Five-year-old with Asthma
A.R. is a five-year-old boy living in Illinois. He has asthma and his parents try to keep him free from asthma flare-ups while not unnecessarily limiting the joys of his childhood – like playing outdoors and having a pet dog.
A.R.’s Dad deals with seasonal allergies himself and has a brother with asthma, so Dad has always used his own experience and recollections of his brother’s experience to get a handle on A.R.’s asthma. If Dad has itchy, watering eyes on a pollen-filled spring day, Dad knows that it is likely that the pollen is affecting A.R.’s breathing.
A.R.’s Dad deals with seasonal allergies himself and has a brother with asthma, so Dad has always used his own experience and recollections of his brother’s experience to get a handle on A.R.’s asthma. If Dad has itchy, watering eyes on a pollen-filled spring day, Dad knows that it is likely that the pollen is affecting A.R.’s breathing.
Since cat dander is a trigger for Dad’s brother, Dad keeps A.R. away from cats. And, of course, Dad directly observes his son to see and hear whether A.R. is having trouble breathing. Dad now has integrated See Your Breathing with established methods to help discover what triggers A.R.’s asthma.
In order for Dad to use See Your Breathing as a tool he had to come up with a method for recording A.R.’s breathing on the iPhone that works for a lively and vocal five-year-old. At first A.R. tended to make a “blowing out the birthday candles” breath, instead of a deep open-mouth in-and-out breath.
In order for Dad to use See Your Breathing as a tool he had to come up with a method for recording A.R.’s breathing on the iPhone that works for a lively and vocal five-year-old. At first A.R. tended to make a “blowing out the birthday candles” breath, instead of a deep open-mouth in-and-out breath.
Dad tried out several ways to overcome this problem. One way is to hold the iPhone in front of A.R.’s mouth while A.R. is absorbed in playing quietly with toys. This way A.R. breathes naturally into the phone because he is engrossed in his play.
The second method is to record A.R.’s breath while he is asleep. This method has two advantages. First, it captures A.R.’s natural way of breathing – not his blow-out-the-birthday-candle style. Also, recording while A.R. is asleep means that the timeline record of his breathing is true to his natural nighttime breathing. Likewise, the Total Power reflects his condition, not his choice.
A lot of A.R.’s asthmatic breathing problems occur at night, so night is a good time to hone in on his triggers and remedies and also to see if he is in the pre-stage of an asthma attack.
The second method is to record A.R.’s breath while he is asleep. This method has two advantages. First, it captures A.R.’s natural way of breathing – not his blow-out-the-birthday-candle style. Also, recording while A.R. is asleep means that the timeline record of his breathing is true to his natural nighttime breathing. Likewise, the Total Power reflects his condition, not his choice.
A lot of A.R.’s asthmatic breathing problems occur at night, so night is a good time to hone in on his triggers and remedies and also to see if he is in the pre-stage of an asthma attack.
Under which Sleeping Conditions Does A.R. Have Fewer Asthma Symptoms?
Dad is using See Your Breathing to explore the conditions in which A.R. sleeps best and does not wheeze.
His questions are:
Dad works from his own observations of A.R. while A.R. is asleep at night and when he awakens the next morning. Dad uses See Your Breathing to help answer these questions.
His questions are:
- Does A.R. sleep better when the dog is not in his bedroom?
- Is it better to have the fan off or on?
- Does A.R. sleep better if he has a dose of medicine right before his bedtime?
- Does the use of a humidifier help?
- Does A.R. sleep better on his back, side, or stomach?
Dad works from his own observations of A.R. while A.R. is asleep at night and when he awakens the next morning. Dad uses See Your Breathing to help answer these questions.
One night, while making a fifteen second recording of A.R. while sleeping, Dad heard A.R. wheezing quite audibly. That recording has a steep incline at one point. The steep incline indicates a lot of power at that frequency. This is consistent with a ‘wheeze’ which is a high-pitched whistling sound made while breathing.
There is another steep, but shorter, incline in another See Your Breathing recording from the same session. This suggests that A.R. wheezed during that recording as well, but that the softer wheeze was not audible to Dad.
There is another steep, but shorter, incline in another See Your Breathing recording from the same session. This suggests that A.R. wheezed during that recording as well, but that the softer wheeze was not audible to Dad.
See Your Breathing as a Tool for Sorting Out Multiple Possible Triggers and Remedies
See Your Breathing has the potential to help sort out which potential triggers – dog in room at night, dog having been in the bedroom during the day, sleeping on stomach, etc. – lead A.R. to wheeze in his sleep and which remedies – extra dose of medicine before bedtime, sleeping on back, fan, humidifier, dogs always out of bedroom/ dogs out of bedroom while A.R. is sleeping – succeed in keeping A.R. from wheezing and possibly falling into a full blown asthma attack at night.
Dad used See Your Breathing to help him explore this situation. Here is one night's recordings.
See Your Breathing has the potential to help sort out which potential triggers – dog in room at night, dog having been in the bedroom during the day, sleeping on stomach, etc. – lead A.R. to wheeze in his sleep and which remedies – extra dose of medicine before bedtime, sleeping on back, fan, humidifier, dogs always out of bedroom/ dogs out of bedroom while A.R. is sleeping – succeed in keeping A.R. from wheezing and possibly falling into a full blown asthma attack at night.
Dad used See Your Breathing to help him explore this situation. Here is one night's recordings.
A couple of nights’ recordings suggest that A.R. sleeping on his back is better than sleeping on his stomach.
On Stomach
On Stomach
On Back
Superimposing the ‘on stomach’ and ‘on back’ screenshots in Excel reveals that the ‘on back’ recordings contain very small wheezes (steep inclines) that line up with the the big wheezes of the ‘on stomach’ recordings. By taking a screenshot of a section of the Excel spreadsheet this observation was added to A.R.'s See Your Breathing album in Photos.
M.R.
A.H.’s three-year-old sister, M.R., has not been diagnosed with asthma. Because her brother has asthma her parents are alert to the possibility that M.R. may also have asthma.
Because Dad is using See Your Breathing to track A.R.’s breathing he decided to sample M.R.’s breathing as well. During time spent in the children’s room recording A.R.’s breathing, Dad heard little sister M.R. wheezing at times also. Dad explored further, using See Your Breathing. As with A.R., steep inclines appear on M.R.’s See Your Breathing recordings that were made when M.R. was audibly wheezing.
Normal
Normal
Wheezing
These recordings provide examples of normal and troubled breathing that Dad can use as he continues to keep an eye on M.R.'s breathing.
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