What is asthma control?

Controlling your child’s asthma means preventing asthma symptoms and attacks before they occur. According to doctors, asthma control through symptom prevention means that your child

• Experiences little to no asthma symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, or shortness of breath
• Is not waking up at night or early in the morning with coughing or breathing problems
• Doesn’t need to use rescue medicine more than once a week, or uses less than two canisters per year
• Can be active and does not avoid activities because they cause asthma symptoms
• Doesn’t miss any schoolwork because of asthma symptoms
• Has no or minimal adverse effects from his or her medicines

Controller medicines

You may have heard your child’s doctor use the term "controller medicine." When used as prescribed, these controller medicines can help prevent asthma symptoms and attacks from starting in the first place and can also help reduce how often they occur and how severe the attacks are.

Asthma prevention begins by using the right treatment that fits your child’s needs. Be sure that you speak with your child’s doctor to find out whether a controller/preventive medicine is the right fit for your child’s asthma treatment.

Involve the health care team

Taking controller/preventive medicines is not the only thing that you, as a parent, can do to control your child’s asthma. Work with his or her health care team to develop an Asthma Symptom Prevention Plan that you can use to make sure that your child’s treatment regimen is the right fit.

The trip to the physician’s office is often challenging. Between keeping an eye on your child at the office and listening to your health care team, it is quite possible to forget to ask the questions you had long planned on asking the doctor. The next time you visit your child’s doctor, use this Doctor Visit Checklist to make sure you cover all the points you want to discuss and all the questions you want answered.

If you have a lot of questions to discuss with the doctor, you might want to bring another adult with you to help take care of your child in the waiting room so you can discuss your concerns without distraction.

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