Daniel on top of his symptoms

By REBECCA WALSH

Half-time at soccer used to be inhaler time for Daniel Pringle.

Now the 7-year-old, who plays defence, can get through a game easily and rarely reaches for his Ventolin puffer.

His mother, Debbie, puts it down to a self-management plan, devised for him at an asthma clinic in Silverdale.

"It's been fantastic. He's not so tired, he gets a good night's sleep and he seems a happy, more rounded person."

Daniel was diagnosed with asthma just before his fourth birthday, when the family lived in Wellington.

"It made me all wheezy and coughy, especially in winter when it was the soccer season. At half-time or when I was substituted I had my Ventolin," he said.

Mrs Pringle said although Daniel had a preventive puffer, the family did not know how important it was to use it regularly, and gave it to him only when his asthma was bad.

"When we first started they didn't give me enough information on how to manage it. He wasn't taking the Flixotide [the preventive medication] correctly."

Through a better understanding of how and when to use his inhaler, Daniel, whose father, Jonathan, also has asthma, is now virtually symptom-free.

Mrs Pringle urged other parents who wondered if their children might have asthma to get it checked early.

It is a sentiment echoed by asthma nurse Wendy McNaughton, who runs the asthma clinic at Silverdale Medical.

She helps people from school age through to their 90s develop a self-management plan and believes many children with asthma go undetected.

Although some people were reluctant to use steroid preventive medication, she believed people were likely to suffer more harm by not taking it.

She advocated a combination of self-management and the correct drugs.

"From a teenager's point of view, they are conscious an inhaler can give them a stigma."