Seasonal Allergies- Preferred Meds

I think it's hit or miss, frankly. I think you give things a few weeks and see. It depends on what's causing the reaction. I don't think you can really know ahead of time. I wouldn't give it just a week though. I don't think that's time enough.

But I'm much more into prevention and elimination of the reaction to begin with. Getting rid of all those symptoms has opened up a whole new world for me, and that's with climate change and earlier/longer blooming seasons for trees as well as flowers.

We have seasonal allergies here.

Like clockwork, each spring and fall, daughter's allergies would turn into a sinus infection.

Our pedi had us start Zyrtec 24 hr daily. When that bottle was finished, we switched to Clairitin in order to not get "used" to the particular drug and it would work.

Ever since our pedi started us this way, she has never had another sinus infection. We do occasionally use the sinus rinse. We only use Benedryl at night because that knocks both of us out cold. We cannot take Benedryl during the daytime.

I agree with Diane D. I buy the Costco brand Zyrtec, Claritin, Benedryl. SO much easier to get a bottle with 365 pills for $15 vs a bottle of 30 pills for $15. Saves time and money.

My husband has suffered from terrible allergies for years and has been doing shots now for nearly 5 years, which has made a HUGE difference in his quality of life. He did the whole flonase/zyrtec/claritin/benedryl thing a million times and I think you just have to find what works best for your son. Thank goodness that all of these ARE now OTC - huge pain for us years ago when the only thing OTC was benedryl and we spent a fortune on prescriptions each month.

I will say that a couple things did help my husband that were NOT medicine related:

Hubby rinsed off each night before bed. He had pollen/dust/mold etc on his hair and body at the end of the day (we all do) and rinsing it off before bed helped.

New pillow case each night - for the same reason as the shower, to minimize the accumulation of allergens near his eyes/nose/mouth area.

Saline rinses for his nose - to rinse out the allergens that your nose hairs naturally trap and then stay stuck in your nose which caused him to sneeze constantly.

I'd also recommend taking your son to an allergist and finding out exactly what he IS allergic to. My husband assumed a few things that weren't allergens for him and was surprised by a few others. That also helped us manage his contact with those items.

Good luck!

My husband takes Claritin. I can't remember if he ever tried Zyrtec. My son went through a period of allergies. I think he did better with Claritin than Zyrtec, but I'm not sure. Also, everyone's different, so you'll have to just try one for a week or so to see if it works. Neither of those caused my husband or son to be drowsy. You do have to take them for a couple of days before you'll notice anything. It takes a couple of days for the medicine to build up in your system and give you actual relief.

Benadryl has always made me drowsy, and I'm pretty sure Claritin and Zyrtec work differently. Flonase is sprayed into your nose, right? My son did use that for a time, but I really can't remember how much it helped.

Claritin is what our kid typically takes and then Flonase if that's the stuff they spray up the nose. It does not make him drowsy but has been taking a long time daily - however, he takes it daily (year round) because his allergies are not seasonal.

My daughter takes Zyrtech at night because it can make you drowsy and Flonaise in the morning. If she has an itching spell I will give her Benadryl or Allegra. If I know that we are going someplace that may trigger her allergies I will give her an Allegra before leaving the house. Good luck!!

Once you figure out what works find someone with a Costco membership and have them pick up the generics because you'll save a ton of money.I'm on generic claritin, flonase and musenex so picking up larger cheaper quantities of this stuff has saves me a ton since everything is OTC now.

I use flonase. It doesn't make me drowsy. My grandaughter started taking Zyrtec when she was15. It doesn't make her drowsy.

Both are generic not name brand.

I agree that you need to take them close to a month before you'll know if they help. It may take that long for your body gets acclimatized.

My daughter has something like this. We (she) loves Afrin! and also just a good all natural saline mist spray. I didn't like her taking meds all the time. With these sprays she can just use as needed to unstuffy her nose.

wasn't the ped able to answer that?

i don't know about children's formulations specifically. my son's allergies were (and are, now that he's an adult) pretty intense. he takes zyrtec, occasionally claritin, and a px nose spray.

but it took a lot of trial and error to find what works even a little, and without side effects so severe that they're not worth it.

some people can take benadryl- i can't. it not only knocks me out, it leaves me groggy for days afterwards.

i would go back to your ped and ask more questions.
khairete
S.

Unfortunately, we have a lot of experience with this. This is the plan that was recommended by the pediatric allergist for my allergy kid:
1) non-drowsy (in theory) antihistamines (claritin, zyrtec, allegra). Different people respond to different ones in this category, so if you try claritin and it doesn't help or makes him tired, switch to allegra, etc. Try each one for at least 3 days before you give up on it. In our house, zyrtec makes us tired but allegra does not, so we go with allegra but I know people with the opposite experience so it's trial and error.

If that doesn't help, or only helps minimally, line 2 treatment: add a nasal corticosteroid like nasacort or flonase. Keep in mind that this acts as a preventative and you have to use it every day for about a week before you will see a difference. There is no children's formulation that I know of. Our allergist had us cut the dose in 1/2 (1 spray/nostril) daily. No drowsiness or anything like that with this; however, we only use this when allergy season is really bad because our allergist said there are a few reports that long-term use of these in kids can slow their growth. If kids go on and off, their growth rebounds when they go off, but if they stay on it continuously, there is no opportunity for the rebound growth (*I didn't look at the science on this, I'm repeating my understanding of what the dr said).

Beyond that, for long term control, there is always immunotherapy but we haven't gone that route for my kid (I do it for me and it has helped a lot but committing to weekly and then monthly shots for years was beyond what I wanted to do for a child).

We have the same problem in this house. I bought Flonase but it said something like how you shouldn't use it for an extended period of time if you are a kid (it might stunt growth or something like that.) I threw it out! Nose spray helps, but I cannot get my son to do it. And now my youngest is showing signs of the sneezes and puffy eyes and exhaustion. Can't it be winter yet? (oh ya, the one family member without seasonal allergies has a mold allergy and we are in a house with lots of old wood windows.)

My mom swears by Claritin and nose spray.

Son gets bad allergies when the farmers work the fields. We use Claritin once a day and when it's at its worst we use flonase as well.
My son's ears will plug up without infection during the really bad times and it only takes 3 days of flonase to clear them up. Both are prescriptions that are available over the counter but Dr does it script for us so insurance will pay for the meds.

Benedryl makes me extremely drowsy. Flonase is good. Be careful because Zyrtec is very addictive. The allergist told me to take one daily year round bc of my allergies and now I can't get off of it! I am trying to wean myself off. You get insane itchiness all over your body when you try to get off after you have been taking it for a long time. If your son takes it definitely switch to different allergy meds regularly. Or just don't do Zyrtec. Another thing to try is sinus rinses twice daily (saline water sprays). My stepsister got rid of her pollen allergies by not eating any dairy in life (this didn't work for me). My friend said she got rid of her allergies by taking Knoze Jr. lollipops. They changes the microbiome in your mouth. It sounds strange but I might try this! It can't hurt anyway. My other friend gives her kids these natural allergy drops from the local whole foods co-op. She swears it works.