See Your Breathing Fits Right in With Your Child’s Asthma Action Plan
According to KidsHealth/ Nemours Children’s Health, a respected source for pediatric medical information, these are the keys to managing your child’s asthma:
- “Have . . . an asthma action plan . . . “directions on what medicines to take and when, how to avoid triggers . . . “
- “Take medicines as prescribed . . .”
- “Identify and avoid triggers . . . Finding your child's triggers can take some detective work, but it's worth it. . . . When you know your child's triggers, help your child avoid them as much as possible . . .”
- “Use tools when necessary. One way to help predict if a flare-up is on its way is to use asthma tools, like an asthma diary . . . . This can help you learn about your child's early warning signs, and it can help your child's doctor see how well treatment is working.”
- “Know the signs of a flare-up . . . Early warning signs can help you spot a flare-up hours or even a day before obvious symptoms (such as wheezing and coughing) start. Kids can have changes in how they look, their mood or breathing, or they'll complain of ‘feeling funny’ in some way. Be sure you know your child's signs . . .” (Kids Health, Nemours Children’s Health, How Can I Manage My Child’s Asthma, https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/asthma-mgmt.html)
Over time, as your child makes See Your Breathing recordings, you will see which patterns are associated with your child ‘breathing easy’ as compared to times of labored breathing.
These patterns in the recordings may provide “early warning signs” to “spot a flare-up hours or even a day before obvious symptoms (such as wheezing and coughing) start,” “just as changes in how they look, their mood or breathing, or . . . feeling funny" can do. (Kids Health, above.)
Small children have neither the previous experience nor the vocabulary to tell us how they are feeling. Teenagers often keep everything they see as ‘personal’ to themselves.
That leaves the parents relying on what they can observe on their own about what triggers the child’s asthma attacks, which warning signs the child might show before an attack, and which measures, besides the child’s prescribed medicines, help to alleviate the attack.
These patterns in the recordings may provide “early warning signs” to “spot a flare-up hours or even a day before obvious symptoms (such as wheezing and coughing) start,” “just as changes in how they look, their mood or breathing, or . . . feeling funny" can do. (Kids Health, above.)
Small children have neither the previous experience nor the vocabulary to tell us how they are feeling. Teenagers often keep everything they see as ‘personal’ to themselves.
That leaves the parents relying on what they can observe on their own about what triggers the child’s asthma attacks, which warning signs the child might show before an attack, and which measures, besides the child’s prescribed medicines, help to alleviate the attack.
Here’s where See Your Breathing comes in. The app gives you a graph of your child’s breathing. This visual information, along with your observations of your child’s activity and mood, can help you figure out whether your child is going into a flare-up. You can also use the app to explore which home remedies, like a humidifier, help your child’s breathing.
Annotating your child’s See Your Breathing recordings with your child's condition and circumstance produces an asthma diary with objective visual measurements.
Annotating your child’s See Your Breathing recordings with your child's condition and circumstance produces an asthma diary with objective visual measurements.
How to Use See Your Breathing with a Really Young Child
B.P. is a two-year-old girl with asthma who lives in Maryland. Her Mom finds that it works best to record B.P.’s breathing while she is asleep. B.P.’s Mom does ‘stealth’ maneuver nighttime recordings in the same way A.R.’s Dad does. See Your Breathing Helps Dad Explore the Triggers . . .
It isn’t that B.P. is unwilling to breathe into the iPhone her Mom is holding an inch or so from her mouth – it is just that B.P. is a generally happy and involved little person. Ten or fifteen seconds is long stretch for her to just take deep, purposeful breaths, without commenting or giggling about the silliness of the situation.
B.P.’s Mom documented these recordings she made of B.P.– noting that B.P. was asleep on her back and starting to show symptoms of a cold.
B.P.’s Mom documented these recordings she made of B.P.– noting that B.P. was asleep on her back and starting to show symptoms of a cold.
Hints to ‘Grab’ Some Breathing Recordings from Your Wide Awake Child
There are several other ways to ‘grab’ a sufficient See Your Breathing recording from a very young child while they are awake:
- Put the sock-covered microphone end of the iPhone in front of your child's mouth when the timeline is in the ‘Breath’ section and remove it after you have recorded a good breath or two.
