The number of Scottish children being hospitalised for asthma attacks in September nearly triples after starting the new school term, a charity has warned.
Ahead of the new school year, Asthma + Lung UK Scotland said that, according to its analysis, many children could be at risk of having a potentially life-threatening asthma attack after returning to the classroom.
Preventer inhaler routines can get disrupted over the holidays, so children's airways can be more sensitive to asthma triggers when they go back to school, the charity added.
With an estimated 71,000 children with asthma in Scotland, Asthma + Lung UK Scotland research revealed that over the past seven years, hospital admissions for children aged 5 to 19 in Scotland spike in August and September when children return to school, compared to July.
Alison Deans is a nurse living in East Kilbride. Her sons are 11 and 5 and were pre-schoolers before they started to develop asthma.
She said: “It is always a slightly anxious time for a mum when your children return to school for the autumn, or when they start school for the first time as my youngest is about to, as they are more susceptible to coughs and colds and picking up the inevitable bugs that are going around. And no one wants this to become a trigger for your child to have an asthma attack.
