Go for the Gusto! If the kids feel like playing football, we need to make sure we’re in shape for it. When our son was around the age of three, he was all set to play. And suddenly his hands began sweating and he had a coughing fit. He was sick! With the season finally about to start, we needed to do a little re-training and give our kids a little something extra to protect their lungs, which get really run down when you’re constantly breathing in a heavy smoggy air pollution. Fortunately, there are a couple of things we can do. The first thing is to be in a position to see if your child is becoming more and more short of breath as the season progresses. We need to ask questions, like: Does your child cough more after exercising? Is he constantly thirsty? Does he have a burning in his chest after being in a hot environment? These questions will tell us if our children are getting too tired, and they can also help us recognize the need to make some major changes. The second thing is to figure out what activities our kids do in their free time that require them to go out and do physical activity. When our son got over the common colds I told him to take it easy, but that he’d be ready for the big game in just two weeks. And then it became three weeks and so on, until he was ready to play. We’d done our homework; our son had been doing so much running and other exercises, it wasn’t long before he was cleared for action. And he was soon able to take his place in the line-up of his football team. The next year, I had no excuses when I was told he couldn’t play. Getting Ready for the Season Before we can figure out what’s going on with our kids, we need to understand how our kids’ bodies are dealing with the different levels of breathing in the various environments that they are experiencing. The first place to check is our child’s physical energy level; by how much he can run, how much he can play for periods of time without stopping for a rest, etc. When we get the results of our physical test we find out what he should be doing during the day to prepare himself for action. I had been sending my son outdoors to run for a few minutes, while we were gardening and things like that. Now that we knew there was something wrong, we told him that after a few minutes he’d have to rest before going out again. This way, even if his breathing hadn’t fully cleared up, he would be able to rest and make sure he’d be ready to go back out running in a short while. In this way, we made sure that he had enough energy to keep going until he was well. If your child is running short of breath, make sure he gets plenty of rest and breaks during the day to rest his lungs. A child who is forced to work hard all day long will have a hard time dealing with things, and this is definitely going to affect his performance at the game. Your child needs to take care of himself before he can be considered fit. To ensure that he’ll be well and ready for the games, he needs to rest often. Also, if the weather is hot, make sure he takes some sort of vitamin supplement to ensure that his lungs will be able to deal with the extra work. By taking some of these precautions, we can ensure that our children will be able to participate in games, and the activity they crave when they go out to play in summer. And when they start playing, our children are guaranteed to have a blast! For more information on other ways in which parents can help their children combat asthma and other illnesses such as allergies, click here: http://www.breathinghealth.com/articles/allergy.html The article is very good and should be included in the main site of Dr. Schnell as a reference for parents. I've been a sufferer of chronic allergic asthma since my early teens and all those years my physician (who was a pulmonary specialist) told me it was "all in my head" and I was so sensitive that every spring I would be treated for asthma until the summer when the grass pollens would appear. I've had to see specialists, take medication and spend thousands of dollars to treat this condition. I did not respond to the traditional steroid medications and was told I would probably outlive my lifetime, that my prognosis was extremely bleak. I was told by some in the medical profession that I was "too sensitive" for any treatment other than to move out of the country as soon as possible. Thankfully my husband had a family member who was an excellent family practitioner. He prescribed a nasal steroid that I have taken for 20 years without fail. Thank goodness for my father in law who has kept this doctor in practice for decades. I have since found out that this is a common condition and that with treatment many, many children can be helped so they too don't have to suffer for their lifetime. It should be included in this site for reference as a reference. Good advice. So many parents go into panic mode when their kids wheeze. It's scary when a little wind sound can turn into a full-blown asthma attack in just minutes. Parents need to make sure their kids are doing this "lung training" and not be put into the panic mode. But panic mode may be the more appropriate response if there's even a sniffle and parents jump to "it's going to be serious." It's very frustrating and it's the reason so many parents freak out when they hear the word "wheeze". It's the symptom of something serious. It just seems like when someone is wheezing or breathing hard, especially someone young, parents freak out. They must be in such a state of panic and worry over what could go wrong that they don't think straight. When people think straight and get their heads on straight, they take good advice like this one and learn to be calm, cool and collected. I have always been in the mindset of this being an allergy. Even when we went to an allergist he was never concerned about the severity. He was surprised at the severity because he expected me to wheeze when I had a reaction to allergies. He still said it was in my head. I didn't even ask about it being as severe as I am feeling. I know that if it didn't sound so severe in the beginning I would have dismissed it as my imagination but it's been getting more intense the last month so I have been researching everything to see if I can find a way to live with less allergy. I don't want to take steroids because I hear horror stories and the news is showing more with cases of people on the cusp of mental disorders who actually took steroids. Maybe I can go on medication but I need to find a way to live without allergens and without steroids. After the past month of intense breathing, I am finally starting to see the light. The doctor said I had a severe reaction to some allergy that I had never thought of as an allergen. Now that I have been through this before I know what's causing my misery but all the treatments are the same for allergies and asthma. Allergists even dismiss asthma with a prescription for a nasal spray. I feel like I am at the mercy of whoever gets to me first. I could be put into a bed and I would feel terrible about it but I would feel worse if I left it to chance and would continue this misery if it got worse because I can't control it and don't know how to treat it. So many people suffer with these allergies and asthma that there needs to be some kind of way to help educate the people and prevent them from suffering. They need to read up on the real issues and come together