Parents should know allergens which trigger asthma in children: Experts

NEW DELHI, Nov 13:  Experts have called for educating parents regarding the  common allergens which may act as trigger in asthmatic children and instructing them to  observe and find out the specific precipitants in the individual child.
Childhood Asthma is one of the most difficult conditions to deal with, as guardians do  not want their child to be labelled as ‘asthmatic,’ they said.
Air pollution has triggered medical emergency for asthmatic children and the  Government’s decision for closing school is only one of the preventive measures taken  towards this situation itself explains how the condition is worsening day by day.
Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) has come out with a new manual named Asthma  Training Module (ATM) to learn how not to be slave to the incapacitating medical  condition, rather be its master.    The ATM is the flagship tool for disseminating the guidelines and has been one of the  most popular and successful programmes of IAP and Respiratory chapter. The concept and idea of ATM was started in 2000 by the Respiratory chapter of IAP.          According to Dr Varinder Singh, President of Paediatric Respiratory Society,”It is the  longest running (13 years old) locally developed training programme for the management  of asthma among Indian children. As the training package is updated every few years in  line with the available global evidence and other guidelines, it remains in demand even  for re-training by the paediatricians.”
Banking on this ATM would come much handy in pre-empting any asthma  emergencies. Given the diagnostic dilemmas and confusing options in coping with Asthma, ATM  promises to provide an effective tool to tackle it. Childhood asthma is one of the most  common respiratory illnesses both in office practice as well as emergency department.  As per IAP, till now, nationally 8,000 and 1,000 Delhi-NCR doctors have been covered  in the programme so far benefiting a number of parents.  (PTI)