What is asthma?
When you breathe, the air travels in and out of your lungs through tubes called airways. Having asthma means your airways are extra sensitive. Lots of people in Australia have asthma, 1 in every 9 people.
How many people in your class have asthma?
What does asthma feel like?
Things your lungs don’t like are called triggers. These are things like smoke, pollen, dust or cold air. When you breathe something in that your airways don’t like, they start to squeeze tight. This makes it hard to breathe! You might cough, wheeze or feel very puffed out.
What medicine do you need?
There are two main types of asthma medicine. Relievers and Preventers.
Relievers relax the muscles in your airways to make it easier to breathe. Most kids with asthma have a blue puffer called Asmol, Ventolin or Zempreon.
Preventers calm down the airways to make them less sensitive. Preventers come in all sorts of different colours.
What else do you need?
The best way to use a puffer, is by connecting it to a spacer. A spacer is a big plastic tube. It stops the medicine ending up all in the mouth instead of in the lungs.
