H1N1 is tough for healthy children, but it is particularly challenging for those who have asthma. Here’s a report from USA Today:

[The] CDC recommends that children with breathing issues get the shot form of the vaccine – two doses spread out by a month in those under age 9 – instead of the nasal mist.

If a child does get flulike symptoms, there are steps caregivers should take, says Carolyn Kercsmar, director of the Asthma Center at Cincinnati Children’s.

She says if a child develops a fever, is feeling poorly, has chest pain, a bad cough or extreme fatigue, see a doctor right away.

USA Today cites the case of a nine-year-old asthmatic named TJ:

After additional home albuterol treatments didn’t budge his symptoms, they scooted fast to the pediatrician, who sent him on to the ER…

He then received a cornucopia of drugs: Motrin to help reduce fever, antibiotics for atypical pneumonia that a chest X-ray revealed, and an intravenous line of magnesium sulfate to help further open up his airways. They dosed him with the steroid prednisone to simmer down inflammation, and he received pure oxygen through a nose mask, Berndsen says.

After he was moved to a room well after midnight and an H1N1 swab came up positive, he was given Tamiflu (oseltamivir).

With this course of treatment, within a day, TJ’s appetite returned and he went home 24 hours after being admitted.