It's quite common for people with asthma to feel much better during the summer months, and therefore take a break from their asthma controller medications. Kids are out of school, possibly less active, have fewer respiratory tract infections, and therefore often have less asthma symptoms. It would be reasonable to think that people don't need their asthma controller medications during the summer months. Unfortunately, this common practice is one of the reasons why asthmatic children get so sick in the autumn months when they get a viral respiratory tract infection. In fact, our office gets inundated with sick asthmatics in September -- a few weeks after school starts and kids start spreading around the common cold virus. Family of these children wind up in the emergency room or hospitalized for their asthma.
The most common reason for asthma attacks in children isn't allergies or exercise -- but respiratory tract infections. This is why the fall and winter months tend to be the worst for asthmatics -- this is cold and flu season. Most asthmatics who require a daily controller therapy should stay on this medicine year-round, because even missing a few weeks or months of the medicine leads to untreated inflammation in the lungs -- just waiting for a respiratory tract infection to make things worse. Therefore, taking a summer break from asthma controller medicines isn't the best idea. The first day of school -- and the first cold of the season -- is just around the corner.
Read more:
Most doctors will tell you to start the controllers a month before start of school for this very reason. It seems like this is the only type of measurement to determine if your child still needs the medication – without a break how do you determine the state of their asthma? There seems to be no measurement to tell you if your child may be outgrowing their asthma.