'Oh Yeah? How High is Your Peak Flow?"

And....that's what conversation sounds like at my house. 

Son #1 wanted to know if his number was higher than Kitty's peak flow number. 

A peak flow meter is a small handheld device that measure how much air you can blow out in 1 second.

It gives you a pretty good idea of what your "personal best" is. It also has green, yellow and red zones.

When my kids were little, they use their peak flow meter every morning and every night. Then they would yell out their number. I knew what each kid normally sounded like when they exhaled as hard and fast as they could. And I knew their number. 

There were days when I could HEAR a change in how hard and fast they could blow out. And their number would drop.

Now, keep in mind that Peak Flow Meters are "effort dependent", meaning some kids will "fake it" and have a low number so they can skip school.

My kids were in the hospital 12 times, and they HATED missing school. 

When I could hear a change in my child's exhale, I knew he was in his yellow zone - and we were in trouble. The peak flow can give you a heads up that you have swelling in lungs (this would usually happen a few days before my kids started to show symptoms of an illness.)

That would give us time to call Asthma Doc and see if he wanted to bump up their medication. Sometimes my kids would end up in the hospital anyway. (Can I tell you how much I hate pneumonia?)

Peak flows are handy to have around to keep track of how your lungs are doing. 

And did my son have a higher peak flow number than my daughter?

Yes - but did you know that men have larger lungs than women?

Plus he is older (and taller.) 

And he plays the bagpipes!