When did you stop seasonal allergy meds?

[Anonymous]

For the first time this year we put 3yr old DS on daily doses of Claritin at the recommendation of the ped's office to fight seasonal allergies.

I will call them back but also curious if you kept your child on allergy meds year 'round, or at what point did you stop them in the spring/summer?

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

we stop around Thanksgiving (after we finally get several hard frosts) and begin in February. Our allergist said to start before March because the pollens are building and it takes time for the medicine to build fully in your system. Claritin doesn't work that well for anyone in our family, so we use Zyrtec.

It really depends on what allergies your child has - is it just trees, or does it include grass and weeds, too?

[Anonymous]

Yes, it depends what bothers them. My child does allegra and zyrtec and we just scaled back to allegra only (he is allergic to trees and grasses, so may is really awful for him). He is not allergic to weeds or molds much, so we can usually stop altogether by Labor Day.

[Anonymous]

Stop for a few days and see if his allergies are bad. If so, put him back on.
Mine are still bad, later than usual, I'd wait till maybe June 20. Check the allergy forecasts on weather.com

[Anonymous]

I think you have to see for yourself, and it really depends on what your child is allergic to. You have trees blooming, then grass, then weeds, etc. Flowering plants drive me crazy. I used to be really sensitive to grass, but now I seem to tolerate it better.

I'm no expert on dealing with child allergies, but I would think you can try taking them off it for a while and see what happens. Zyrtec takes a long time to build up and become active, but I believe that Claritin acts quickly and takes only a few days to be entirely eliminated. That said, remember that counts rise and fall from day to day. For example, the rain might wash the pollen out of the air. OTOH it could bring mold, which might affect your DC.

If you have been tested for specific allergies, you might be able to find some data on the peak seasons by allergy and use that as a starting point, but I don't know where to find it.

[Anonymous]

We start in March and stop around mid-May.

[Anonymous]

I give my boys Zyrtec ( or generic equivalent) only when there are symptoms, which is not often except for Spring pollen days. As they approach young teens, symptoms are less each year. Glad I didn't go for full-blown allergy shot program as was suggested to me when they were much younger.

[Anonymous]

DD and I start on Claritin (Zyrtec for me) in mid May and usually can stop by July 4, after the grasses have had their heyday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We start in March and stop around mid-May.

Same here for my DD although she still seems to suffer off and on. I should probably continue through the end of June...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I give my boys Zyrtec ( or generic equivalent) only when there are symptoms, which is not often except for Spring pollen days. As they approach young teens, symptoms are less each year. Glad I didn't go for full-blown allergy shot program as was suggested to me when they were much younger.

Considering the full-blown allergy shots for DD. Could you share your reasons for being glad you didn't do it. Would love some input.