Is asthma common in children?

Written by Yan Xin Liang
Pediatrics
Updated on May 11, 2025
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Childhood asthma is a common pulmonary disease. It manifests as recurrent coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing, along with reversible, obstructive respiratory diseases with airway hyperreactivity. This disease poses a significant health risk to children and is a commonly seen chronic respiratory condition with a high incidence, often characterized by recurrent attacks over a chronic course. If the condition is severe, it can affect the child's learning, activities, daily life, and can also impact the child's growth and development. If the child's treatment is delayed or inappropriate, it can eventually develop into adult asthma, becoming chronic and intractable. Therefore, this disease must be diagnosed and treated promptly, as it is a relatively common condition.

Other Voices

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Written by Han Shun Li
Pulmonology
34sec home-news-image

Is cough variant asthma considered asthma?

Cough variant asthma is asthma, and it can be definitively said that cough variant asthma is a type of asthma. Typical asthma generally involves episodic symptoms such as chest tightness, wheezing, and difficulty breathing. However, cough variant asthma is primarily characterized by coughing symptoms, often occurring at night. Therefore, cough variant asthma is also asthma, and the treatment is the same as typical asthma, where bronchodilator medications can be used for treatment.

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Written by Wang Xiang Yu
Pulmonology
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Can asthma be cured completely?

We often refer to asthma as bronchial asthma, which, whether it is cough variant asthma, allergic asthma, or caused by other factors, has not yet a cure found to date. It is now generally believed that bronchial asthma can be controlled, which means that as long as patients with bronchial asthma receive standardized treatment in reputable hospitals, most can be controlled and will not suffer from recurrent attacks. So far, there is no cure found, and all advertisements using Traditional Chinese Medicine or ancient secret remedies or any other means claiming that asthma can be cured are false. These are not to be trusted, and many asthma patients often suffer because they take some medications containing oral corticosteroids under these false beliefs. While these might control asthma in the short term, they are detrimental to the long-term management of asthma, and prolonged use of such non-standard corticosteroid treatments can lead to many adverse reactions, such as drug-induced Cushing's syndrome and medication-induced diabetes, among others.

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Written by Yuan Qing
Pulmonology
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What should I do about asthma?

The full name of asthma is bronchial asthma, which is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs involving various inflammatory cells. The main symptoms of asthma include wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing, which typically occur in the early morning and at night. These symptoms can subside on their own through medication treatment or even without medication. Thus, by diagnosing asthma, it is understood that asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. After contracting this disease, the main treatment involves inhaling medications for asthma to control its symptoms. Additionally, if the asthma is caused by an allergic condition, such as an allergy to certain foods or airborne allergens like pollen and dust mites, it is advisable to first avoid these allergens to ensure a clean air environment, and then control or eliminate the symptoms with medication treatment. (Please use medication under the guidance of a professional doctor.)

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Written by Wang Xiang Yu
Pulmonology
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Do people with asthma cough?

The asthma commonly referred to is bronchial asthma, which is primarily characterized by recurrent episodes of breathing difficulty. This difficulty in breathing is mainly manifested as chest tightness and shortness of breath. Additionally, asthma is often triggered by upper respiratory tract infections. Therefore, most asthma patients experience coughing and expectoration during acute attacks. There is also a special type of asthma known as cough variant asthma, which, as the name suggests, is primarily characterized by coughing. This type of cough is generally dry with little to no sputum, or it involves a small amount of mucous sputum. The coughing can occur during the day but is generally more pronounced at night.

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Written by Wang Chun Mei
Pulmonology
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Can people with asthma eat watermelon?

Asthma is a very common disease in respiratory medicine and often leads to the onset of asthmatic bronchitis due to many complex factors. Therefore, whether asthma patients can eat watermelon when they have an attack depends on the season they are in. If it is in the cold winter when an asthma attack occurs, it is generally not recommended to eat watermelon. Because watermelon itself is a cold-natured fruit, and the winter season is already quite cold, it is not suitable to eat watermelon during this season. However, if the asthmatic condition occurs in the summer, when the climate is relatively hot, it is appropriate to eat some watermelon. Because watermelon can not only replenish fluids and relieve heat, but it can also supplement some nutrients needed by the body. Therefore, whether asthma patients can eat watermelon mainly depends on the season they are in.