{"id":6388,"date":"2017-09-08T17:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T07:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=6388"},"modified":"2017-09-11T13:25:07","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T03:25:07","slug":"thunderstorm-asthma-are-you-prepared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/thunderstorm-asthma-are-you-prepared\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunderstorm asthma: are you prepared?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6389\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6389\" style=\"width: 340px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6389 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2017\/09\/Nicholas-Collier-EXT_7409_FB-340x280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"340\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2017\/09\/Nicholas-Collier-EXT_7409_FB-340x280.jpg 340w, https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2017\/09\/Nicholas-Collier-EXT_7409_FB-768x632.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/files\/2017\/09\/Nicholas-Collier-EXT_7409_FB-680x560.jpg 680w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6389\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicholas, 20 months, is getting ready for this year&#8217;s pollen season.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ahead of this year\u2019s grass pollen season we are encouraging anyone who thinks they might be at risk of a sudden asthma attack to have an appropriate action plan and medication on hand.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Who is at risk?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>If your child has eczema, hay fever, or if there\u2019s a history of asthma and allergies in the family, then your child is more at risk of having a sudden asthma attack. For these children, it\u2019s recommended you have some reliever medication and a spacer on hand.<\/p>\n<p>Reliever medication is available over the counter, but it is also important to see a GP for review and to have a plan of what to do if your child gets asthma when they haven\u2019t had it before.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, if your child was affected by last year\u2019s thunderstorm asthma event, they are at risk again this season. Symptoms of asthma include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Coughing\u00a0&#8211; which usually happens at night, during the early hours of\u00a0the morning, when the weather is cool and during exercise.<\/li>\n<li>Wheezing\u00a0&#8211; when\u00a0breathing sounds like whistles.<\/li>\n<li>Breathing problems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>What to do<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Having an up-to-date asthma management plan is the best way to manage diagnosed asthma in children \u2013 your GP can help with this. Always follow your child&#8217;s management plan if they have one.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Everyone with asthma or at risk of asthma should have a reliever medication and use it with a spacer.<\/li>\n<li>Your child may need a preventer medication. Your GP will determine if one is necessary, either for the whole year or for specific times, such as before and during spring.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>If your child is wheezing or struggling to breathe, treatment is the same as for an asthma attack. If you don\u2019t have any asthma medication, call 000 straight away. <\/strong><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Sit your child upright and give reassurance \u2013 do not leave them alone.<\/li>\n<li>Without delay, give your child four separate puffs of the blue\/grey reliever medication (such as Airomir, Asmol, Bricanyl or Ventolin). If using a puffer (like Ventolin or Asmol), this should be taken one puff at a time via a spacer. Ask your child to take four breaths from the spacer after each puff of medication.<\/li>\n<li>Wait four minutes. If there is little or no improvement, repeat steps 2 and 3.<\/li>\n<li>If there is still no improvement, call triple zero (000) for an ambulance immediately. Repeat steps 2 and 3 continuously while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>More information<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For more information on asthma plans, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asthmaaustralia.org.au\/vic\/about-asthma\/resources\/victorian-action-plans\/victorian-asthma-action-plans\">Asthma Australia<\/a><\/li>\n<li>For more information on thunderstorm asthma, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/betterhealth.vic.gov.au\/health\/conditionsandtreatments\/thunderstorm-asthma\">Better Health Channel\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>See your GP if you think your child is at risk of thunderstorm asthma, or to ensure you have an up-to-date asthma management plan. You can read more on asthma in our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rch.org.au\/kidsinfo\/fact_sheets\/Asthma\/\">Kids Health Info fact sheet on Asthma.\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ahead of this year\u2019s grass pollen season we are encouraging anyone who thinks they might be at risk of a sudden asthma attack to have an appropriate action plan and medication on hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":6404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6388"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6407,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6388\/revisions\/6407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}