Can Children Outgrow Asthma ?

Saturday, August 1, 2009, 22:37
Asthma
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Deb:

I have a 4-1/2 year-old daughter. She developed asthma in November of 1997. Since that time she’s been on Cromolyn three times daily, and her triggers are upper respiratory infections, with or without secondary bacterial infections. Lately she’s required three days of steroids along with albuterol during that time to clear up her lungs. She’s also allergic to milk products and highly allergic to peanuts. I’m just curious–what are her chances of outgrowing asthma?

Dr. Shapiro:

The idea of growing out of asthma is one that is a complicated issue. A lot of people will go into remission in their later childhood years, and then get the problem back again. So it’s hard to give you good information about that. I would say that in general, about one-half of children who have chronic asthma either grow out of it or have a lot less difficulty when they do get older. And so it’s about 50/50, one might say. The most important thing is that there really isn’t a reason why your child should have a poor quality of life or have to make major sacrifices in terms of quality of life. You should be pretty optimistic that your child will be able to do everything you would want her to do.

Andrew:

Now she talked about Cromolyn three times a day to control someone with fairly severe asthma. Would you call that severe, or moderate?

Dr. Shapiro:

I’m wondering about how well-controlled she is. At this time of year with lots of infections it’s typical for children with moderate asthma to need a few days of steroids, and that can happen several times a year. But in between, is she really controlled where she’s sleeping well and running and playing normally?

Deb:

Yes, she is.

Dr. Shapiro:

In that case, it sounds like her therapy is probably appropriate. But if you were starting to need albuterol on a regular basis two or three times a day, and you were giving the Cromolyn but still needing a lot of albuterol, it would be a key to ask your doctor to think about helping you with other options for therapy. Because Cromolyn is a very mild anti-inflammatory medication for asthma and it could be time to step up to one that’s a little bit more powerful.

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