These children typically need breathing treatments and are often given the same treatments that are used for children with asthma.
Is RAD the same as asthma? While many people think that it is, since some younger children simply wheeze when they get a cold and don't go on to have asthma when they get older, RAD may be a better term for them. On the other hand, some of these children do wheeze often enough that they likely do deserve a formal diagnosis of asthma, but parents or pediatricians don't like the idea of labeling these children so young.
Since children RAD and asthma are usually treated the same, including the use of steroid inhalers or nebulizer treatments as a preventative for wheezing and coughing attacks, whether you call it RAD or asthma doesn't really matter.
