Allergy Help for 4 Yr Old

My 3 1/2 year old son has seasonal allergies too. In fact, his nasal passages were so inflamed that if he even wiped his nose it would bleed. We were hard pressed to use a nasal spray either. Believe it or not, we rinse his nose in the evening before bed (and sometimes in the morning) with a warm salt water solution. We use the bulb he got from when he was born -- the super sucker. Once the "crusties" are loose, he can just blow them out and his nose is clear. It makes such a difference. Yes, it can be difficult to get him to cooperate and get the job done, but my husband is very patient with him. We also have had tremendous luck with Claritin. It doesn't help a stuffy nose, but all the other things seemed to be blocked. Good luck, this is not an easy time for either of you.

P.,

Icky. I hate allergies and am lucky enough to have 2 kids with them. Have you tried children's zyrtec? You can now buy it OTC and it has worked 100 times better than anything else (including Claritin) for my kids. They even find the grape flavor to be quite yummy. My two year old actually asks for it!

Good luck. Just think....fall will be here soon and the allergies will be gone!

N.

we've tried all sorts of allergy meds... Benedryl is the only thing we've gotten that works every time. Allergy eye drops help with the itchy eyes or if the eyes swell (The whites can swell and look horrible!)
Good luck! We are allergic to everything, if you add us all up, everyone is different.

If you want to try something natural, you could try a product called Hyland's. They have a remedy for almost anything. And for the most part, they work great. It's a homeopathic med for children. I've used the Allergy, Teething, and Sniffles n' Sneezes tables with good success.
If those don't work, you could also try children's Claritin, which is what I use on my son if he gets REALLY bad allergies. (We both have Hayfever as well.) I hope this helps! Good luck! :D

you can go to your local bee keeper and buy local honey for her give her 1 tsp. each morning it will have all the local pollen that can be bothering her and helps build up her immunity to it in a more natural way.
This is the only thing that works for me and mine are horrible to the point i will have my eyes swell shut.
HTH

Even though you can't do "formal" allergy testing you could start by trying to eliminate things from her environment/diet. Just do one at a time.

If you feel that her allergy is from our pollen/environment go to your local Farmer's Market Saturday morning and buy the local honey sticks. It's a natural rememdy that was recommended to me when my daughter was young and worked very well! You might also try some of the local fruits/berries to add to her diet (one at a time, of course).

Good luck!

Get thyself to an allergist! My girls, 6 & 4, have loads of allergies and are on immunotherapy (shots) and it has helped a lot. My youngest also has deadly peanut and tree nut allergies. I would caution you about the blood tests that they do today, they are not as accurate at predicting the severity of the allergy, they are really a place to start. In general, the pediatrician will use the blood test and the allergist will use the scratch test. My daughter showed a mild allergy to peanuts with the blood test and a deadly one with the scratch test. I asked both the pediatrician and the allergist why the difference and they both said that the blood test is not accurate all the time. (The blood test didn't even show an allergy to tree nuts and we had to take her to the hospital for that one.) You really need a specialist to handle all these things. The shots have been a huge blessing for my girls. Good Luck!

Carin

My daughter is 6 yrs. old and she has had terrible allergies and asthma.The Dr. put her on 2 inhalers and 2 allergy pills.She takes her inhaler Flovent 2xday,and her proventil prn every 4-6.She takes clariton 10mg. in the morning and at night takes Singulair 5 mg.Her biggest sign of asthma was couging and allergies-she had a stuffy nose and runny nose with headaches.We have ohp but they don't cover allergy testing.If she is anything like me(I have allergies all yeat around) she is allergic to things inside and out.They had her on predisone 2-3 times.Overall she is alot better.She then missed alot of school.Some it wasn't cold as I suspected it was just the terrible allergies and asthma.I am taking her to an allergy and asthma specalist soon.Taking 2 allergy pills a day has made a diffrence night and day!Good luck!I take the clariton and and nasonex.The they both have helped me alot.

