Claritin or Zyrtec for Pregnancy and 3 Year Old?

B.,

Wow! My doctor said 'no' to allergy meds when I was preggers. But, my son and I both are hay fever people and I use Claritin for OTC stuff. But, now we both have a prescription for stuff which the name escapes me.

check out this site for help with stuff like this...www.kellymom.com

Good Luck!

my husband likes both! my daughter (2yrs) has a prescription for zyrtec but i just buy her childrens benadryl cuz it does the same thing. i know zyrtec can make you drowsey it did for my daughter. so does benadryl. my friend gives her daughter claritan and loves it. but here are things to ask yourself- does your son have asthma? if so and hes on a prevenative already then he shouldnt use some allergy meds because they contain a prevenative in it (i know this because my daughter has asthma). if your son doesnt have asthma i would try one set of allergy meds and see how it works (keeping in mind both zyrtec and claritin take a few days to fully work). if your not happy with one try the other and i your unhappy with both ask your sons dr about what else you can try for him. as far as you i would do the same thing. good luck!

As far as your 3 year old goes, I've had a lot of success treating my 3 1/2 year olds allergies with Claritin 24 hour chewables. He was on an inhaler last fall and would get sick virtually every few weeks due to his immune system being weakened by allergies. Now his allergies are just about non existant and he's hardly had even a sniffle let alone a cold since I put him on it back in january. I don't give it to him every day but treat him symptomatically - maybe once or twice weekly, sometimes skipping an entire week or so if he's not sneezing or rubbing his eyes. Good luck - I hope this helps! :)

My 5 yr olds pediatrician reccomended generic claritin and it has worked great. He sometimes wakes up with a cough still, but overall I would say his allergies are under control.

I thought no allergy meds were safe during pregnancy, but if u trust your dr then take them.
As for kidsit all depends on the kid.You will have to try it and see.
My 31/2 yr old girl takes claritin 1xday and does well w/it. She still has the runny nose now and then, but this works for her.
Now my 2 yr old was on claritin and it worked for awhile-then stopped working and we switched him to allegra which is working well w/him.
They had no side effects orproblems w/either.
Good Luck-hope my info helped. L.:)

If your Doc's said it's okay, then I guess it's okay.
Or you can try Google searching it.

For me and my family per allergires, we use Claritin... or the generic brands of Claritin (MUCH cheaper). And compared to other brands, this is the brand that suits us the best. BUT, every person is different. Some brands did not work for me, but did for my Hubby.

For your child though, use ONLY the "kids" Claritin.

Claritin does NOT cause "drowsiness." Which is important.
I don't know about Zyrtec.

YOu may just have to try one brand first, then wait and see if it works. Give it a couple days. And if not, try the other brand.

You can also read about the ingredients/affects online... and if it is okay for pregnancy/children....if you want to just re-confirm on your own what your Doc told you.

Take care,
Susan

Claritin works a little better for me; neither one of them makes me drowsy. Benedryl works best, but don't know if it's ok to take while pregnant. If so, just take it at night as it does make most people drowsy. I prefer Allegra, but it's prescription, and my insurance co won't pay for it since there are the OTC products now, so I use Claritin. I assume you can't take the Claritin D formula, so if you need a decongestant (the D)I understand that Sudafed is ok to take (doesn't work for me, but everyone is different). Check with your Doc. Also -- do you know what it is you are allergic to? Prevention is better than curing and there are some things you can to do to avoid allergy triggers. I'm allergic to mold and moving from Cincinnati to Las Vegas helped, but now I'm reacting to tree pollens. Oh well. I went through the allergy testing (not fun), and I don't know if they can do it while you are pregnant, but it was worth the process to know exactly what I was reacting to. Good luck.

Hi B.! I had such bad allergies with my second child. I went to an allergist and they had put me on Zyrtec and Rhinocort. I took them the whole pregnancy and it worked wonders! I have tried Claritin and it did not do so well for me. You might want to try both and see. Everyone is different. Congratulations and good luck!

I've heard of taking Benadryl during pregnancy...it even helps with nausea, but you're probably not nauseous this far along. Benadryl also works very well for my 2 1/2 year old. We tried Zyrtec recently and he had nightmares, talking in his sleep, coughing that started when we started taking it, and really aggressive behavior. Every child/person is different. Just keep notes of how he's feeling. Zyrtec is good in that you only take it once a day at bedtime so you don't have to have it with you all the time (at least the kid formula is like that). Good luck with your allergies. Hope you feel better and get some relief.

According to a clinical pharmacist I spoke with, Zyrtec is more effective. Claritin comes in a sub-effective dose so that they can say it's "non-drowsy." In clinical trials, if they upped the dose so that it was as effective as Zyrtec, it also caused drowsiness, so they stuck with lower dosages so they could claim to be "the only non-drowsy allergy med."

Hello and congrats on the new baby this summer!!!

My son has used claritin since Oct. 08 and just this past weekend was switched to Zyrtec. With Claritin I never saw a change, he was still suffering. But, just one day of Zyrtec and I saw major difference, now after being on it for almost a few week you would never know my son has allergies!!!

I say Zyrtec all the way.
Best of Luck,
M.

Hi B.,

Can I ask what you use to clean your house? Most people don't realize that everyday household cleaners, air fresheners, and laundry products contain numerous toxins that effect our respitory system and increase allergies and asthma, especially in children. Shaklee has the most amazing line of safe, natural, and non-toxic cleaners and laundry products. They're really effecive (I'm a clean-freak and they're all we use), super concentrated so they last forever and save you money, and earth-friendly. You may also want to try a good multivitamin, an alfalfa supplement, an immunity supplement, and a good air purifier. By making all those changes, you may not even need Claritin or Zyrtec and wouldn't you rather not have those medications in yours and your son's bodies? Shaklee is the #1 natural nutrition company in the U.S. and has been in business for over 50yrs. They do over 350 quality control tests per product each year and spend $250 million in research and clinical studies. You can always trust Shaklee to be safe and effective and you won't be worried about recalls. If you're interested in checking out the company or products you can do so at www.shaklee.net/greennutrition and I'm always here for questions. Good luck!

C.

Hi:

Instead of medicating the symptoms of allergies you might want to look into eliminating the allergies via NAET - which uses no medication. I have had all my allergies cured in this manner. I go to Dr. David Karaba in Fullerton at the East West Medical Group and love him dearly. The doctor who developed NAET (Dr. Nambudripad) is in Buena Park. If you choose to go this route, make sure the practitioner is NAET certified.

Best wishes

M.

Hey B., When my now 14 yr old was 3, she too was diagnosed with allergies and they prescribed Claritin for her, back then you had to have a presciption. She developed a yeast infection, so I quit giving it to her. I think she was allergic to the stuff. Just some food for thought when giving meds to children this young. Have you tried Benedryl? They make it for children now,

Best of lukck!
M.

I'd ask the ped. My son, at 7, could take Zyrtec. I am a fan of Claritin for my self.