- Keep taking recordings until you have three recordings that proceeded without interruption and are similar to each other.
Mom Gives Four-Old-Girl a Sense of Agency that Promotes Her Cooperation
C.R. is a four-year-old girl, approaching the age at which you might hope for a child to be able and willing to follow directions to do something in a mindful and measured way.
C.R.’s Mom skillfully drew C.R. into being an interested and involved participant in recording her breathing by giving C.R. the task of choosing the sock that she would like to cover the microphone end of the iPhone.
C.R.’s Mom skillfully drew C.R. into being an interested and involved participant in recording her breathing by giving C.R. the task of choosing the sock that she would like to cover the microphone end of the iPhone.
Humidifier Makes a Big Difference for an Indiana School Boy
K.W., a seven-year old living in farm country in Indiana, was mentioned earlier in this website. The fact that K.W. has asthma does not keep him from participating in wrestling and outdoor sports. His Mom does a lot of planning to keep K.W. healthy – she keeps a supply of his medicines available wherever K.W. is – at home and stashed in the car for when they are away from home.
The family has an unusual heating system, with an outdoor wood burning boiler that heats water and pumps that hot water through pipes to the house. In the house the air circulates over the hot pipes to be warmed and then circulated throughout the house. This system results in very dry air in the house during cold, dry winter weather.
K.W.’s Mom decided to see if a room humidifier in K.W.’s room helped K.W.’s breathing at night. On the first night of this observation Mom set up the humidifier in his room. In the morning K.W. recorded his breath under his Mom’s supervision. On the next night the humidifier was left off. Again K.W. recorded his breathing in the morning.
You can see the difference in the recordings. (The column on the left, labeled Room test shows two recordings of the background noise in the room.)
The family has an unusual heating system, with an outdoor wood burning boiler that heats water and pumps that hot water through pipes to the house. In the house the air circulates over the hot pipes to be warmed and then circulated throughout the house. This system results in very dry air in the house during cold, dry winter weather.
K.W.’s Mom decided to see if a room humidifier in K.W.’s room helped K.W.’s breathing at night. On the first night of this observation Mom set up the humidifier in his room. In the morning K.W. recorded his breath under his Mom’s supervision. On the next night the humidifier was left off. Again K.W. recorded his breathing in the morning.
You can see the difference in the recordings. (The column on the left, labeled Room test shows two recordings of the background noise in the room.)
Can a Young Elementary School Student be Guided into Recording his Breathing Systematically?
K.W.’s Mom did not need to employ the sneak attack techniques that the Dad of preschoolers A.R. and M.R. uses with them – recording his children’s breathing while they are sleeping or recording their breathing when they are engrossed in quiet play and don’t quite notice enough to care that their Dad is holding an iPhone an inch away from their mouths.
K.W. was ready to learn from his mother’s instructions about how to breathe into the phone in a purposeful way and not to talk until the phone vibrated. He was motivated to do so because his mom praised him and also monetarily rewarded him for his efforts.
K.W.’s Mom did not need to employ the sneak attack techniques that the Dad of preschoolers A.R. and M.R. uses with them – recording his children’s breathing while they are sleeping or recording their breathing when they are engrossed in quiet play and don’t quite notice enough to care that their Dad is holding an iPhone an inch away from their mouths.
K.W. was ready to learn from his mother’s instructions about how to breathe into the phone in a purposeful way and not to talk until the phone vibrated. He was motivated to do so because his mom praised him and also monetarily rewarded him for his efforts.
With appropriate encouragement and rewards some preschool and kindergarten children can cooperate for the ten seconds or less that it takes to record their breath. Otherwise, the parents can record their child’s breath while the child is distracted or asleep.
Can See Your Breathing Help Teenagers Grow into Managing Their Own Asthma?
In the management of asthma, as in the rest of life, children start out completely dependent on their parents to see them through, and, hopefully by the time they are twenty or so, they can pretty much chart their own course and take care of themselves.
