When she was 2 years old, Sonali Mavinkurve caught a cold. But this time there was nothing common about it. "She started wheezing and had a barking cough that wouldn't quit," says her mom, Iliana Mavinkurve, who lives in Livingston, NJ. "I had asthma as a child, so I recognized Sonali's symptoms and was worried." At first, doctors called Sonali's condition "reactive airway disease," because children her age can't do the breathing tests necessary to pinpoint asthma definitively. "But when her symptoms kept coming back, given my family history, Sonali got the diagnosis," says Mavinkurve.

It's never easy to hear that your child may have a lifelong illness, especially one that interferes with breathing. But the fact that asthma is so common -- nearly 7 million kids have been diagnosed, and all those with allergies or parents with the condition are at risk of developing it -- means doctors (and moms) know a lot about how to manage it. In fact, with proper treatment, even kids with severe asthma can live perfectly normal lives. So go ahead, breathe that sigh of relief. We're here to help you every step of the way.

Why spotting asthma can be tricky

Given how dramatic asthma symptoms are, you'd think it'd be a snap to diagnose. That's often not the case, especially in kids under 5. "As many as half of children have at least one episode of wheezing before age three, but after that most never wheeze again," says Paul Williams, M.D., clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington. In fact, only 15 to 20 percent of kids who wheeze go on to have lifelong asthma. Plus, very young children can't adequately perform spirometry, which requires patients to blow as hard and as long as they can into a meter; it's usually not till they're 5 or 6 that kids can do the test, which can accurately diagnose asthma, says Dr. Williams. In the meantime, you can get a pretty good sense of your child's risk by using the Asthma Predictive Index, which we've adapted into the "Risk Checker" at right. So grab a pen and see how your sweetie's symptoms stack up.

Risk checker

1. Has your child had frequent wheezing before age 3 (four or more episodes in one year that lasted longer than a day and disrupted sleep)?

2. Does she have at least one of these major risk factors?

• she has a parent or a
• sibling who has asthma
• she has eczema
• she's tested positive on tests for airborne allergens

3. Does she have at least two of these minor risk factors?

• she has allergic rhinitis
• she wheezes even when she doesn't have a cold
• she has a food allergy, especially to eggs, milk, or peanuts

If you answered yes to the first question along with at least one other, there's about a 76 percent chance your child's symptoms will persist through grade school. Meanwhile, 95 percent of kids who have only one yes (or none) will likely not develop asthma after age 6. Great news!

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