Also make sure to wash your face with a washcloth when you come in. Gently wipe your eyelashes and eyebrows with it.

For ear itchiness spray a little Flonase on a q tip and rub it inside your ear. Works wonders.

Allergists will always tell you to start with a nasal spray because locally acting medication has fewer side effects than systemic meds. You can try a steroid nose spray, but there’s also Astelin, which is a somewhat newer OTC antihistamine spray.

If you need more, take an oral second-generation, non-drowsy antihistamine LIKE Zyrtec or Allegra. You can even take one brand in the morning and another with a different active ingredient at night. Talk to your doctor, but adults can double the dose on many of the H1 antihistamines. People do it for MCAS. Read the cautions about such medications for pregnant people, the elderly, and patients with glaucoma.

You can also try vitamin C supplementation. It helps the body clear out excess histamine.

If you’re still suffering, you definitely need to talk to a doctor. There are prescription medications that can be used with OTC meds. Also, allergists are generally going to recommend shots for people who have symptoms in spite of taking meds.

Allegra works ok, but at most it helps for 12 hours, even though I take the 24-hour pill.

I take Allegra and switch to Zyrtec if things get really bad. Zyrtec makes me excessively sleepy even the next day when I take it at night. I think that might go away if I take it consistently, but the drowsiness is really bad… I’m more consistent with Allegra.

I had 5 years of allergy shots and it helped A LOT. But going for shots is a real commitment, definitely not for everyone!

My allergist also said take allegra in morning, zyrtec in evening in the worst of the times. She also said to start the allegra before the end of February. So I usually start around Valentine's day / President's Day (easy to remember).

I used to take Flonase, but now I take Astepro twice a day. I do better with Astepro.

I like pataday eye drops, too, but don't use them as much anymore.

Allergist recommended using a nasal spray. DD and I use Nasacort or Flonase. We almost always start in late February so that we have a baseline before pollen really kicks in. In all fairness, I open the windows a lot since I love the fresh air, so we also just dust often, wash our faces and shower, and power through. It’s the trees that bother us both so we usually stop by early May.

Xyzal (there's a generic) works better for me than zyrtec or claritin.

Wash your face

For my eyes had some success both with switching to peroxide cleaner but more effectively, daily contacts during high allergy times.