5 Easy Home Heating Safety Tips

This winter, make a few safety inspections to make sure your home is up to the bitter challenge winter poses to comfortable living. Here are some tips:

Inspect Fireplaces

Have your chimney inspected by a professional prior to the start of every heating season. Creosote, a chemical substance that forms when wood burns, builds up in chimneys and can cause a chimney fire if the chimney is not properly cleaned. Always protect your family and home by using a sturdy screen when burning fires. Remember to burn only wood–never burn paper or pine boughs, which can float out of the chimney and ignite a neighboring home. Never use flammable liquids in a fireplace. If you are purchasing a factory-built fireplace, select one listed by a testing laboratory, and have it installed according to local codes.

Watch Your Wood Stoves

Be sure your wood or coal stove bears the label of a recognized testing laboratory and meets local fire codes. Follow manufacturers’ recommendations for proper use and maintenance. Chimney connections and chimney flues should be inspected at the beginning of each heating season and cleaned if necessary. Follow the same safety rules for wood stoves as you would for space heaters. Burn only wood, and be sure the wood stove is placed on an approved stove board to protect the floor from heat and hot coals. Be sure to check with your local fire department and check local codes before having your wood stove installed.

Be Cautious With Portable & Space Heaters

Place space heaters at least three feet away from anything combustible, including wallpaper, bedding, clothing, pets, and people. Never leave space heaters operating when you are not in the room or when you go to bed. Don’t leave children or pets unattended with space heaters, and be sure everyone knows that drying wet mittens or other clothing over space heaters is a fire hazard.

Cook with Care

When cooking, do not wear loose fitting clothing, which can be ignited by hot burners. Always turn pot handles in. Don’t store items on the stove top; they could catch fire. Keep kitchen appliances clean and in good condition, and turn them off after use. Don’t overload electrical outlets, and don’t use appliances with frayed or cracked wires.

Prepare a Winter Storm Plan

Have extra blankets on hand, and ensure that each member of your household has a warm coat, gloves or mittens, hat, and water-resistant boots. Stay tuned for storm warnings by listening to NOAA Weather Radio and your local radio and television stations for updated storm information.

Courtesy of the American Red Cross Lower Bucks County Chapter.

TREATING ASTHMA: How You Can Help Your Child Breathe Easier

If your child has asthma, you likely recognize the symptoms of an attack all too well: Your child may have difficulty breathing or begin to breathe very fast. He may start coughing, make a wheezing or whistling sound when exhaling, or complain of tightness in his chest.

I’ve witnessed these symptoms in three of my own children as well as my patients. I know it’s a scary experience, and one you never get used to. In fact, the more often asthma attacks happen, the more frightened you may feel, as you worry about your child’s health and wonder whether he will ever be free of asthma.

We can take some comfort in knowing that many other parents have the same concerns. Asthma, a chronic inflammatory lung condition, is the leading cause of chronic illness among children. In 2003, approximately 6.2 million children under age 18 in the United States had the diagnosis of asthma, and 4 million of them suffered an asthma attack or episode.

For some children, asthma results in emergency-room visits and hospitalizations. In fact, it’s the third leading cause of hospitalization among children under age 15. Even when it doesn’t send kids to the hospital, it can disrupt their lives: Asthma accounted for 12.8 million lost school days in 2003, making it the leading cause of school absenteeism attributable to chronic conditions.

What sets off an attack

Understanding how and why your child’s asthma attacks happen, and knowing how you can manage his condition with treatment, can help you feel less scared and more in control.

Asthma triggers range from respiratory infections to allergens such as pollen, molds, animal dander, feathers, and dust mites, and airborne irritants such as cigarette smoke and air pollutants. Other triggers may include certain foods, exposure to cold air or a sudden change in temperature, exercise, many household and industrial products, scents, or excitement or stress.

Each person reacts differently to these factors. In an asthmatic person, the linings become inflamed, the muscles of the airways tighten, and mucus production increases. As a result, the air passages in the lungs become narrower and breathing, especially breathing out, becomes more difficult.

