Anonymous wrote:is there anything you can do for a child younger than 2? My 17-month-old daughter seems to have inherited my pollen allergies. She's been snuffling and sneezing and hacking and wheezing the last few nights, which is causing sleep problems. (Oddly, I haven't been as bothered this year.) I give her a tiny bit of Benadryl at night, though it's not recommended for her age. She is large - around 30 lbs - if that helps.

I'm not a doctor so I hestitate to even post this, but my pedi has been recommending Benedryl for my son since about 16 months old, and he was far tinier than your child. My son's now three and still hasn't hit 30 pounds. He said Benedryl is very safe in general, and that you give the same dosage as you would for liquid baby Tylenol. So I'd probably be doing what you are doing. The only other things:

1) saline spray in the nose
2) washing baby daily, changing sheets daily, changing all clothes daily to get rid of pollen.
3) keeping A/C on and windows shut

is there anything you can do for a child younger than 2? My 17-month-old daughter seems to have inherited my pollen allergies. She's been snuffling and sneezing and hacking and wheezing the last few nights, which is causing sleep problems. (Oddly, I haven't been as bothered this year.) I give her a tiny bit of Benadryl at night, though it's not recommended for her age. She is large - around 30 lbs - if that helps.

Zyrtec made my DD vomit. I am allergic to allergra! So we stuck with claritin for DD.

Other measures that help - we now do her bath earlier in the evening - once she is in for the day, and we wash her hands and face when she comes in from outside otherwise throughout the day adn keep her hair tied back. Wash sheets in HOT water. Vacumm often - these things help reduce the amount of pollen in the house.

Darling daughter, darling child.
Our 3 year old has started liquid children's Claritin this spring - like her mommy and daddy she gets terrible hayfever with a runny nose once the pollen starts. I am a daily Claritin addict from May until about July 4th. But recently I broke out in a weird itchy hive like rash on my chest, neck and face (lucky me, I have eczema too, but usually only on my hands) and my doc recommended Zyrtec for the itching, as well as a topical steroid liquid. Well the Zyrtec worked great and now I am contemplating a switch.

What does DD and DC mean?

IME zyrtex doesn't give as immediate relief as benadryl, but I think it helped within a day. I don't find zyrtec makes me drowsy, and AFAIK it is safe to give together with benadryl if it seems like she needs both.

We were told Claritin and Zyrtec were both safe for this age group. Truthfully...they both caused severe behavior reactions in my DC. All kids are different...so hopefully this won't happen for your DC.

My DC is now 4.5 and we are getting ready to try Allegra.

OP again. Just looked at the zyrtec website, and the liquid says ages 2 and up.

It depended on what symptoms my son had whether zyrtec cleared it quickly or not. For some reason, he gets bumps like hives from grass pollen. Zyrtec worked very quickly on that. With the runny nose and sneezing (also grass pollen) it took a couple of days.

OP here: for those who tried the zyrtec, did you give it at night? Nurse said it may make her drowsy and to try it at night. If we do that, though, i guess we can't give her benadryl tonight on top of the zyrtec. Does it take a while to kick in? I remember being on Claritin and having to wait a few days to notice it helping.

Zyrtec works wonders for my toddler. We tried Claritin and it didn't work at all.

Our kids have been on Claritin since they were two - Zyrtec's box says only recommended for 6 and up - Claritin says OK for 2, so we stuck with Claritin, even though ped said Zyrtec would be OK. No adverse effects from the Claritin, and I know it's significantly helped with the number of ear infections and "colds" they had prior to being on it.

My son's allergist recommended zyrtec for him at age 2.5, and said it would be less drowsy (with some exceptions). It's been good for us on an occasional-use basis.

Personally I always recommend zyrtec but it does seem to vary by individual, so I would pick one to start and then try the other if you don't like the results.

DD seems to be having trouble with allergies right now. After several nights of waking up coughing, we gave her some benadryl last night, and she slept a solid 9+ hours without a peep. Talked to the nurse at dr's office today who said that we could keep up the benadryl at night or give her allergy medicine (claritin or zyrtec) once a day, which would give her relief all day instead of just at night. Anyone have experience with claritin vs zyrtec? Nurse didn't think it mattered what we use - do you have experience with which is more effective?