Has anyone successfully had their child permanently excused from PE for health issues?

[nom8nom]

My DD is extremely asthmatic and gets very wheezy doing any kind of running or exercise. She is quite slim so doesn't need to lose weight and walks to school 1 mile each day, so not unfit.

I would rather she does not participate in PE lessons as I know from primary school she gets extremely wheezy and has had many asthma attacks where she can't breathe and has to sit down and take her inhaler. This is extremely scary for her and she hates doing PE.

She has now moved up to Secondary school and has 1 hour PE lessons at least twice a week and is very upset and doesn't want to do it.

Would I be able to write a note to the school saying I don't want her to participate and that she should be sent to the library to read a book or sit on the sidelines reading during PE lessons? Can the school force her to do PE?

Does anyone have any experience of doing this?

Smoke and cats are my buggest triggers. Then exercise. I dont tend to run. More a fast walk/jog.
I dont think your dd should be excused. As a pp says picking an appropriate sport is the most important.
Dd1 6yo doesnt have asthma (yet) but seems to struggle with exercise causing tiredness. And was last on sports day. It probably doesnt help that i dont tend to run around. (Nor does dp). So now im actively putting her in sports after school to improve her fitness.

I would actually suggest this an after school activity that could be more moderate exercise. Not sure if boys and girls do pe together in secondary(?) but i cant see that being good for girls fitness

Just write a note to the school and tell them she cannot do PE because of respiratory problems but is able to take other exercise. End of. They cannot do anything about it. She's probably quite good at swimming.

(I skived during PE and games and my son was an expert at skiving but we were both quite athletic and fit in our own ways.)

My DD is 14 & hasn’t taken part in PE for over a year. However this is down to an unstable kneecap which culminated in a severe dislocation back in January. She’s been on crutches ever since.
Even though she was never a sporty child she feels left out, and I think the lack of physical exercise is having an effect on her mental state as well. She’s also suffering with muscle wastage in parts of the body that aren’t getting used.
I was a PE avoider as a teenager, but even I can see that there’s more to it than just doing sports, she’s missing out on being part of a team. As an asthmatic as well I would be seeing what alternatives you have for that.
DD is having a ligament reconstruction next week - the consultant says that hopefully within a year she could start doing PE again!

Some children are but I would definitely be saying go back to GP.

Some schools may not have elsewhere that she can be supervised so she may need to be with her PE group, even if not taking part or refereeing or helping out.

There is much more to PE than just getting some exercise!

I manage health care plans in school. We would not excuse a child from PE long term without a consultants letter confirming this.
BTW, being slim does not necessarily indicate being healthy.

Agree with those who say it's not under control and needs to be sorted by asthma nurse or consultant.

She shouldn't get wheezy just walking. Actually that's not true - some asthmatics do but they are on a much higher and more intense drug regime and have tried everything and it's a very small percentage of asthmatics.

Of course yanbu to get her excused if she has the odd time it's detrimental to her health. But walking and school sports should not be causing her this much problems.

I know several that have been excused PE on medical grounds. However in most cases they were still required to attend the lessons.

Hi, I have a child with asthma, they recently changed their meds and have gone the next step up in terms of treatment, now on an inhaler called salbutamol. We find this change/increase in treatment has helped. I understand your instinct to protect your DD and withdraw from PE I really do, it is horrible to fight for your breath and can be very serious. However I do think her lungs wd benefit from sport, and indeed a brass instrument (mine learnt trumpet for 3 years but is now doing lots of sports). There is a ladder of treatment for asthma and it sounds like your DD is on the bottom rung, there are lots more meds available to help her. Good luck.

She needs to be referred back to the hospital. Her asthma isn’t controlled and you should be more concerned about that than her doing PE.

DS2 is a severe asthmatic. He was always looked after by respiratory consultants and was able to be a member of many school teams

Dd didn't do PE in secondary school because the school couldn't be bothered to make reasonable adjustments and I withdrew her. It would have been better if the school had made the adjustments they were legally required to make but any effort on their part was only ever fleeting and the anxiety was making dd ill. School obviously didn't challenge my decision for fear of a discrimination complaint.

I think everyone else has said what needs to be said with regards to exercise for heart and lung health and reassessing any meds etc .

But as for being excused from PE and going to read in the library for example wouldn't always happen in the schools I've worked in. You can still be involved in PE without 'running around for an hour' . Kids who are excused help with equipment, splitting teams, refereeing games, being taught games concepts so they can lead a team and coach/give tactical advise, later down the line can help lead a simple warm up/cool down and stretches while also learning more theory around anatomy and physiology for example

You need to get her back to the specialist for reassessment and proper medical advise and control.

walking two miles a day is absolutely pitiful, and is going to lead to life long health problems unless you seriously up her exercise, urgently.

She needs to be doing PE, and sport, and she needs medical support to be achieving it

I hope you can discuss with your daughter's consultant and with the school, what she can and can't reasonably manage. I agree with everyone above that ideally she should remain engaged with doing something; but that has to be realistic and properly planned.

My daughter had a friend with a serious heart condition, who was strictly limited as to how much exercise she could do. I was impressed with the way it was managed, in games like hockey and netball they rotated the girls on and off really frequently, so this girl participated within her limits without it ever having to be made obvious. Much better than if she'd just been "no games".

dontletmedowngently I hope your daughter's surgery goes well, one of my son's friends was off games all last year for something similar but recovering well once he'd had his surgery I believe. She'll need to continue to be patient to let everything heal properly, and focus on the future results and eventually getting back to normal. Best wishes!

To the OP - I hope flagging this up with your daughter's medical care results in serious attempts to further improve her symptoms, as well as a proper plan as to what exercise she can undertake. The current situation must be pretty rubbish for her. Good luck!

My apologies, just caught up with this thread and am embarrassed I wrote down wrong inhaler name (I was dashing to a hockey match). SYMBICORT is the next inhaler up not salbutamol which I think I just typed from habit. But like most people are saying ask GP for help.

I have for anxiety. It was causing her to miss school days. I had to argue but school fine in the end

Being slim doesn't equal being fit, and 2 miles a day is less than 5000 steps - barely anything at all in terms of exercise.

I was very asthmatic until mid teens, and needing to use her inhaler every day/just for walking to school suggests it's not being controlled well enough, as others have said.

She also needs to appreciate that if she does get excused from the exercise element, she'll end up scoring, or setting up, or umpiring or something - just sitting in the library reading isn't going to happen.

Your kid will simply ref or watch other kids playing sport. Not go to the library.
You’re being shit imo. I had a kid with a way more serious lung disease doing PE

Her asthma is not under control.

Sometimes, you need to keep going back until you get the right meds. The standard brown inhaler (steroid) was no good for me. It took several reviews before they moved me up to a different one, with an additional active ingredient.

That still didn't do the job, so now I'm on tablets too.

I can now do aerobic activity without becoming wheezy and it's very freeing to be able to do that. I hated being so limited as a teen with not being able to do PE due to asthma.

If you know exercise will trigger it, she should be taking her blue inhaler just before the PE lesson too. Then stopping if she still becomes wheezy.

Opting out completely isn't in her best interests. Going back to the asthma nurse or doctor is.

I second the advice about taking up a brass instrument. It did wonders for my asthma when I was a teen. I agree that it doesn't sound well controlled at all at present.

My child goes to the library and reads or catches up on work.