Asthma is a condition of chronic inflammation of the airways in the lungs. It is a common childhood condition; according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asthma affects close to 10 percent of all children in the United States. It is also one of the most common causes for hospitalization, representing around 3 percent of all hospitalizations for children in the United States.
Respiratory
The most common symptoms of asthma in children are related to the inflammation in the lungs. A dry, nonproductive cough is an early finding, one that can herald a worsening of symptoms. Later, patients develop rapid breathing. In infants and young children, nasal flaring and head bobbing can accompany the increase in the rate of breathing. Another common finding is chest and abdominal retractions, a pulling-in of abdominal and chest wall muscles as the child tries to bring oxygen-rich air through the constricted airway.
The typical chest noise in children with asthma is wheezing. This is a high-pitched noise made mostly on expiration of air from the lungs as the air tries to flow through the narrowed airways of asthma. A child with asthma who is breathing fast and having retractions but is not wheezing may be having severe constriction of the airways, so severe that air is not moving enough in the chest to produce a wheeze.
Cardiac
Children with asthma can have a rapid heart rate, chest pain and tightness. There are two reasons for the rapid heart rate. The main reason is that as the inflammation of asthma narrows the airways, oxygen exchange gets impaired. The heart tries to compensate the decrease in oxygen by trying to pump more blood through the body. The second reason is that the heart contains some of the same molecular receptors that asthma medicines activate to decrease the airway constriction. These medicines, called beta agonists, work to improve breathing, but a common side effect is increased heart rate.
Other
Children with asthma often feel fatigued, weak and short of breath. They have difficulty keeping up with their peers during strenuous physical activity, especially if their asthma is poorly controlled. During an asthma attack, children can feel nauseous and can vomit after episodes of coughing, a finding referred to as post-tussive emesis. Children with asthma can occasionally present with less common symptoms, including abdominal pain, headache or altered mental status (such as confusion, delirium or unconsciousness).
