EHT School Nurses May 2023

Asthma is a disease that affects your lungs. It causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and nighttime or early morning coughing. Asthma can be controlled by taking medicine and avoiding the triggers that can cause an attack.

Monitoring your asthma on a regular basis is important to keeping your asthma under control. Most people who have asthma should be able to gain control of it—and keep it under control for a lifetime. Once your asthma is controlled, you should be able to do anything that someone without asthma can do—whether it’s sleeping through the night, going on a hike, or playing in a soccer game. You should be able to live a normal, active life.

• Work closely with your health care providers.
• Manage your medicines.
• Identify your asthma triggers
• Watch for changes in your asthma.

Asthma is a leading chronic illness among children and youth in the United States and a leading cause of school absenteeism. Teachers, coaches, day care providers, and educators can help children manage their asthma.

Students who experience an asthma attack at school should never be left alone. The school nurse should be contacted as soon as possible to conduct a health assessment. An albuterol inhaler is the first-line treatment for quick relief of asthma.

Allergies are your body’s reaction to a foreign protein. Usually, these proteins (allergens) are harmless. However, if you have an allergy to a particular protein, your body’s defense system overreacts to its presence in your body.

Children spend most of their time during the week at school. That means if they have an allergy that needs managing at home, they likely will also need this allergy managed at school should symptoms occur. Here are common allergies that may need managing at school:

• Outdoor Allergies such as seasonal allergies (pollen)
• Indoor Allergies (dust, mold, mildew, pets)
• Latex Allergies
• Food Allergies (milk, soy, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish, shellfish, wheat, sesame)
  
  

• Talk about your child’s allergies.
• Talk about any accommodations that your child may need – in the cafeteria or classroom – and drop off forms, medication and your child’s Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan.
• Consider providing the school with written permission to call your child’s pediatrician with any questions.
• Update the school with any new information or inform them of any anaphylactic reactions that your child experiences outside of school.

Make arrangements to see your doctor or allergist during the summer to monitor your child’s food or environmental allergies.

• Update their medication forms and Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan. Some schools may refer to this as an Anaphylaxis Action Plan.

• Talk about concerns you may have and include your child in the discussion about allergy management.

EpiPen® and EpiPen Jr® Auto-Injectors are for the emergency treatment of life-threatening allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) caused by allergens, exercise, or unknown triggers; and for people who are at increased risk for these reactions.

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/education/LMBBasthma/asthma-awareness-month

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/resources/asthma-kids

https://www.cdc.gov/asthma/schools.html

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8610-allergies

https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/allergies-and-asthma-at-school/managing-allergies-in-schools-a-guide-for-parents/

https://www.med.unc.edu/pediatrics/cccp/wp-content/uploads/sites/1156/gravity_forms/1-188e5632d99d8f770a150fd48b72fb22/2021/02/How_to_Use_EpiPen_Autoinjector.pdf

https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/allergies-and-asthma-at-school/managing-asthma-a-guide-for-schools/#:~:text=Students%20who%20experience%20an%20asthma,for%20quick%20relief%20of%20asthma.