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Poor air quality and asthma


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I was checking the weather report for my area when I noticed that we are under a poor air quality advisory for today--I have never, ever, in my entire life seen one of those for where I live. So please excuse my ignorance on this issue.

 

Our plans for the day include going to a putt putt place that also has go carts, batting cages, and some other fun outside activities. My DS has asthma. I'm debating if we should keep our plans or if we should stay home. I hate missing out on fun, but I also don't want to do something that's going to hurt my son.

 

And being as how I've never experienced a poor air quality day, I'm not sure if it's even a problem or not.

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Around us, I think they have changed the criteria for poor air quality. As a result, we have a lot more of these alerts than we used to. So it could be that you've experienced these days before without incident.

 

You likely won't know how it affects him unless you give it a try. If it were me, I'd try to have an exit plan just in case, but I'd probably go ahead with the activities. However, I might not want to have someone with asthma planning on anything really heavy. So putt-putt golf might be fine, but running a race, maybe not.

 

My daughter's asthma doesn't seem to be all that affected by what the general air quality is. She's more likely to react to local air quality -- campfires nearby, woodstoves, high chlorine content in the pool, etc.

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I have allergy-induced asthma. I take medication (Singulair) daily but never need to use an inhaler. I can NOT be outside when we have air quality advisories and high heat. I don't know where you are but the heat index for today in NJ is 110 degrees. That is very very unusual for this area and combined with the humidity, I will have to stay inside today.

 

For your son it may depend on how bad his asthma is in general, is it just a air quality warning or is it combined with heat index/humidity warnings? You can try letting him play outside for a little while before its time to leave, keep a close eye on him and see how he does. A lot of those putt-putt, batting cages, go-cart places have very little shade so being in the sun all day in high heat could be a concern for everyone.

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As a mom of 2 kids who have had asthma issues (the oldest has grown out of it) and a mom who lives in an area with air quality warnings posted frequently, I would change your plans for the day. Probably not what you wanted to hear... I'm sorry! My sons' pediatrician actually told us to NOT go outside on air quality action days.

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Typically the mornings are better when the air quality is bad, so I've done things like that in the morning when they are projecting poor air quality.

 

Otherwise frankly I stay inside as much as possible when there is an alert. Last night I did a few errands after dark, and then did my outdoor chores first thing this morning.

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