A worsening of your child’s asthma caused by exposure to one of their triggers. These vary between children but the most common ones are coughs and colds, cold weather, cigarette smoke, pet fur or feathers and pollen.
Over the next few days you should assess your child at least every 4 hours to make sure that they are recovering from their attack of wheezing.
This is particularly important at night and first thing in the morning.
If they are breathless or wheezy
If they are not breathless or wheezy
You should continue your child’s normal preventer treatment(s) during an acute exacerbation of asthma.
If your child has any of the following:
Follow your child's Personal Asthma Action plan OR Give 10 puffs of blue (salbutamol) reliever inhaler every 10 minutes until ambulance arrives.
Keep child in upright position and reassure them.
You need to contact a doctor or nurse today.
Please ring your GP surgery or NHS 111 – dial 111
Continue to follow your child’s action plan while seeking advice.
If symptoms persist for 4 hours or more and you have not been able to speak to either a member of staff from your GP practice or to NHS 111 staff, recheck that your child has not developed any red features
If none of the above features are present
Watch them closely for any change and look out for any red or amber symptoms
Continue to follow your child’s action plan while seeking advice
If your child has other symptoms associated with their asthma attack, you might want to look at our information on sore throat, cough, earache, diarrhoea and vomiting or tummy ache or our other pathways.
If you are still worried, please see your local pharmacist or call NHS 111 - call 111
Children and young people who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home. They can go back to school, college or childcare when they no longer have a high temperature, and they are well enough to attend
Choose appropriate sized spacer with mask (or mouthpiece if child is over 3 years with good technique and is not significantly short of breath).
Repeat steps 1 – 5 for subsequent doses Plastic spacers should be washed before 1st use and every month as per manufacturer’s guidelines
Click here for videos on inhaler technique.
If your child has been discharged from hospital, you should arrange for them to be seen in the next 48 hours by your GP or GP practice nurse.