Teenagers have a positive feeling about many of the adult activities and responsibilities that they take on as they get older – finding a part-time job, getting a driver’s license, starting college, or entering the world of work instead of school – are challenging, but very positive to most teenagers.
To be in charge of their own asthma watchfulness, medication schedule, and care generally doesn’t appeal to teenagers in at all the same way. Instead, many teenagers feel awkward and embarrassed to be set apart from their peers by their having to be concerned and careful about asthma.
One of the adult participants (G.P.) using See Your Breathing remembers her embarrassment and discomfort as a child and teenager with asthma:
Teenagers have a positive feeling about many of the adult activities and responsibilities that they take on as they get older – finding a part-time job, getting a driver’s license, starting college, or entering the world of work instead of school – are challenging, but very positive to most teenagers.
To be in charge of their own asthma watchfulness, medication schedule, and care generally doesn’t appeal to teenagers in at all the same way. Instead, many teenagers feel awkward and embarrassed to be set apart from their peers by their having to be concerned and careful about asthma.
One of the adult participants (G.P.) using See Your Breathing remembers her embarrassment and discomfort as a child and teenager with asthma:
I have had asthma all 33 years of my life, but my condition has been better controlled over the last 10 years. I still have seasonal flare-ups, but nothing compares to the memories of weekly breathing treatments, steroids, and the embarrassment of always having to carry my inhaler throughout my childhood and adolescence.
The British Medical Journal (Open) reported on a survey of teenagers with asthma and their parents which found that “the social stigma of asthma and its role in adherence were prominent and continue to be underestimated ...”
Young Teenage Girl Works with Her Mother
M.G., a young teenage girl in Tennessee, was one of the two teenage participants in the See Your Breathing study. M.G.’s mother, T.G., helped her in planning and doing her various observations with See Your Breathing.
For example, M.G., who longed for a pet cat, prevailed upon her mother to take her to a local cat café and spend some time with her there to determine M.G.’s reaction to the allergens. The teenager showed a definite hours-long response to these triggers and their household remains cat-free. Teenage See Your Breathing Trailblazer
For example, M.G., who longed for a pet cat, prevailed upon her mother to take her to a local cat café and spend some time with her there to determine M.G.’s reaction to the allergens. The teenager showed a definite hours-long response to these triggers and their household remains cat-free. Teenage See Your Breathing Trailblazer
Here’s How M.G.’s Mom Describes the Use of See Your Breathing:
I utilized the See Your Breathing App with my teen daughter over 5 months. As a parent of a child with asthma, some of the challenges I face are: not knowing how my teen is feeling, not understanding the severity of a trigger or early warning signs of troubled breathing, not recognizing a trigger at all, and not knowing the impact of tools that could help positively affect her breathing.
For the 5 months using the app, my daughter took recordings in a variety of situations. She collected breath data which helped us gain an understanding of her variable breath patterns and set a baseline for her "normal".
The breathing app was invaluable in helping my teen understand how she was feeling and linking the feeling with a visual representation.
Recorded when teen M.G. was helping her Mom get ready for a trip.
M.G. colored two of the three breath recordings red and one green. This was done because the two red recordings were similar and the third recording, colored green, was a little different.
(Ignore the blue recordings – they are a side effect of M.G. using See Your Breathing as a 15-second timer between the three intended recordings.)
M.G. colored two of the three breath recordings red and one green. This was done because the two red recordings were similar and the third recording, colored green, was a little different.
(Ignore the blue recordings – they are a side effect of M.G. using See Your Breathing as a 15-second timer between the three intended recordings.)
The app is user-friendly, and customizable, with the ability to use different colors as well as the ability to toggle quickly through multiple users, colors, and labels. Participants can take a reading in seconds anywhere, and rerecord it as it meets their individual needs.
Arriving for a stay in Raleigh, N.C.
No special breath measurement devices required – just your iPhone.
(Ignore the blue recordings – they are a side effect of M.G. using See Your Breathing as a 15-second timer between the three intended recordings.)
No special breath measurement devices required – just your iPhone.
(Ignore the blue recordings – they are a side effect of M.G. using See Your Breathing as a 15-second timer between the three intended recordings.)
