Mother Doris Danelon says, "He used to have some severe attacks when sick with colds. It was frightening."

As a pre-schooler, Alex would often have to take breaks from playing outside because of his asthma.

Doris says, "we used to just react to his asthma attacks when he got colds, give him his medication and just go through these cycles of asthma attacks coming back."

Inhaled corticosteroids are the golden standard when it comes to asthma control, but many parents are worried about the medication's effect on their child's rate of growth.

Doris says, "that wasn't the reason we held back giving it to him, it was more the education."

Dr. Alex Ferguson at BC Children's Hospital says, "most studies of inhaled steroids show that there is some effect on growth. Then often the effect diminishes as time goes on." 

Now new research on another type of asthma medication shows it has no impact on a child's rate of growth. Although it works more specifically on airway inflammation, the study showed the medication was equally as effective as corticosteroids in children with mild asthma.

Doctors say the findings give patients more treatment options and that may help prevent more severe attacks.

Dr. Ferguson says, "there is a lot of evidence children are generally undertreated for asthma and this could be reversed if they can be treated with the appropriate medications in the appropriate way over long periods."

Alex, 7, says, "there's no powder inside it, it goes into your lungs when you suck it. Last time, I had to do it in the morning and at night. Now, I just have to do it at night."

Even though Alex has been on corticosteroids for years now, he hasn't had any problems with his growth. And now that his family has learned the importance of daily medication, Alex's asthma has improved.

Mom Doris comments, "I can't remember the last time he had an asthma attack. It's been really well under control. He's still achieving maximum lung capacity as a normal child."

Tuesday June 27, 2006