Asthma & your child

Diagnosing asthma in very young children can be difficult because:    

• At least one child in seven will have 'wheezing' at some point during their first five years. Many of these children will not go on to have asthma in later childhood, so your doctor may not want to use the term 'asthma' at this stage.
• It's not easy to measure how well a young child's lungs are working. A peak flow meter is used for older children, but is unsuitable and unreliable for younger children (usually those under the age of six).

If your child is under the age of two, it is even more difficult to tell if they have asthma. There are a number of different illnesses, including acute bronchiolitis, 'wheezy bronchitis', as well as asthma, that can make your baby wheezy.

Some children with asthma lose their symptoms by the time they are adults. Others may find that their symptoms become milder.

However, recent research has shown that the underlying condition doesn't go away and it's possible that symptoms may return in later life.

Out of 56 countries worldwide, the UK has the highest prevalence of severe wheeze in children aged 13–14.

Throughout childhood, asthma is generally more common in boys than in girls. This trend reverses during puberty, when more girls develop asthma for the first time. By the time they reach 18, asthma is more common in girls than boys.