A number of different approaches using medication, training, and conditioning are available to help your child prepare for — and hopefully halt — symptoms related to exercise-induced asthma. These steps are implemented before, during, and after the physical activity.

Getting Ready to Exercise

Researchers have found that as many as half of all individuals who control their asthma with inhaled medications can still show signs of exercise-induced asthma. But there are several pre-exercise steps your child can consider to control his asthma symptoms when participating in sports or other vigorous activities. In addition, short-term or long-term medications can be prescribed by his health care provider that can make breathing easier when exercising.

These steps include:

• Using a short-acting inhaler fifteen minutes before exercising.

• Warming up for between six to ten minutes before starting an exercise program to help lessen chest tightness that occurs after exertion.

• Drinking plenty of fluids before, during, and after the activity.

• Stopping exercising immediately if symptoms occur.

• Covering up the mouth and nose with a scarf or ski mask in colder weather.

• Moving indoors to practice during colder weather.

• Taking time to cool down at the end of a strenuous exercise by stretching and jogging to help prevent air in the lungs from changing too quickly from warm to cold.

These short-acting drugs can also be used to relieve symptoms related to exercise-induced asthma after they occur. Longer-acting bronchodilator sprays, such as salmeterol and formoterol, have been found effective. They can also be used thirty minutes before exercise, and can last from ten to twelve hours. (Their protective effect, though, will last for less than eight hours with continued use.)

Continuing Care

If your child continues to have symptoms even with pretreatment, you should discuss with your health care provider whether a daily anti-inflammatory medicine is appropriate. Recurring symptoms may mean that inflammation is present in the child's airways and that even stronger medications (such as inhaled steroids or leukotriene inhibitors in pill form) might be needed.

Your child should remember also to restrict her exercising if she has a viral infection, if temperatures are extremely low outside where she is playing or practicing, or if pollen and air pollution levels are high (and she has seasonal allergies). During these times, her airways could be more sensitive and symptoms could occur more readily.

Continue to remind your child that appropriate treatment will let her get the most from her exercise programs. In addition, it will help her maintain an active lifestyle that will benefit her as she grows older.

Conditioned for Success

While medication may help your child, you still might want to look at another area: physical conditioning. Oftentimes, children may limit their physical activity and exercise because of their asthma.

As a consequence, they have not developed as much of the muscle strength or physical stamina needed to fully participate in various sports or exercises.

Recent research has suggested that physical training — relying on exercises to build muscle and endurance — could assist children in strengthening their bodies, along with their breathing. The actual body of study on physical conditioning for asthma patients still is small, but involvement in fitness activities was shown to be related to fewer health care provider visits and school absences than before starting exercise routines.

Conditioning exercise usually should be performed about three to five times per week for at least thirty minutes. Talk with your child's health care provider about how much exercise your child should strive for to get better conditioning.