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Raising Luminaries creates workshops, training, and educational resources for parents & caregivers igniting the next generation of kind & courageous leaders.

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Home Book Collections Asthma Peak Week

Asthma Peak Week

via Ashia
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Raising Luminaries & Books for Littles are free and accessible for readers who can’t afford a paywall. Since we’re a contribute-what-you can community, I try to fill in the gaps with affiliate links. Posts may contain affiliate links, which allow me to earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Check out the full affiliate disclosure along with my statement of accountability.


Asthma Peak Week

Clean it!Abby's Asthma and the big racethe lion who had asthma

Even if no one in your family has asthma, this is your chance to be a good ally for folks with breathing disabilities!

Peak week is the sneaky time of year when folks with asthma get hit particularly hard and are vulnerable to sudden and deadly asthma attacks. Please take this seriously.

When is it?

  • I mean with climate change – WHO KNOWS?! But typically in late summer or early autumn as school starts and kids start to share germs, folks head indoors with reduced ventilation, ragweed releases its pollen, and mold starts to grow on fallen leaves.
  • In past years, the third week of September created the highest concentrations of asthma attacks and hospitalizations.

Read validating books for kids with asthma:

  • Clean It! (Ages 2-5) Normalizing characters with asthma.
  • Abby’s Asthma and the Big Race (Ages 4-8) Presuming competence, validating and empowering for kids with disabilities. Whether or not you care about asthma, this is such a good find! The story is not just validating for kids with asthma, it also validates the experience of disabled people dealing with friends, teachers, and family who assume folks with disabilities don’t know their own limits.
  • The Lion Who Had Asthma (Ages 1-5) If you’ve ever struggled to get a tot to sit still for nebulizer treatments, Our kiddo enjoyed this at 3.5, and it was all he needed to understand his how treatments help with fun make-pretend scenarios to pass the time in his treatments.

Discuss:

  • Educate non-asthmatic kids on what asthma is, and how to support a friend who is having trouble breathing.
  • But also dismantle myths that suggest kids with asthma are weak or incapable. People with disabilities know their own bodies best!
  • Let kids with asthma (even mild and infrequent) know about peak week, so they can pay attention to their bodies. You know how some kids get so distracted by fun, they don’t realize they need to pee and wet their pants? This is like that, but with deadly consequences.
  • Talk about your kid’s favorite sport or music genre (both of which require advanced breathing control), and find a few examples of successful people in this genre who live with asthma.

Take Action:

  • Presume competence and encourage kids to pay attention to their bodies’ messages. When our kid isn’t showing signs of labored breathing, but he tells us he needs his inhaler, we believe him and we get the damn inhaler!
  • Educate recess monitors, sports directors, and educators on the earlier, subtle signs of labored breathing and pending asthma attacks. Since most schools require inhalers be kept in a nurse’s office, you’ll need to account for the time to whisk a child to the nurse and for them to locate and administer medication.
  • Set aside time before peak week to check the expiration dates of medications and inhalers, and to get extra refills for sports activities and classrooms.

Additional resources to dig deeper into this topic:

 

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Stay Curious, Stand Brave & Smash The Kyriarchy

Raising Luminaries reduces the workload on overworked caregivers
igniting the next generation of kind & courageous leaders

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Ashia (they/them or she/her)

Raising Luminaries is founded & run by me, Ashia Ray – an Autistic, multiracial (Chinese/Irish) 2nd-generation settler raising two children alongside my partner on the homelands of the Wampanoag and Massachusett people. I support families and educators in raising the next generation of kind & courageous leaders, so we can all smash the kyriarchy together.

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RAISING LUMINARIES

Raising Luminaries creates workshops, training, and educational resources for parents & caregivers igniting the next generation of kind & courageous leaders.

ABOUT | MISSION | FINANCIALS | ACCOUNTABILITY

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

STAY IN TOUCH

Get free weekly email notifications with toolkits, guides & little delights

FREE STUFF

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

SHOP

Posts may contain affiliate links and  sponsorships, which allow me to earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

AFFILIATE POLICY

PARTNERS IN CAHOOTS

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Collaborate with Raising Luminaries on an issue important to you.

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Raising Luminaries is anchored in the land of the Wampanoag & Massachusett People.
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