If a child has a respiratory illness including pneumonia, most will have changes in breathing rate, so in the absence of obvious symptoms, parents should monitor their child's breathing rate to detect any abnormal signs of the respiratory tract.

Children with breathing and airway abnormalities often have signs of gradual or sudden onset. Children with difficulty breathing may have had signs before, but parents are often subjective. Children with a history of diseases such as prolonged cough, upper respiratory infections, foreign bodies in the airways, congenital or acquired difficulty breathing, HIV infection, or a family history of asthma often have breathing and airway abnormalities.