How to take care of children with asthma at home?

"My child coughs all year round. When it's serious, you can hear a "whooshing" sound. He coughs all night and can't fall asleep. He just happened to have caught a cold again. I dare not let him go out or go to school..." This should be the common voice of many parents of children with asthma. Children often go in and out of the emergency room or even hospitalized due to asthma attacks, which is an indelible nightmare for many parents.

With the changes in the external environment, the prevalence of asthma in Taiwan has increased year by year. In recent years, the problem of PM2.5 has become more and more serious. When the purple explosion hits, the number of children suffering from asthma attacks in outpatient clinics has also increased. What methods can effectively reduce asthma attacks?

Asthma is a common chronic disease among children. In Taiwan, one in ten children aged 7-15 years old has asthma. Asthma is mainly caused by the overreaction of the respiratory tract to triggering factors such as allergens (dust mites, cockroaches, mold, etc.), viral infections, exercise, etc., which leads to bronchial constriction and chronic inflammation. Symptoms include repeated coughing, especially in the middle of the night or early morning, wheezing, chest tightness, and difficulty breathing.

Children under the age of two who have had recurrentAttack of stridorIf the condition occurs more than three times, asthma should be considered. If the child has a history of atopic dermatitis or one of the parents has a history of asthma, the child is more likely to suffer from asthma.

How does Traditional Chinese Medicine view asthma?

Traditional Chinese medicine has a long history of treating asthma and has rich experience in treatment. Asthma is called "asthma" in traditional Chinese medicine. The name of asthma was first seen in the "Danxi Xinfa" of the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, and was recorded as "Kep Cough" in the "Treatise on the Causes and Symptoms of Various Diseases" of the Sui Dynasty. Asthma is related to the internal organs of traditional Chinese medicine, the lungs, spleen, and kidneys. When the internal organs are dysfunctional, phlegm will be produced in the body, and when it encounters "external evil", it will trigger the phlegm and cause the disease. External evil is like today's allergens, cold air, air pollution, infection and other inducing factors.

Traditional Chinese medicine divides asthma into "heat asthma" and "cold asthma". The cough of "heat asthma" is often accompanied by yellow and sticky sputum, reddish complexion, frequent thirst for ice water, and more prone to constipation; "cold asthma" has a large amount of clear and thin sputum, sometimes accompanied by foamy sputum, pale complexion, fear of cold, and often cold hands and feet.

Chinese medicine practitioners will prescribe Chinese medicine according to the different characteristics of asthma and the patient's physical condition, and treat it in stages. In the "acute stage", Chinese medicine that can clear the lungs, lower the qi, and resolve phlegm will be added to relieve the patient's wheezing and coughing symptoms; in the "remission stage", Chinese medicine that can strengthen the spleen and replenish qi will be added to enhance the patient's resistance and adjust the immune system to prevent the patient from catching colds repeatedly and inducing asthma, and to slow down the excessive reaction of the bronchi, so as to achieve what is said in Chinese medicine classics: "When the righteous qi is inside, the evil cannot interfere."

AsthmaWhat should we pay attention to in diet?

Asthma is mostly triggered by allergic factors. If a child has had asthma caused by food, he or she should be more cautious in diet. Common allergic foods include fish, eggs, seafood and other protein-rich foods. If you are allergic, you should try to avoid eating them.

Most asthmatics have a cold constitution and are not suitable for cold drinks or ice cream. Cold foods can easily damage the spleen and cause phlegm. Cold foods, such as watermelon, oranges, tangerines, kiwis, pears, bamboo shoots, bitter melons, tofu, etc., should not be consumed in excess. If "heat asthma" occurs and the phlegm begins to turn yellow and sticky, avoid eating foods with warm properties, such as spicy foods, fried foods, longans, lychees, etc., to prevent the body from turning into heat and making the condition more serious.

Integrated Chinese medicine asthma intensive care clinic to help control asthma

In the past, the China Medical University Hospital has published a series of allergy and asthma-related studies in international journals such as Allergy and Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. Since 2013, the Central Health Insurance Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare has also implemented the "Pediatric Asthma Specific Disease Enhanced Care Clinic", providing asthma patients under the age of 12 to receive integrated Chinese medicine treatment services under the diagnosis and treatment of professionally qualified physicians to help control asthma. The treatment includes Chinese medicine, acupuncture, acupoint application, acupoint massage, and mist inhalation. Our past studies have also shown that children who receive asthma intensive care treatment plans can help children stabilize their asthma and improve the quality of life of asthmatic children and their parents.

If there is an asthmatic child at home, parents should be mentally prepared for a long-term battle. They need to control the surrounding environment, keep it clean, regularly use hot water (>56℃) to wash bedding and clothes, use fewer stuffed toys, and pay attention to keeping indoor humidity below 50% to reduce the breeding of allergens such as dust mites, cockroaches, and mold, avoid secondhand smoke and dirty air. Let the child have a balanced diet and exercise regularly to strengthen his body. With the integration of Chinese and Western medicine treatment, asthma can be effectively controlled and will not recur.