According to MedlinePlus, symptoms of asthma in children are the same as in adults: trouble breathing, coughing, wheezing and a tight feeling in the chest. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than 23 million Americans suffered from asthma in 2006. But how many of that number were children?
Prevalence
The CDC reports that while 7.3 percent of adults in the United States suffered from asthma in 2006, almost one in every 10 children (9.4 percent)--that is 7 million children--suffered from the same disease that year. MedlinePlus reports that nearly 9 million children were affected by asthma in 2009.
Narrow Airways
Children have smaller airways than adults, MedlinePlus explains. This means a child's airway may be blocked with less inflammation than is necessary to block the airway of an adult. Thus, children may be more severely affected by asthma than adults.
Testing in Children
Testing children for asthma is more difficult than testing an adult. To test for asthma, the doctor takes a medical history from the patient and usually has the patient blow into a spirometer, which measures lung capacity. Lung capacity is considerably diminished during asthma attacks. An article published in "U.S. News & World Report" acknowledges that it is difficult to ask a child his history of breathing problems or even to get him to blow into a spirometer. At times, a doctor may prescribe medication for a child when asthma is suspected but not confirmed.
Medications in Children
The "U.S. News & World Report" article also details the differences between asthma in children and adults. Medications that are well studied in adults have not been as extensively studied in children. It also can be difficult to gauge the side effects that children are feeling as they can be less articulate about how they are feeling than adults. For example, they may feel jittery, but not know how to describe the feeling. Adults may notice a difference in how the child plays or sleeps or if the child has a tremor. Thus, adult observation can at least help determine if a medication may be affecting a child adversely.
Will My Child Outgrow Asthma?
One of the reasons asthma may be more prevalent in children than adults is because some child asthmatics outgrow it. According to "U.S. News & World Report," some children develop asthma as a result of infection, and many of these children outgrow asthma by the time they are 6. However, if the child or anyone in her family has a history of allergies, chances are her asthma symptoms will persist.
