As a parent of a child with asthma, you might worry that active play, exercise or sports may be harmful for your child, that it will aggravate your kid’s asthma symptoms. After all, don’t you sometimes feel breathless when you exert yourself? Isn’t that likely to be even worse for someone with asthma?

The answer to those questions is probably not. In general, experts recommend that kids with asthma play actively and participate in sports as much as they want to. It won’t make their asthma worse. And it will help them to be healthier overall, as there are many benefits from exercise.

A new study, due to be published soon in the European Respiratory Journal, found scientific evidence that exercise is not harmful for children with asthma. Here are the highlights:

• Conducted at the University of Porto in Portugal
• 34 kids with persistent asthma, all around age 13, participated
• Participants did a 12-week exercise program consisting of twice-weekly, 50-minute exercise sessions
• Regular testing, including airway inflammation tests, lung function measurements, and IgE measurements, were done

Results: Kids in the training group showed evidence of increased endurance and exercise tolerance as kids in a control group (who did not exercise). This is encouraging, but the kids who trained did NOT show any improvements in airway function or asthma symptoms, even though their IgE levels were lower. So, although the exercise had clear health benefits overall for the kids, it did not do anything to make asthma or asthma inflammation better or worse.

But the point you should take away from this study is that exercise will NOT harm your child with asthma, so he / she should be encouraged to act like every other kid, which means to run and play at will. Admittedly, this is a very small study, but it contributes to the already existing body of evidence that even kids with asthma should be active.

More: Asthma in Kids | Tips for Talking with Your Kid About Asthma