Seeking Other Moms' Experience Giving Zyrtec to a Child

My 31/2 old son uses it, the bubble gum flavored kind. He likes it and it stopped his constantly runny nose. I haven't noticed any side effects.

My daughter has terrible allergies, but you'd never know it now as she takes meds. I hate giving her too much, but she honestly needs it. She started on Zyrtec, but it wasn't over the counter yet and was very expensive so we started using claritin. (She's 9) The claritin really helps. I give it to her once in the evening. She also when it gets real bad has to use a nebulizer and breathing treatments. I have never noticed many side effects with the meds, just a lot less coughing and a lot happier of a little girl! she also rarely gets sick now. She missed her first day of school a couple weeks ago this school year. I think before the allergy meds she was so weak that she was catching every thing. Plus because her nose was runny her hands were always in her face and then she'd spread germs to her face and get sick! Anyhow, I hope the zyrtec helps. I definately would give it at night as it makes them a little groggy. I don't know how old it is that they can take claritin, but it's still a lot cheaper and it doesn't make them groggy at all! Good Luck, A.

I would absolutely discuss asthma with her doctor. It sounds exactly like what would happen to my son at that age and he was confirmed to have it. That constant cough is a key symptom of asthma in kids. If you can I would see an allergist too...this way you can confirm allergies and also get much better treatment if it is asthma.

To answer your question...we do give Zyrtec and have had excellent results from it. My son also takes singulair every night. He is usually symptom-free except for when he gets a cold. This brings all the asthma sypmtoms back.

Good luck.

Stayaway from the vaporizors - they will make her symptons worse. She needs tested for asthma. A chronic cough especially at night. My daughter would cough until she puked every night, until we found out not only allergies, but asthma. Vaporizes increases the mold content in homes. Zyrtec is wonderful - but also check on singular for her. these 2 were wonder drugs for my daughter who is now 16, but still has asthma and allergies. She still takes singular too, but recently just had to change from zrytec because of insurance coverage.
please ocntact me directly if you need more info. She is having a bad morning and I am waiting on her to get dressed for a dr. appt.

Zytec is great. No side affects that I can recall. Non-addictive. CAn even be given as young as 6 months! Give it a go and use it as directed, not just occassionally when you feel like it, and see whether it works.

In our case it made a world of difference for 2 very allergic children.

i would go buy little noses with saliene drops they work wonders and all it is is salt water.
good luck T.

My daughter is 2-1/2 and I have been giving it to her since she was about 6 months old. It really does seem to help her allergies. We cut the dose back when the outdoor allergies are not at their peak and give her a little extra when colds strike - we've been very pleased.

We also saline her nose regularly, in the morning and in the evenings, just to get the daily debris out - my mom's doctor had suggested this to my mom for her allergies and it also has seemed to aid my daughter over the years.

I have read a few studies about the Zyrtec possibly being related to things like ADD, ADHD, and behavior issues... so you'll have to make your own decisions on that topic, just be aware and read.

Best of luck!!!

Eventually zyrtec stopped working for my son, and he still developed other allergies and they just addd more meds. He's been off of all meds, and no more allergies with NAET treatments, and elimination of scented household products - especially laundry products (they inhale those chemicals all night long from bedding, pj's etc.). Also we eliminated scented candles/air fresheners.

I had childhood asthma with allergies and it really is a pain. I didnt have a very good doctor and so he said I was too young to be treated more vigorously for either. I had to just live with them. As I got older I just used the antihistamine stuff that made you drowsy and it was terrible but in England that's all I could get apart from this nasal spray the doctor gave me for allergies.

Now I take Clarityn whenever I need it and it is wonderful. My son who is 9 gets allergies if we go somewhere with animal hair or if we clean something off that has a lot of dust on. It works for him too. Zyrtec is similar in some ways to Clarityn and is soo much better than Benydrl. If this truly is allergies you will see a huge improvement. My friends children where on it and they were so much better.

Hi A. -

My son has been on Zyrtec since he was 1 & is now 4.5. It works great for him & he has had no problems with allergies. I would also get your daughter checked by an allergist for asthma, which could be causing her cough. My son was diagnosed with slight asthma & has been taking Singulair since about the same time. He has never had any problems with his asthma since then.

S.

Hi A., If you are open to alternative therapies, chakra alignment is supposed to eliminate alergies altogether. My son is 9 and we have a kids book with chakra excersizes that he enjoys lots of benifits from . With a small child you would be doing it differently. If you can't find anything about it for baby's on the web, I suggest You focus healing love toward the areas in her chakra system anytime you can think of it. You should see a significant change soon with a lot of intentional focusing.

My daughter who is now 6 used Zyrtec for a while. It worked for her. She ended up needing to take singular along with the Zyrtec. My daughter has indoor and outdoor allergies all year around. Zyrtec should help your child. Good luck

T.

When my boys were little, they experienced similar symptoms. I used a saline spray up their nose, and the "sucked " the excess snot out. It seemed to help all of that post nasal dripping which caused the coughing. I don't recommend using the saline more than 2x's per day.
I never used the Zyrtec, but I don't think it would harm your daughter.
Good luck.

I have used Zyrtec on my 4(almost 5) yr old son, starting last April when allergy season sprang up harshly. It works great on the puffy itchy eyes and the cough too, but his nose gets terribly dried out. I love using Zyrtec, but that seems to be the only setback of using it, so if you end up having that issue as well, our dr suggested putting a dab of vaseline in his nose at night...that helps some. Throughout the day I put Ayr on his nose too to keep it from getting too sore. I've also started only using it when he seems to need it really badly, to avoid the drying out. Hope this helps you out!

Hi A.,

Have you thought about going to the health food store in your local area and see if they have vitamin C in 5 mg pin head size tablets that melt in the baby's mouth and some probiotics for infants.

Check with your local chiropractor for help and your local lymph drainage massage therapist.

Hope this helps. D.