If your child has persistent asthma, you already know how important a daily controller medicine is.

Asthma can make the airway tubes get inflamed, or swell up.

This narrows the airways and makes it hard to breathe.

Taking an inhaled corticosteroid every day helps control this inflammation and prevent asthma attacks.

But sometimes it's not enough.

Because asthma also makes the muscles around the tubes contract, or tighten up.

Here's where adding a second controller medicine, called a long-acting bronchodilator, can help.

The bronchodilator relaxes the muscles.

And that helps the tubes stay open longer, so your child can breathe easier.

If your doctor prescribes a long-acting bronchodilator, your child's new inhaler will contain a mixture of both medicines.

Talk to your doctor if your child has side effects. They aren't common.

And for most children, the benefits far outweigh the side effects.

Controller medicines are an important part of your child's asthma treatment.

To prevent asthma attacks, they need to be taken every day, even when your child feels fine.