As a user, you can choose to see your previous recordings in the background of your newest recording or to separate them altogether.
We found that seeing the previous recordings in the background was helpful to gain an initial understanding of the recorded breath patterns and variability.
The orange recordings, made after a strenuous hiking trail/trail clean-up, are in the lowest range of the breathing recordings made throughout the day.
The recordings are automatically labeled with date and time, and with phone screenshot capabilities easily edited to add text. My teen would add text to her screenshots that included what was happening at the time of the recording which helped to clarify breathing patterns during specific situations considerably. These screenshots can be organized easily into folders using headers for quick identification.
Note the date and time of individual recordings.
Armed with this individual collection of data recordings, I had a new understanding of my teens’ specific triggers, warning signs, and helpful tools/resources including timeframes needed to reach "normal". The visible information and its accessibility from anywhere provided me with a new set of resources for tracking my teens' breathing patterns.
It was hours after her visit to the Cat Café that M.G.’s breathing returned to normal.
As an added benefit, I found my teen developing a better understanding of what the app was showing/telling her about different situations/scenarios. She actively hypothesized when in certain situations and used the app to test her theories.
(Ignore the blue recordings – they are a side effect of M.G. using See Your Breathing as a 15-second timer between the three intended recordings.)
She began to take more personal responsibility for her breathing and actively verbalized when a situation was likely to trigger a "red" curve.
While not always able to avoid every trigger; understanding how good and bad feels, and seeing that represented as a clear curve on the graphs continues to be especially useful.
Vaccinations did not trouble M.G.’s breathing as the Cat Café did – the shots were more like “a day in the park”!
(Ignore the blue recordings – they are a side effect of M.G. using See Your Breathing as a 15-second timer between the three intended recordings.)
(Ignore the blue recordings – they are a side effect of M.G. using See Your Breathing as a 15-second timer between the three intended recordings.)
The beauty is in the simplicity of the app. The data it provides is individualized and customizable. My teen and I have been able to identify her breathing patterns, natural variability, specific triggers, early warning signs of troubled breathing and then develop a plan of action to return her breathing to a comfortable range. The visibility of the data provides us with valuable information for everyday life.
Seventeen-Year-Old Girl in Florida
The second teenage participant was A.S., a seventeen-year old high school student in Florida. To a great extent A.S. plotted her own course with regard to which asthma triggers and remedies she chose to explore with See Your Breathing.
Benchmark
A.S. keeps a benchmark recording on many of her graphs as reminder of what her good breathing looks like. It is the green recording.
Feeling Icky
The recent recordings here were made while A.S. was feeling ‘icky’. The most recent recording is the heaviest black line. The previous five recording are increasingly less dark and more thin. In this instance all these immediately previous recordings are quite different from the benchmark green recording.
A.S. keeps a benchmark recording on many of her graphs as reminder of what her good breathing looks like. It is the green recording.
Feeling Icky
The recent recordings here were made while A.S. was feeling ‘icky’. The most recent recording is the heaviest black line. The previous five recording are increasingly less dark and more thin. In this instance all these immediately previous recordings are quite different from the benchmark green recording.
Sick
Again, the recordings on a ‘sick’ day are far from the benchmark green ‘good’ day.
Again, the recordings on a ‘sick’ day are far from the benchmark green ‘good’ day.
Test of Fan
The ceiling fan made a clear difference in A.S.’s breathing. The darkest recording – the most recent one – is a little bit above the benchmark green recording.
The ceiling fan made a clear difference in A.S.’s breathing. The darkest recording – the most recent one – is a little bit above the benchmark green recording.
Spicy Food
A.S. really enjoys spicy food. She recorded her breathing after eating one of her favorite spicy dishes and was dismayed to see that it seriously affected her breathing negatively.
A.S. really enjoys spicy food. She recorded her breathing after eating one of her favorite spicy dishes and was dismayed to see that it seriously affected her breathing negatively.
Disclaimer: The app is for informational purposes only. The app is no substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment or emergency intervention or transmission of time-critical data. Users should always seek the advice of their healthcare providers for any questions regarding their medical condition. You agree that the app should not be used to make medical decisions. Users should never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of information provided via the app.