When Your Child’s Asthma Attack Warrants Urgent Care

Your child is wheezing and struggling to take a full breath: What if keeping them calm and having them take their rescue inhaler doesn’t stop this asthma attack in its tracks? Do you know when to head to our URGI-Kids urgent care clinic in Norwalk, Connecticut?

This September — a time known as Asthma Peak Month — our team at The Center for Advanced Pediatrics explains how to tell when an asthma flare warrants prompt urgent care, and when it’s a medical emergency.  

Basic asthma management explained

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that causes periodic episodes of airway swelling and increased mucus production that make it hard to breathe. 

An asthma attack occurs when allergens, pollution, cold air, or a respiratory infection irritates the airways and lungs, triggering a symptom flare that often includes chest tightness, a recurrent cough, wheezing, and shortness of breath. 

If your child has asthma, you know that effective, proactive management is key to helping them minimize symptom flare frequency and prevent serious asthma attacks. It’s usually possible to avoid or control asthma symptom flares by:

• Steering clear of personal asthma triggers
• Taking daily long-term controller medications
• Treating symptoms with quick-relief medicine

For kids with mild-to-moderate asthma, trigger avoidance and daily long-acting “controller” bronchodilator meds work well to prevent or minimize most symptom flares. 

When symptoms arise, keeping your child calm and having them take a few puffs of quick-relief medicine from their rescue inhaler is usually all it takes for their symptoms to reverse course so your child can breathe easy again.

When an asthma flare doesn’t improve 

It’s concerning to witness your child in the throes of an asthma attack, especially when mild chest pressure and a minor coughing jag quickly progress into wheezing and shortness of breath. It’s even scarier when their rescue inhaler doesn’t deliver adequate relief. 

When following your child’s Asthma Action Plan doesn’t ease the symptoms as you’d expect, it’s time to head to our URGI-Kids urgent care clinic in Norwalk.  

We want to see your child at our urgent care clinic ASAP in the following circumstances:

Your child’s symptoms are moderate

Moderate asthma symptoms mean your child’s cough and wheezing are persistent, and breathing is harder than normal, but they can still talk in full sentences. Basically, your parental concern level is heightened, but you know your child isn’t in the midst of a “red zone” breathing emergency.

Their inhaler only provides partial relief

Your child has used their rescue inhaler, and the quick-relief medicine helped a little, but their symptoms came back fast or never completely went away. 

Your child’s inhaler use has increased

Your child is frequently relying on their rescue inhaler: Instead of just using it to extinguish an asthma flare, they’ve been using it every few hours for a day or two to subdue symptoms that keep coming. 

You’ve noticed mild breathing distress

Your child may be able to participate in some activities, but they’re less energized than normal because their mild breathing distress — such as ongoing wheezing or a stubborn cough — disrupts their normal play or nightly sleep.  

Asthma monitoring and treatment 

First, our urgent care team checks your child’s vitals and listens to their lungs. Then, we evaluate their breathing and blood oxygen levels with tools like peak flow metering and pulse oximetry. 

Mild-to-moderate asthma flare treatment typically involves a nebulizer, which is a machine that turns fast-acting liquid medicine into a mist your child breathes deeply into their lungs to open tight airways. We also provide oxygen if their blood oxygen levels are low.  

Oral steroids, a short-term rescue medication treatment, work to calm swelling inside your child’s airway in the days after the flare.

Is your child’s asthma an emergency?

Call 911 or head to the emergency room if your child shows signs of a severe asthma attack. An asthma-related medical emergency can look like:

• Extreme shortness of breath that makes talking hard
• No relief at all from their rescue inhaler medication
• Symptoms that worsen despite quick-relief inhaler use
• No noticeable symptom improvement after 24 hours

Other signs of an asthma-related medical emergency include lethargy; blue, gray, or pale coloring on their lips, face, or fingernails; and severe retractions (skin and muscle tightness at the neck, ribs, and stomach with every breath). 

Update your child’s asthma action plan

Anytime your child needs urgent care (or a trip to the ER) for their asthma, schedule a follow-up visit soon after at The Center for Advanced Pediatrics. 

Our pediatrician assesses and updates their Asthma Action Plan as needed and discusses inhaler skills with your child, reinforcing correct use to ensure that both their controller and rescue medicines reach their lungs properly.  

Does your child need help for asthma? Contact The Center for Advanced Pediatrics in Norwalk or Darien, Connecticut, to schedule a visit, or stop by our walk-in URGI-Kids urgent care clinic in Norwalk during normal business hours.