allergy help

[Anonymous]

DS is 6 and is having a horrible time this year. He is constantly making a clearing your throat sound (every 1-2 minutes) from perhaps post nasal drip. I have tried Claritin and Childrens Zyrtec and even Benadryl at night, but nothing seems to clear it. I am going to try to get in to an allergist, but does anyone have any other suggestions?

[Anonymous]

Allergists can take months to get into but in the meantime your pediatrician should be able to help. My son was on a multi pronged approach. Singulair for asthma symptoms, Allegra and Astelin - a nasal spray. The Astelin really helped.

[Anonymous]

My kids find that Flonase really helps a lot to clear out their nose/throats. We will close windows and avoid the outdoors as much as possible during the next few weeks when tree pollen is high. I will also make the kids bath a lot (especially before bed) and change clothes often to remove pollen.

[Anonymous]

Start with your ped and ask about nasal sprays. Our kid with asthma uses Nasonex. Otherwise that stuff gets into his chest and he can't clear it out. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

OP, sometimes it takes a few days for allergy medicine to work. I would try the Zyrtek for three days.

Also, are you making sure that DS takes a shower every night? You need to shampoo the hair every night before bed, otherwise, he will be breathing pollen that is stuck to his hair.

Be sure to launder his bedsheets and especially pillow cases. When it's really bad, change the pillow cases nightly. Also, replace his bath towel and wash his robe.

Do you vacuum with a HEPA filter? Be sure to vacuum his bedroom especially, and clean the window treatments.

No shoes in the house.

Change out of school/outdoor clothes when you get home.

Have you cleaned/replaced your HVAC filter?

[Anonymous]

Flonase works for my kid- but it smells like you are squirting roses or peonies up your nose. Astelin too, but it tastes TERRIBLE. It does take a few days to see results.

[Anonymous]

Children's Allegra. 2x a day. Life changing. Even still we'll supplement with dimetapp cold and allergy on tough mornings (like this week - it's really bad.)

[Anonymous]

The routine with my 8 yo is: one 24 hour allergy pill (generic Claritin) in the morning; 1 psuedofed tablet in the morning; 1 spray of Nasonex in each nostril twice a day. I pretty much do the same thing. We take the psuedofed in the morning because it tends to keep us up. I used to take an antihistamine with decongestant in it but the long acting variety was causing my blood pressure to rise.

[Anonymous]

Everything 13:32 said plus benadryl and flonase at night, zyrtec in the morning. You really have to start the zyrtec and flonase in February.

[Anonymous]

Allegra twice is a day is the only thing that has worked for DS.

[Anonymous]

I bet he has developed a habit cough or a throught clearing tic.

[Anonymous]

Our allergist said Claritin is for people who think they have allergies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bet he has developed a habit cough or a throught clearing tic.

Clearly you don't have allergies. The past few weeks have been tough. I am not OP BTW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our allergist said Claritin is for people who think they have allergies.

It only works for me as a supplement to Singulair and Flonase

[Anonymous]

You could try to identity anything in his diet that could be exacerbating the environmental allergies. Dairy and gluten were culprits for DS. His environmental allergies are much more manageable. Definitely a longer term approach though. We took the diet path because the asthma and behavioral issues were so bad, and it helped so diminished the allergies along the way.