During Summer, Take a Vacation from School, Not Asthma Care

When school lets out for summer, the frantic pace of the school year often slows down, giving families a little more time to relax and enjoy summer's warm weather and long days. But the lazy days of summer pose a potential problem for children with asthma. Many families fail to adjust their routine of asthma care to the different summer schedule, to camp, and to vacation travel. As a result, careful monitoring of asthma symtoms and daily medication use are often forgotten, raising the potential for a serious asthma attack."

"Once school lets out, families often let up on their monitoring and treatment of asthma," said Dr. Bruce Bender, head of the Pediatric Behavioral Health division at National Jewish Medical and Research Center. "At the start of the summer the whole family should sit down and make an asthma plan for home, travel, and camp."

Asthma is the leading chronic illness among children, according to the American Lung Association, affecting nearly 5 million children and adolescents in the United States. Each year more than 5,000 adults and children die from asthma.

At home, the summer plan should include adjustments for a different schedule. Many families link their asthma routine to specific events during a school day, such as departure for school or homework. When those go away during summer vacation, a family needs to designate other daily landmarks, such as dinner or bedtime, for elements of the asthma-care routine, such as peak-flow monitoring and medications, says Dr. Bender.

Before going on a vacation, asthma patients should make sure they have plenty of medications of all types, including treatment for an attack. While on the road, everyone in the family should know where the medications are stored. Also, warns Dr. Bender, don't ignore the early signs of an asthma attack because you are having too much fun to stop. That can lead to a medical emergency. It is always better to recognize and respond to the early warning signs, even if it means a temporary halt to the fun.

For children who go to summer camp, camp counselors should receive a checklist of the child's asthma triggers. The trigger list might include sensitivities and allergens such as exercise, molds and pollens, perfumes and strong odors, trees and grasses, insect stings, and animal dander.

In addition to telling camp counselors a child has asthma, provide a written asthma action plan on how to treat the disease should an emergency arise. Your child's doctor should write the asthma action plan, which typically includes the child's asthma triggers, early asthma warning signs, and what to do in an emergency.

"The biggest mistake that's made when children are sent to camp is that no one is told they have asthma," explains Epi Mazzei, R.N., Manager of LungLine® at National Jewish. "Make sure that the camp nurse has a copy of the asthma action plan and that you send the medications needed for emergency treatment. Also, find out where you child would go to receive emergency care if needed."

Parents should check with camp administrators on their policy of allowing children to keep medication with them. LungLine® recommends that every child with asthma have a "rescue" inhaler, which is used for quick relief of symptoms such as wheezing, coughing or chest tightness.

National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado, is an independent institution known worldwide for the treatment of patients with respiratory, immune, and allergic disorders and for groundbreaking medical research. For more information about National Jewish, call LungLine® at (800) 222-LUNG, or e-mail lungline@njc.org.