Asthma in children is also called childhood asthma. It is a chronic disease that causes the tubes that carry air in and out of the body called airways to swell and inflammated. The airways of children are much smaller as compared to adults hence children are severely affected by the asthma. Children with asthma develop symptoms like wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, shortening of breath, sensitivity to some things. These symptoms are intense in morning and nighttime.

In United States out of 20 million people with asthma, 9 million of them are children. It is generally seen that most children have their first symptom of asthma at the age of 5 or 6. There are many factors which are responsible for causing childhood asthma. These factors include nasal allergies, heredity, respiratory infections, low birth weight, inhaling tobacco smoke, Puerto-Rican ethnicity, exposure to allergens etc.

Rate of asthma is increasing in children at a very fast pace. Exact reasons are although not known yet but experts believe that children’s being exposed more to dust, pollution, smoke or enough childhood illness since they spend  most of their time outdoors. The symptoms of childhood asthma should be recognized at the early stage itself to prevent its further degradation.