It is fitting that the first article in my children’s health series should deal with the topic of childhood asthma. After all, this is the very illness which awoke my initial interest in nutrition 10 years ago. My son had been diagnosed with asthma following several series of nightly coughing fits leading to vomiting. Recommendations were to inhale Ventolin 3 times daily for an indefinite period (possibly years!), remove all stuffed animals, carpeting, down duvets and pillows from his bedroom. After stripping his bedroom and using Ventolin for 3 weeks, there was no improvement. The casual remark of an acquaintance, whose second child had had a cow milk intolerance which triggered his asthma, made me remove milk from Yannick’s diet. At one year of age, he was drinking two bottles of it a day. I converted to soya and rice milks and within 5 days the coughing and vomiting at night subsided. Within a month, it was a thing of the past. Today, Yannick can eat milk products on a rotation basis.

Childhood asthma is a condition due to airway obstruction. The bronchi in the lungs are narrowed, muscle spasms and mucous secretions occur which make breathing difficult. It can be caused by a number of factors (see below). Specialists agree that a predisposition to asthma may be inherited in addition to environmental triggers. Current pollution may have a strong influence. Twenty years ago, 1 in 20 people were afflicted by asthma. Today, as many as 1 in 5 children and nearly as many in adults suffer from the condition. >>>

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