Allergies in Children, per a Parent

I want to share with my readers an experience about allergies in children and maybe it not only applies to your children, but maybe to you.  My son has a history of spring allergies since he was 2 or so and Zyrtec-D was used to manage them for 5 or so years and then they seemed to just go away.  Well, they are back but they are no longer spring allergies.  Saturday he was suddenly sniffly and whiny as only a teenage boy accustomed to feeling healthy can.  I gave him an Allegra which has been our daytime "allergy cure all" as needed.  He complained bitterly hours later that nothing worked and was sneezing out a fur ball again.  The Allegra is a 12 hour dose so I made him wait the appropriate time and promptly forgot. 

A side note about the offending allergen.  He had spent the night at a friend's house who has a cat, so I suspected his mild allergy had been violently shoved into a true allergy.  But that being the allergen could mean the reaction would subside now that he was away from the cat, ergo the forgetting. 

Sunday morning was harsh.  He hadn't slept and was CRANKY.  I gave him liquid Benadryl thinking this would allow him to clear up and function.  The liquid one is supposed to be the non-drowsy formula.  Note: IT'S NOT!  He did not wake up until almost 2:30 in the afternoon.  I administered another Allegra thinking this could easily be just left over from the interaction with the cat.  Monday, I treated it with Allegra as needed.  Then today, Tuesday he was a gut-wrenching, fur ball hacking, stopped up, runny nose, sneezy mess.  In passing, my cousin told me it's ragweed season and it is high right now.  I spoke with my mother within five minutes of that conversation and she is or was also allergic to ragweed.  Fortunately, my younger cousin is also allergic to many things and takes Zyrtec.  That reminded me that my son took Zyrtec when he was little and it worked wonderfully.  I practically ran to Walgreens for Zyrtec-D.

I am delighted to report that within an hour of him taking the one 12 hour tablet (with Gatorade, yogurt and chicken broth/noodle soup - homemade, no preservatives), he was wandering the halls again! 

My message... know what's in your family, know what works for your kids and be prepared for "childhood" illnesses to rear their ugly heads at random, unspecified times.

11/9/11 Editor's Note: This article is repeated in the health blog.

Allergies as a Gateway

You may have noticed that I am hyper focused on health the last several days. It could be because of my migraine or my overall “icky” health this past month.

A month or so ago my allergies went beyond the reach of my Allegra and turned into something ugly. I had to really crank the meds, water and all of the other recommended treatments to survive the symptoms. According to multiple reports nationally, this season of spring allergies has been one of the worst with the early rains.1 Somehow knowing that does not make it any easier, or does it?

It seems that allergies can weaken your immune system which can allow a virus to attack, or you come in contact with a virus and simply treat it as if it were allergies. I apparently just experienced such a perfect storm; which then set off torrent of headaches, lung pain (from the coughing and post nasal drip) irritating my asthma, migraines, etc.  You see where I am going with this. Allergies can be a gateway irritant to weaken your system and allow other ailments to pile on or rear their ugly heads.  This was new information to me, so I thought I would share it.

I thought I was taking care of my allergies but apparently when the allergy season hits, whatever yours is, it would behoove you to tightly manage and be proactive with your allergy symptoms.  I recently found an interesting Website that provides updates by location. www.pollenlibrary.com I hope this helps someone, anyone.  This probably falls in my patient awareness category.


1. http://www.examiner.com/x-49599-Pittsburgh-Health-and-Beauty-Examiner~y2010m6d7-Allergy-season-in-full-swing and http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37580959