Summer weather is beautiful; however, everything has two sides. The warm summer climate will often make it difficult to manage your child’s asthma. The high temperatures, excess humidity, and abundant pollen from trees tend to escalate the symptoms in asthmatic children.
Luckily, there are established ways of managing asthma during the hot season as discussed below.
Utilize Medications
Asthma is a dangerous disease, which is why your child should have the appropriate medications all year long regardless of the season. You should always ensure that the medicines are placed in a safe and accessible area for emergencies. If you’re contemplating allowing your child to go camping or staying with relatives, ensure that the chaperone knows when the kid should take medication.
The same applies to summer school-going children. Visit the school personally and talk to the staff to explain when and why your child should be on medication. If possible, let your child learn from home during the summer.
Eliminate the Excess Moisture
The ideal relative humidity inside your home should be between 30-50%. However, given that summers are generally hot and humid, you may want to use a dehumidifier to remove excess moisture from your indoor air.
Too much moisture in your indoor environment is particularly dangerous for asthmatic kids. This is because inhaling overly humid air has a distressing effect on the respiratory system, which plays a vital role in people with asthma.
The danger is even more pronounced among young children whose respiratory systems are still developing. Besides, excessively moist air supports the spread of dust mites and the growth of mold, both of which exacerbate asthma symptoms.
It’s for these reasons that you’ll want to make sure that most, if not all, of the rooms in your home have dehumidifiers to control the level of moisture in the air. A dehumidifier might not remove mold in your home, but it helps to prevent the growth of additional fungus or hinder its occurrence in the first place.
Just remember to switch the dehumidifier off before your indoor air becomes too dry. Alternatively, you can set the dehumidifier to operate for a specific period before stopping automatically.
While excess moisture in the air is highly discouraged for people living with asthma, dry air can cause a flare-up of the symptoms. Your child needs healthy levels of humidity to help soothe their airways.
Use Your Drier
As mentioned previously, summer is a beautiful season. You might be tempted to hang your child’s clothes outside in the sun to get the captivating summer scent. However, remember that during this season pollen and other allergens are abundantly floating in the air, ready to pounce and settle on any physical object. It’s, therefore, advisable to use your dryer or hang the clothes outside only when the pollen count is at its lowest to avoid asthma flare-ups.
Keep the Child Cool
Keeping your child cool is crucial to controlling their asthma in warm weather. Thankfully, there is an array of methods to keeping cool during the summer; staying indoors and swimming are excellent examples. However, the chlorine found in swimming pools may worsen asthma in some children. It would help if you ensured that your child always takes an inhaler with them.
Another easy way to combat heat and allergens on hot, humid days is simply staying indoors, especially when the child’s symptoms are severe.
Stop the Fan
Understandably, you want the fan running to improve the airflow in your home and keep the indoor air cool. But the problem with fans is that they tend to circulate pollen in the air, which will certainly worsen your child’s asthma. If you’re a fanatic of fans, consider replacing them with other similar devices, such as air conditioners.
Install an Air Conditioner
Air conditioning helps to alleviate the symptoms of asthma significantly, which is achieved by providing a consistently cool indoor environment that’s free from pollen and other airborne allergens. Furthermore, the air conditioners tend to remove heat and lower the humidity. Efficient moisture removal from your indoor air hinders the growth of fungus, which would otherwise trigger asthma symptoms.
Remember the warning above regarding fans? Make sure that your AC is not running on “fan only,” mode because the air that recirculates in this setting has no dehumidifying effect.
You may be aware that experts recommend changing the air filter once every three months. But things are quite different for people with asthma; keep your child safe by changing the filter every month, especially if you have pets. This ensures that the AC is operating efficiently and no clogs are bogging it down.
Get Rid of Pets
You might have been advised by your doctor or even read somewhere that pets should not be kept near asthma sufferers; this fact cannot be overstated. However much you value or love pets, your child’s health should be your priority. You’ll want to ensure your asthmatic kids are safe by not having pets in your home.
Avoid Smoke
Smoke can only aggravate asthma symptoms. With that said, if you smoke, stop it; this advice extends to your family members. Let your household members know that your child’s health is at stake, and thus, they should avoid smoking or find somewhere else other than your house to do it. Talk to your child in advance and let them know that smoking is bad for their health. This will also warn them against staying close to people who smoke.
The Bottom Line
Your child doesn’t have to suffer from severe asthma symptoms anymore; not under your watch. Your asthmatic child’s symptoms are likely to intensify during the hot months of the year, making it crucial to prepare and plan ahead of the summer months.
Pollen, mold, and dust are prevalent during the summer read here to know more about what really causes asthma. The best way to manage asthma symptoms is to put measures in place for preventing your child’s exposure to these elements long before the warm season rolls in. Buy dehumidifiers, ACs, and medications early enough, and learn how to identify the signs of a flare-up in your kid.
Also, talk to your doctor about the steps that should be taken during an emergency. Do not hesitate to do first aid and rush the kid to the hospital when the symptoms worsen. Lastly, educate your child on ways of keeping safe, including carrying inhalers, keeping off cigarettes and smokers, taking medications everywhere they go and staying cool indoors when it’s too hot outside.