What do we mean by childhood asthma?

The term asthma includes a set of processes of different nature and prognosis that have in common an aerial flow obstruction and similar clinical manifestations. The child under 6 years of age presents the biggest problem by the lack of diagnostic tools on lung function. Throughout the article we approach the different concepts and definitions that make possible the diagnosis and management of asthma. The longitudinal population-based studies followed many years have made possible the recognition of different phenotypes of asthma and have provided tools for their valuation, which allows to inform the family on the nature of the symptoms of the child and to emit a judgment about prognosis and to orient a treatment doing more rational the therapeutics. The asthma phenotype which has a prognosis of greater severity and persistence of symptoms is associated with atopia and is tributary of antiinflammatory treatment. In any young child besides diagnosing asthma it is necessary to value the phenotype to which it belongs, and to adapt the treatment avoiding over treatment in cases that do not respond or to leave without treatment other children who need it.