Baby Calendar Daily updates for your baby's first year. My baby's wheezing. I've heard asthma's on the rise. My baby's wheezing. You may be alarmed if you hear your baby wheezing, but the chances are that it's not asthma.
Many young children wheeze when they have an upper respiratory tract infection or a cold.
If the wheezing frequently recurs in the absence of a cold, ask for your GP's opinion. In a child less than a year old, the airways are so small that they can make a wheezing sound which is not true asthma. Wheezing can be quite common in early childhood, and unless the attacks persist past the age of 3, most doctors say there's no cause for alarm. As in other types of allergies , the trigger stimulates IgE antibodies to produce histamine and other chemical mediators. Chemicals released by the antibodies swell the lung's lining and tighten the muscles of the airway, and they also start producing mucus.