Living with Asthma and preventing attacks

Transcription:

We don't really have a way of preventing people from developing asthma. We know that we can make their chance of developing asthma higher. The main thing that influences that is exposure to cigarette smoke. Whether it is in utero while mom is pregnant or infancy or really anytime during childhood. Tobacco smoke is really a big risk factor. Even though we can not prevent people from having asthma, we should be able to prevent people from having serious asthma attacks. A lot of people when they find out their child has asthma the first thing they worry about is if their child is going to die from an asthma attack. Luckily deaths from asthma are very rare. In the United States there is about 4 to 6M children that have asthma, but only 100 or so will die from asthma per year. Even though that 100 is still to large a number we know that those 100 have certain risk factors. They are ignoring their asthma symptoms. They are waiting until the asthma has gotten to severe before they seek treatment. A lot of those families have psycho social problems. Either they have low access to care or the parents have depression or some other condition that is preventing them from bringing the child to care in a timely manner. Even those 100 or so that die, properly there are in rows that we can do to prevent those deaths. So I think that if you have a child with asthma that you should have the expectation that your child is going to have a completely normal life. Not die from asthma. Have normal activity,do everything that every other child has- Who doesn't have asthma.

Video Categories: ALL PARENTS, Health and Wellness, Diseases and Disorders

Pediatrician Ronald Ferdman, MD Allergy and Immunology, shares advice for parents who have a child with asthma on how to help your child live a completely normal life

Transcript

Expert Bio

Ronald Ferdman, MD

Pediatrician, Allergy and Immunology, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Ronald Ferdman received his BA from the University of California at San Diego and his MD from Hahnemann University (now Drexel University) in Philadelphia. He completed both his Pediatric residency and his fellowship in Allergy/Immunology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, then obtained a Masters in Medical Education (MEd) from the University of Southern California (USC) School of Education. He currently is an attending physician in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He is board certified allergy/immunologist, and is a fellow in the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. His current interests include management of allergic and immunologic diseases in high-risk children and education for families and clinicians. He is a California native, where he currently lives with his wife Susan and their three of four children, and spends his spare time wishing for more.

Parenting expert on: Diseases and Disorders, Allergies and Sensitivities, First Foods and Foods to Avoid, Nutrition for 5-7 Year olds

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