Care for children with chronic diseases

Asthma is a common chronic disease that affects an individual’s airways, which carry air in and out of the lungs. Children with asthma have a sensitive airway that easily gets swollen or irritated by various triggering elements such as pollen, air pollutants like dust, moulds, animals, dust mites, exercise that makes a person breathe harder, sore throat, sinus infections, common colds or food allergies such as peanuts. Although asthma is common in children in children below their fifth birthday, anyone can develop this chronic disease. Studies show that an individual is highly likely to develop asthma if one of his or her parents has this condition or if the individual is allergic to various elements associated with asthma (Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, n.d).         When a person experiences a trigger, he or she experiences an episode whereby the individual develops a cough, wheeze and experiences difficulties in breathing. This experience is caused by swelling of the airways lining when irritated by the triggering aspects. Muscles around the airways tighten and the airways get clogged by the mucus. This causes the airways to become narrow making the individual experience difficulties in breathing. People suffering from asthma are always advised to have a written asthma management plan from a doctor to help them identify and minimize contact with their asthma triggers, monitor and recognize asthma early signs, and know what to do when their asthmatic condition is worsening (Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, n.d).

            There are various ways that asthma affects a child’s ability to learn and interact with others. Asthma makes a child miss school days which affects academic learning in school (Brown, 1999). According to Milner (1984), the fear of an asthma attack due to environmental allergies or physical activities that require a person to use a lot of energy and breathing hard leading to asthma attacks makes can make a child doubt his or her ability in physical activities, which affects their physical and social development through exercise and interaction with others during play respectively (Milner, 1984). This condition can make a child have low self-esteem as a result of being embarrassed to take medicine at school. Asthma can affect how a child interacts with others by feeling different from their peers and avoiding visiting the homes of their friends who have pets for fear of having an asthma attack (Catrambone, Follenweider & Krau, 2013).

            In some cases, asthma can affect a child’s surrounding environment through parents who believe their child’s asthma condition is life threatening. These parents may believe that this condition can affect the emotional well-being of their child and as a result opt to restrict the child from playing with others outside for fear of an asthma attack (Arshad & Babu, 2009). These parents may also believe that by restricting their child to take medicine outside the house or visiting friends at their homes they are protecting the socio-emotional well-being of their child. However, this affects the social and emotional development of the child by denying the child an opportunity to experience early childhood environment.

            The main challenge concerning asthma is that diagnosing this condition is difficult because a child may have two or more causes triggering the condition (Catrambone, Follenweider & Krau, 2013). However, studies have shown that there are various opportunities that can reduce the prevalence of asthma. These include allowing children with asthma to interact with other children, presence of an older sibling or adult, early enrollment in a child day care center, and minimal use of antibiotics (Veldhoven, 1998). These conditions enable a gene-by-environment interaction whereby the child is exposed to the environment factors causing an asthma attack. This makes a child’s genetic background set the stage to production of immunoglobulin antibody, which is key against environmental asthma triggers (Arshad & Babu, 2009).

Reference

Arshad, S. H., & Babu, K. S. (2009). Asthma. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. (n.d.). Asthma basics Retrieved March 17, 2014,             from http://www.asthmaandallergies.org 

Brown, R. T. (1999). Cognitive aspects of chronic illness in children. New York: Guilford Press. 

Catrambone, C. D., Follenweider, L. M., & Krau, S. D. (2013). Asthma. Philadelphia, PA:            Elsevier.  

Milner, A. D. (1984). Asthma in children. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

Veldhoven, N. H. M. J. (1998). Children with asthma and physical exercise: Effects of a physical exercise programme for children with asthma. Bussum: Coutinho.