Sports and asthma

It's soccer season! Which is great, except that it's played on grass, and that is one of Kitty's triggers. She's been better since she's been doing allergy shots for the past 3 years, but sometimes it still bothers her. At least she doesn't have exercise induced asthma, that can make it a lot harder when you are playing sports.

Does your child's coach know what to do if your child has an asthma attack? We actually had a player that had an asthma attack on Saturday during the soccer game, and the coach didn't know what to do. Luckily, we found the player's mom, but what if she wasn't at the game? Or what if a player has an asthma attack at practice? Most parents drop their kids off for practice, but attend the games. No one there would know what to do to help my kids if they had an attack during practice.

There is a 20 minute FREE online training about asthma that was made for coaches (of course anyone who works with the youth should view it-scout leaders, recess guards, school secretaries, etc.)

Click here to do the training. It's called Winning with Asthma, and you can do it online (in your pajamas if you want!) There are a few questions at the beginning, then a few at the end (probably to see if we learned anything) Then they will send a FREE clipboard that has all the signs of an asthma attack printed on the back (and what to do.) It also comes with a small booklet that goes over everything that was in the online training. What coach doesn't want a clipboard? Especially one that has "WHAT TO DO DURING AN ASTHMA ATTACK" printed on it? (it lists symptoms of an asthma attack, what to do during an asthma attack, and when to call 911) The clipboard could come in very handy if a player has an asthma attack and the coach panics.

You may want to take the training yourself, everyone could use a refresher course about asthma, right? And send the link to your child's coach so they can take it too. We need the coaches to be able to help our kids if we're not there. Their lives depend on it.