Knowing your child’s asthma triggers and minimizing his exposure to them is an important step toward controlling his condition.

Learning about treatment is essential, too. The good news is that most children have mild to moderate asthma, which can be controlled by treatment at home or at the doctor’s office.

Taking control with medicine

Most people with asthma take two kinds of medicines. The first kind, a controller medicine, stops the airways from reacting to asthma triggers and helps control inflammation—the “quiet part” of asthma that cannot be heard, seen or felt—so the patient can breathe better. Controller medicines reduce and help prevent some asthma symptoms or triggers from occurring, but they work only if they are taken every day, as prescribed by a physician. This ongoing treatment is important because although children may seem symptom-free for long periods of time, they can experience acute (sudden onset) or intermittent asthma attacks.

Another kind of asthma medicine is a quick-relief, or rescue, medicine. This type of medicine is also known as a bronchodilator and dilates, or opens, the airways, making it easier for the patient to breathe. Bronchodilators are used for quick relief of symptoms of an asthma attack.

For your child’s health and safety, it’s essential to use each type of asthma medicine only the way it’s meant to be used—don’t use bronchodilators every day for asthma control, and don’t use controller medicines for quick relief of asthma attacks.

In most cases, asthma attacks are reversible and controllable. We are fortunate to have effective medications that can minimize the impact asthma has on our children’s lives, but they work only if we use them correctly and consistently. We also need to be vigilant about limiting exposure to asthma triggers and keeping follow-up appointments with the pediatrician or allergist. Remember: Even when we can’t see or hear evidence of our children’s asthma, it’s still there and needs to be kept under control.

Dr. Donna Backus is a pediatrician and has four children, ages 11, 7, 4 and 9 months, three of whom have been diagnosed with asthma.

Tips For Battling Asthma During The Fall

In the fall, ragweed and other weed pollens are the biggest culprits when it comes to triggering breathing problems. These plants tend to have small, light, and dry pollens that are easily spread to other areas by wind currents. Outdoor molds can also trigger breathing problems at this time of year.

Here are some tips for reducing contact with weed pollens and molds.

• Keep your child indoors as much as possible on hot, breezy days when pollen counts may be at their highest. Keep car and house windows closed. Turn on the air conditioning if you need it to keep cool.

• Don’t hang clothing outside to dry. Pollen granules can collect on the clothing and trigger symptoms when brought inside.

• Don’t let your child play in, rake, or walk through fall leaves. Mold spores often collect in fallen

Coughing Up the Truth

It’s cold out. You cough. You wake up and cough. Someone tickles you or your child and the coughing erupts. A cough can be “more than a cough.” Three common underlying reasons for a cough are usually the culprit: postnasal drip from allergies or sinusitis, or both; asthma; and gastro esophageal reflux.

Postnasal drip from the allergies is common, and if the underlying allergies are not treated, the cough will linger. Allergy testing may be performed so that avoidance and environmental control measures of specific allergen triggers can be employed. Allergy medications are often incredibly helpful. Sometimes an allergy sufferer may also have an associated Sinusitis, which would require a course of oral antibiotics. Diagnosis is often made by physical exam and at time radiographic studies. Treatment of postnasal drip can make you or your child’s cough a “thing of the past.” Although many people have wheezing or shortness of breath with asthma, the cough may be the presenting symptom, especially in asthmatic children. For someone with underlying allergies, a diagnosis of asthma is not surprising. Asthma education and treatment is also highly effective. The earlier the diagnosis is made, the more comfortable one will be. A cough can also be an initial symptom of gastro esophageal reflux. Treatment strategies include dietary and lifestyle changes, as well as medications. Appropriate therapy for reflux can make the cough disappear for good. If you think your cough is “more than just a cough,” then an evaluation by your primary care physician or allergy/asthma specialist may be warranted.

Dr. Maria Lania-Howarth is the head of the Division of Asthma, Allergy, and Immunology at Cooper Hospital University Medical Center in Camden, NJ.