Researchers have been trying to find evidence that food allergies act as a trigger for asthma for many years. This has been found to be true so far only in older children and adults with severe allergies to some foods, such as nuts and shellfish. Yes, children often cough at night, but if a child is truly troubled by nighttime cough to the point of repeated awakening and loss of sleep, asthma should be investigated as the cause. If asthma is poorly controlled, exercise will act as a trigger. But it is now almost always possible to control the asthma with modern controller medicines so that the child can engage in normal activity.
Many elite athletes have asthma.
Many asthmatic adults with asthmatic children have not learned about these advances and thus lower their standards and expectations about controlling asthma in their children. Immunizations have been blamed for many diseases since the sharp increase in childhood diseases that can be abolished by immunization. There is no evidence so far that this sharp increase has had anything to do with the increased incidence of asthma. As a physician, I was trained to concentrate on more scientific approaches to treating lung diseases in children. However, I keep an open mind about holistic approaches and have heard many stories that suggest some of these approaches have been successful.