other flooring surfaces.

Wood flooring

Unlike carpets, wood flooring doesn’t attract or give animal dander, pollen, mould or dust mites a comfortable place to hide and thrive. Even when you steam carpets, it is impossible to get them completely free of allergens. In addition, getting them wet can make things worse.

There was redness and itching, some blisters and oozing. Something wasn’t right with Dr. Michael Rosenthal’s patient, a woman in her mid-50s.

The inflammation around her scalp pointed to some type of allergic reaction, but the patient wasn’t sure what had caused it.

“Have you put anything new on your hair or head?” Rosenthal asked her.

She said she had used hair dye, but had discounted the dye as a source of the problem because the symptoms didn’t arrive until more than a week after she had colored her hair. But the hair dye turned out to be the culprit.

When you use something new on your body, it might take a week or two to elicit the allergic reaction, explained Rosenthal, vice chairman of academic programs at the department of family and community medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. “Don’t think that because you’ve been using something a long time that it can’t be that.”

Talk to any physician who treats allergies, and they’ll liken their job to that of a police detective. Constantly on the hunt for the unknown offender, an allergy consult often seems more like a witness interrogation featuring a litany of probing questions.

The level of knowledge and understanding of children with food allergies varies significantly across three key groups: pediatricians and family physicians, the general public and families who have a child with food allergies.

The research group, led by Ruchi Gupta, MD MPH, found that misconceptions around food allergy are prevalent among the general public; parents have good knowledge but face many daily challenges; and that physicians differ in their approach to diagnosis and advice for children with food allergies.

The results show that parents of children with food allergies have solid knowledge but experience high levels of anxiety as they worry about their children eating the wrong foods.

As one mother said “You are so fearful of anaphylaxis and death. It is this kind of unknowing, this uncertainty of what degree of reaction it’s going to be.”

Parents felt food allergies impacted every aspect of their lives, including daily functioning, relationships, work and marriage.

As one father put it, “My wife is much more into 100 percent prevention all the time and I am more into trying to maximize what my son can do.” Many mothers felt their careers suffered or stopped due to the need to protect their child from harmful foods at all meal times.

A chronic lung disease which makes breathing difficult and often frightening, asthma can be fatal condition if left untreated.

Did you know that taking medications which are generally prescribed for asthma actually result in acid reflux? However, the good news is that if you follow a healthy diet and take regular exercise along with preventative treatment, you can certainly reduce the problems associated with powerful asthma medications.

If you are really concerned, try these natural remedies with proper medical advice.

1. Apple juice!

Studies have shown that consuming apple juice twice a day significantly affects the respiratory system and helps to relax the system.

This can greatly help you to reduce the frequent asthma attacks. The phytochemicals present in apple reduce the inflammation of trachea and the flavonoids present in phytochemicals have many health benefits.

2. Cranberries!

Cranberries are natural vasodilators, which imply that they open up congested bronchial tubes to restore normal breathing. Prepare puree of cranberries by boiling them in water. Whenever you have an asthma attack, mix 2 tablespoons of the pulp in a cup of warm water. Slowly sip the liquid while it is still warm.

3. Vitamin B12!

Swimming in outdoor chlorinated pools appears to increase the odds a child will develop asthma, Belgian researchers said.

Asthma, which affects more than 300 million people worldwide, is the most common pediatric chronic illness. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and chest tightness.

Other studies have linked chlorine and asthma but the new findings cast doubt on the idea outdoor pools are safer than indoor ones where chlorine vapors remains trapped inside an enclosed space.

“The more you swim, the higher the risk,” said Alfred Bernard, a toxicologist at Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels, who led the study. “What is new in this study is that we looked at outdoor pools for the first time.”

Bernard and colleagues showed that outdoor pools are just as or more risky than indoor ones because harmful vapors remain at the pool surface and do not drift away.

And because children tend to spend more time in pools they are more likely to swallow chlorinated water or ingest vapors containing chemicals that attack the cellular barriers protecting the lung from allergens, Bernard said.

If you have respiratory allergies, you have an environmental problem: There’s something in the air that makes you sniffle, sneeze, stuff up or wheeze.

And growing evidence suggests your problem may be linked with the biggest environmental problem of all: global climate change.

That may be especially true for pollen sufferers. Tree, grasses and weeds (including the ragweed [ragweed allergy] tormenting many people right now) churn out more pollen over more weeks when temperatures and carbon dioxide levels rise, says Richard Weber, a Denver allergist.

Weber and colleagues from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology suggest people with allergies and asthma have a special stake in slowing climate change: Drive less and use energy-efficient appliances and lighting, they write, and you just might help yourself and the planet.

‘Environment Matters’

Sadly, though, screwing in a few compact fluorescent bulbs will do nothing to clear up the stuffy nose you have today. For that, many sufferers turn to drugs.

But there’s another way to reduce symptoms. Once again, it’s all about changing the environment — in your home.

Read more at ABCNews

While autumn is a beautiful, temperate time of the year when trees turn to a reddish brown and start to shed their leaves, it can be an irritating time for the sufferers of seasonal allergies.

For these unfortunates, the season means watery eyes, itchy skin, runny nose, itchy nose, sneezing, coughing and congestion rather than poetic views of nature’s glory.

The culprits? Pollen, mould, dust and other airborne molecules (allergens) that float around in the air cause the immune system to over-react and produce allergies.

Tips to avoid autumn allergies

While autumn is an irritating time for allergy sufferers, the good news is that you do not have to feel miserable all the time. Follow the following tips to keep allergies at bay:

1. Stay protected: The best protection is to limit your exposure to allergens, such as ragweed allergy, mould and dust mites. Make sure you close doors and windows of the car and house and set up an air conditioner instead.

Because the microscopic airborne allergens can stick to clothes, take a shower regularly and change the clothes immediately after your outdoor activities. It is also a good idea to avoid drying clothes outside. If possible, avoid outdoor activities and stay indoors in the early morning between 5am and 10am, when allergen levels in the air are highest.