When children have an asthma attack, the standard treatment, called “first-line treatment”, is mostly steroids to reduce the inflammation and swelling and inhaled medications to relax the muscles in the air passages. Some children do not improve and a “second-line treatment” is necessary – usually at the emergency department or in the hospital. Many treatment options are available for this; however, it is poorly understood which one is the best. In this overview of 13 Cochrane Reviews, the authors aimed to bring information on second-line treatments together and present them in a useful way to help the practitioner make the best treatment decision for each child with acute severe asthma attacks.