Asthma in Young Children

welcome back. 

Did you know that young children with asthma often times don't wheeze.  I hear time and time again patients who were told by the ER or some other doc that since their infant wasn't wheezing they could not have asthma.  Young children (under 2-4 years of age in particular) have floppy air ways that often collapse when they try to move air across an obstruction.  This means that they are not capable of generating the sound known as a wheeze.  Instead they cough.

If your child has had chonic cough- greater than 1-2 months or has a cough or bronchitis with every cold they get this could, in fact, be asthma.  Ask your health care provider to evaluate for asthma or request a referral to a pulmonologist (lung doctor) if you have concerns.