Parents of children with asthma are concerned about their child. Two questions they almost invariably ask me are: 1. Doctor, is this really asthma? 2. Will my child outgrow it? There is a popular misconception (based on false hope) that asthma will simply go away as the child grows up and that this happens around puberty. This hope is strengthened by non-specialist doctor’s reassurance that the child will become all right at puberty. The parents of a child with asthma have a more optimistic view of this than what the reality is.
This hope and belief prevents children with asthma from getting timely treatment. Does asthma really go away as the child grows older? What is the truth? The truth is that some children do outgrow asthma but most don’t. Is it possible to predict which child will outgrow asthma? Not exactly. But there are some indications: Boys are more likely to outgrow asthma…
