[Particularities of childhood asthma]

Asthma is the most frequent respiratory chronic disease in children. Underdiagnosis is frequent, resulting in undertreatment. Elimination of alternative causes of wheezing is a key step of asthma diagnosis, especially in infants. Chest X-ray must be systematically performed. Therapy is guided by the evaluation of asthma severity and is based on inhaled corticosteroids. As far as possible, low doses of inhaled corticosteroids must be delivered to children. Inhalation techniques must be adapted to the age of children. Most of asthmatic infants will stop wheezing before school age. On the contrary, most of shool-age asthmatic children will be still symptomatic at adulthood.