When I watched Dr House in my early years, there was an episode where a young mother brought her 6-7 year old asthmatic son to the clinic and Dr House suggested inhaled glucocorticosteroids, but the mother was surprised and said she didn’t want his child to use hormones, they have a lot of side effects, are you crazy Dr. ….. Dr House gave her a blank look and said, “If you don’t believe in glucocorticosteroids, then you shouldn’t come to the doctor. This episode is still set up quite professionally because it reveals three pieces of information: 1. Asthma treatment requires hormones (inhalation); 2. Children with asthma can also use inhaled hormones, and it is recommended by a top doctor (Dr House); 3. Parents of the affected children do not understand hormones and do not want their children to use them. Dr House is a top doctor, he can talk to patients and their families as he pleases, but we can’t. We still need to teach the parents of the children painstakingly. Bronchial asthma (hereinafter referred to as asthma) is the most common chronic disease in childhood, especially the incidence has increased significantly over the years, and if we do not have the knowledge of prevention and treatment, it will affect the physical and mental health of children and parents even more. What key information should parents know when their child is diagnosed with asthma by a doctor? 1. First of all, it is important to find out the diagnosis and whether the child is asthmatic or not. Because the diagnosis of asthma in childhood is not easy, it can be confused with other diseases, especially viral induced wheezing. Parents should not label their children as asthma without permission, but must be under the guidance of a medical professional. Even a medical professional sometimes has difficulty in clarifying a child’s diagnosis and requires dynamic assessment. 2.Data show that more than 80% of asthma starts before the age of 3. In patients with persistent asthma with pulmonary impairment, the pulmonary impairment mostly occurs in preschool, which fully tells us that asthma should be treated early. 3.When to consider asthma? The following information is helpful: parents with a history of asthma should be aware of it because asthma has a certain genetic tendency (but not always inherited); the affected child has atopic dermatitis and has allergies to be aware of; there has been an occurrence of inhalation allergen sensitization. 4, the child has asthma is unfortunate, but fortunately it happened in today’s era —- because we have very good drugs to control asthma (such as inhaled hormones combined with long-acting beta 2 agonists), and if it happened in my father’s generation then, the treatment is definitely far less effective than at present. As long as the child adheres to the correct treatment, our treatment goals are: to achieve and maintain symptom control; to maintain normal activity, including any motor ability; to prevent acute exacerbations; to prevent death from asthma; and to avoid adverse drug reactions. 5. The earlier the controlled treatment of asthma, the better (you can turn to my previous article), and to adhere to the principles of long-term, continuous, standardized and individualized treatment. This statement comes from our authoritative guidelines and is also a clinical practice, and it is all the more necessary for parents of children to fully understand and cooperate with the treatment. In particular, it is important to avoid the “foolishness of being afraid to use hormones” unless the doctor believes that the child has a contraindication to hormone use. Long-term studies have not shown that low doses of inhaled hormones can affect the growth and development of children, which means that ICS in moderate amounts is safe, at least compared to the harm caused by not using it and allowing asthma to develop, its adverse effects are insignificant. 6. Children with asthma are currently divided into two groups (under 5 years of age and over 5 years of age) and there are slight differences in treatment, for example, in the timing of the use of long-acting β2 agonists, but parents of children can ignore these details. However, it is important to know that for long-term treatment of asthma in children, the most effective medication is inhaled glucocorticoids (ICS), which can be combined with other medications (e.g., long-acting β2 agonists, leukotriene receptor antagonists, extended-release theophylline, etc.) in severe cases. 7.How long should the treatment last? This question refers to how long the controlled treatment should be. It is not very clear! It is currently recommended that long-term controlled medication should still be used after remission, aiming for the lowest effective dose of ICS maintenance. If such a low dose of ICS can effectively control asthma (which needs to be evaluated by a doctor) and there is no recurrence of symptoms within 1 year, you can consider stopping the medication! 8. There is also good news: a significant percentage of children under 5 years of age have asthma symptoms that will resolve spontaneously. However, I don’t know if your child is within this group, so you still need to actively manage and treat them, and frequently assess whether you need to continue treatment, etc. If you can stop the medication, congratulations, but follow-up should still be evaluated. 9. The vast majority of children may also have allergic rhinitis, so pay attention to simultaneous treatment with nasal hormones, or oral leukotriene receptor antagonists (such as montelukast sodium). Because allergic rhinitis is not well controlled, it may affect the asthma condition. 10. Parents themselves should know exactly how to use symptom-relieving drugs (such as salbutamol aerosol), and the condition is taught to the child, but younger children may not yet use aerosol, which is possible to use oral relief preparations instead. Or use a nebulized inhalation form. This will be mentioned in detail in a future article. The last sentence: Asthma is a common disease, as long as the regular treatment, the majority of patients can obtain satisfactory results, the key is, as a patient (or the patient’s parents), have you mastered the relevant knowledge? Do not simply rely on your doctor, because the disease is in your own body, you need to participate in the long-term management, is the good plan.