Asthma & Cold Weather: Managing Triggers as the Temperature Drops
If your child has asthma, you may already know the pattern. School starts, the weather turns, and a few weeks later, the coughing starts. Fall and winter are harder months for kids with asthma, but a little planning now can prevent a lot of missed school, sleepless nights and emergency room or urgent care visits.
Why Fall Is Hard on Young Lungs
Colds are the biggest trigger. Every fall, asthma flare-ups in school-age children rise a few weeks after school starts. In one study, children who went to the emergency room during this fall peak were more likely to have a cold virus, and much less likely to be taking their daily controller medicine.
Cold, dry air can tighten the airways. Many kids notice it first at recess, at practice or at the bus stop.
More time indoors means more contact with dust mites, pet dander, mold, and smoke.
Heating season adds smoke and fumes from wood stoves, fireplaces and gas appliances.
Start with Your Child's Asthma Action Plan
An asthma action plan is a written guide that tells you what to do and when. It is divided into three zones:
Green zone: your child is breathing well. Keep giving daily controller medicine as prescribed, plus any medicine needed before exercise.
Yellow zone: early warning signs, like coughing, wheezing or a cold coming on. Give the green-zone medicines plus the yellow-zone medicine listed on the plan.
Red zone: medicine is not helping, breathing is fast or hard, or your child has trouble talking. Call us right away or call 911.
If your child's plan is more than a year old, their medicines have changed, or they have had a growth spurt, it is time for a review. Make sure the school nurse, coaches and anyone else who cares for your child has a current copy.
Keep the Controller Medicine Going
If your child takes a daily controller medicine, such as an inhaled steroid, keep giving it every day, even on days they feel completely fine. Controller medicine works quietly in the background to keep the airways calm. When it gets stopped over the summer or skipped once symptoms fade, children go into cold season less protected.
Cold-Weather Tips
Wrap a scarf or mask over your child's nose and mouth when they play or exercise outside in the cold. It warms and moistens the air before it reaches the lungs.
If your child's plan calls for an inhaler before exercise, use it about 10 to 15 minutes before activity.
Build in a few minutes of easy warm-up before hard exercise.
On very cold days, skip early-morning outdoor workouts or move them indoors.
Tips for Indoor Triggers
Keep your home and car completely smoke-free, including vape smoke.
Avoid wood fires and use the exhaust fan when cooking on a gas stove.
Wash bedding every week in hot water, and use dust-mite covers on the mattress and pillows.
Change or clean furnace and air filters as the heat comes on.
Use unscented cleaning products and open a window or run a fan while cleaning.
Do Not Skip the Flu Shot
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a flu vaccine every year for everyone 6 months and older. For children with asthma, it matters even more, because the flu can set off a serious flare-up. If your child has not had this season's flu shot yet, now is a great time. We have flu vaccines available now.
When to Call Us, and When to Go to the ER
Please call us if:
Your child needs the rescue inhaler more often than usual
Your child is waking up at night coughing
Asthma is keeping your child from sports, play or school
Flare-ups seem tied to the weather. We may need to adjust your child's medicines.
Go to the emergency room or call 911 if your child is struggling to breathe, cannot speak in full sentences, or the rescue inhaler is not helping.
Asthma does not have to mean a hard winter. If it has been a while since we looked at your child's plan together, this is the month to do it.
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