Interviewer: What happened during that first year with each of your sons, before you learned they had asthma?

Mother: When you bring a new child home from the hospital, you're not sleeping because you're feeding, but we kept an eye on the children. And we kept noticing the gasping for breath, the tightness, the really straining just to make it everyday breathing. And this went on for awhile. We were taking the boys-because they were having such difficulties breathing and this episode kept going on and on-we were taking the boys to the medical center first twice a week, then about three times a week. We were there so often until the hospital staff knew us by our first names!