Recent figures suggest that there are more than 6 million children who are under the age of 18 suffering from asthma. Although most children who will develop asthma have usually done so by the age of about six many medical professionals admit that the chronic condition can be hard to properly diagnose in babies in toddlers.

Most parents of an infant are naturally very cautious and may fear that even the tiniest wheeze or rattle in the chest may indicate that the baby has asthma. However babies are susceptible to a number of different respiratory problems that are not at all asthma related.

A common condition that is mistaken for asthma in infants is bronchiolitis ,which is usually viral in nature, the most common infection being respiratory syncytial virus (or RSV as it is commonly known) .The infection attacks the tiny airways that are medically known as bronchioles, causing them to become swollen and inflamed, making normal breathing difficult.

Symptoms of RSV commonly include rapid breathing, fever, wheezing and a nagging cough. There is a school of thought that feels that infants who develop RSV will be more prone to asthma later in life but the link has not been conclusively proven.

There are other reasons a child may wheeze; inhaled food particles are a common cause.

One incidence of an infant wheezing is not of course enough for them to be labeled with a diagnosis of asthma but the matter should be discussed with the child’s pediatrician. Doctors are extremely cautious with asthma diagnoses, as they often will not wish to label a child as having a chronic condition so early in life. Many doctors prefer to monitor the child as he or she develops and ling function testing can be far more efficient and effective. In fact less than one third of the infants who display a tendency to wheeze as infants go on to develop asthma.

On the other hand medical professionals are just as aware of the damage that untreated asthma can cause young lungs, so they may elect to go ahead and begin treating the child with common asthma controlling medications even if there is no firm diagnosis.

Parents of a wheezing infant need to make sure that they tell their child’s doctor if there is a history of asthma in the family, as this may increase the baby’s risk for the disease. They must also be honest about any cigarette smoking that goes on around the baby, because that will certainly not help their breathing at all.