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6 Year Old Have Asthma Problem And Breath Rate Of 40. Is This Normal?

Posted on Fri, 21 Dec 2012

Question: My six year-old isn't feeling well today. He tends to get asthma when he's sick. He had his inhaler about an 1 1/2 hours ago and is sleeping now. I just checked him and he's doing about 40 respirations per minute and HR is 132. Should I wake him and take him to a doctor or is this normal for asthma?

Answered by Dr. Santosh Kondekar (2 hours later)

Hi

Thanks for the query.

Asthmatics often have laboured breathing due to airway narrowing during breathing out.
Though breath rate of 40 may be technically normal for age. I will request a visit to emergency department as rapid breathing does not always suggest asthma but can be developing pneumonia.
Heart rate may be 130 plus following inhaler use. I would suggest use of peak flow meter to monitor asthma at home.

Asthma at home can best be monitored by charting symptoms daily on a recall diary. You may read about such symptom diary at WWW.WWWW.WW
I hope this information will be useful to you making a decision. Do write back if any further issues. Visit your child asthma specialist and understand the concept of rescue medicine too.

Thanks

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Mohammed Kappan