Hi Rachel
My name is Nicole, my youngest son Luke who is six has asthma, his is very
bad in the winter, not so bad in the summer, Luke was dx with asthma at a
young age, so it may have been easier for him because it just became apart
of life (but never a big part, and never who he is) Me and his dad always
made an effort to not make a big deal out of it, we tell him everything, we
always ask him if he needs anything explained while we are at the doctors
office, so he knows while we will take care of him, he has asthma and has to
be responsible with it, when he was younger he had an allergy to all dairy,
which was a pain because of birthday parties and things, people always
wanted to sneak him cake or ice-cream, when all the kids would eat ice cream
at first we had to just tell him no, it became second nature for him to just
say no, then we found ways around it like soy ice cream, so he did not mind,
he did not have to share his stuff it was all his. As he got older we signed
him up for sports, no one thought that to be a good idea, he now plays
football, baseball, soccer, the only thing different is when he gets tired
he knows to come and sit down for a minute before it gets to bad, he is on
pulmacourt in the nebuliser twice a day, he does it before getting out of
bed in the morning which gives him an excuse to watch cartoons for a bit,
and when he goes to bed which gives us time to lay down and read a book. I
have three boys and the one thing I have learned is kids don't like to be
different from other kids, Luke had to do a treatment at his birthday party
once and all his new friends were there, and it was the first time he was
worried and did not just go do his treatment, I set it up for him and he did
it, and he told his friends after he had asthma and had to take medicine,
they did not think twice about it, because he did not. he has a inhaler at
school incase he needs it, I think the most important thing is just be
honest and don't make a big deal out of it, I know with Luke sports are so
important to him that I took him to the asthma fair in the summer he met
Jerome bettis, from the Steelers (we are from pgh) and he told Luke he could
play football as long as he made sure he always took care of his asthma, he
was no different then any other kid.
Nikki

First of all, realize that age 4 he wont be able to care for himself
unsupervised.  he wont be able to use the inhaler on his own, and needs
an adult.  as he gets older, he can assume more of his health care
responsibilities.

Most importantly, DON'T treat him as something fragile.  The goal in
treating any child with asthma is normalcy. This doesn't mean not
treating it or ignoring it.  It means that he should be managed so that
he has as little restriction as possible.  Let him watch the commercial
with Bus Bettis (Steeler football player) who talks about his asthma.

Find a doctor that has these same goals as well.