Hi P., most people are suggesting perscription and OTC meds, not so natural. I am a distributor for a supplement line called Isotonix, the product that I would highly recommend is OPC-3, this supplement is a powerful antioxidant with Grape Seed Extract, Bilberry Extract, Pycnogenol(a natural plant extract)among other great ingredients. It's Isotonic form ensures quick delivery to the body and has an extremely high absorption rate.It is powder form that you add water, it has a great taste and looks like grape juice. Among many of it's healing properties it is an anti-histamine, many people as well as children are having great success with their alleries and asthma. Please go to my website for more info or email me: ____@____.com My site is www.marketamerica.com/mmonce Also check out www.marketamericascience.com Hope this helps! Sincerely, M.

Make sure she has a clean pillow case every night and try to rinse the pollen out of her hair every evening before bed. I know my nautriopath has allergy eyedrops that work wonders (I wish I had a bottle now). On my kids I have them lay back and close there eyes. I drop a little on the inside corner of their eyes then have them blink it in.

You could do your own food allergy testing now by simply eliminating the most common allergens, such as milk products, wheat, corn, soy, but most especially milk (which is NOT a good food for humans anyway, although some people can tolerate it better than others do). Then see how she does without them (for at least a week or two off of them), and then if you want to really test it you can add them back into her diet, one at a time (a whole bunch of the one food in one day, then wait a few days before adding back a different kind of food), to see which if any cause her trouble. But really I'd take her off all dairy in any case (and keep her off, and better yet take the whole family off). see notmilk.com. It is much much better to eliminate the cause than to medicate with drugs (which all are toxic and have side effects).

Do you have a good air purifyer? Especialy in her room, it may cut down on the severity.

Hi P.,

Zirtec is now an over the counter medicine and is stronger than Loratadine. I don't know if it is recommended for younger kids, so I would read the label and talk to a pharmacist. Benadryl is also another option, but usually causes sleepiness. As a child, I grew up on Dimetap. I am not sure how the effectiveness of that now compares to Zirtec.

I also hate nose sprays, but have found that Nasalcrom is MUCH better than Nasonex (no bitter aftertaste). It sounds like your daughter's allergies are bad enough that an allergist would probably start her on allergy shots. She might be more willing to use the nose spray if she knew that the alternative would be weekly shots!

When my allergies are at their worst, I get some relief by putting a wet washcloth over my eyes and nose- obviously not a long term or daily solution, but it can settle things down a bit when I'm really bad.

Good luck! I have suffered since I was your daughters age and I am now almost 40...Not fun!!

Wow! It sounds like she is having a hard time with these allergies. I own my own business working with nutrition and have noticed people telling me that their allergies have gotton better or they just don't have them anymore. I will be happy to help you.

D. Jantzen
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If you could get her to work through getting used to using the nasal spray that would probably be a life saver. My son suffered terribly from allergy symptoms and at age 4 he started taking flonase. It's our second allergy season using it and I think the difference is amazing! We had tried claritin and all the over the counter stuff and it just didn't work or made him crabby and tired. It took a while for him to get used to the idea of spraying something up his nose, but we worked through it and he does it no problem now. Explaining the benefits of using it seemed to help him, but he is also really good at reasoning for his age. Good luck and by all means go see a specialist if you don't like the answers you are getting from your doctor.

I'd suggest going to an allergist. You child is plenty old enough at this point to be tested. My son has been seeing an allergist (mostly for food allergies) since he was a year old. They have to go through only one season to develop the allergies to pollens, etc. so a test at 4 years old would show. The allergist can then help you come up with a solution. Fortunately, my son's grass allergies are relatively minor and manageable with Zyrtec as needed. My 13 year old stepson with severe grass allergies uses Flonase (nasal spray) and it has really helped him.

We see Dr. Virant at Northwest Asthma and Allergy. I believe any of the doctors there are supposed to be quite good.

P.,
I took our youngest son to the allergy specialist when he was 3yrs. He had such severe symptoms like a bulging eye. Yuck! He had horrible reactions to Claritin. They gave him Zyrtec and an eye drop. They work very well. We have also discovered if he eats any COW dairy that it makes him worse. He gets rice milk and goat yogurt / goat cheese too. When the grasses are spreading their seeds and the pollin is flying through the air he is in heaven but he looks miserable. These two products are wonderful. I don't give it to him every day and things work great.
As far as other allergies for your daughter, try omitting dairy and wheat products at seperate times. That may be part of the problem.
Good luck.

Hi there,

I can only offer you what worked perfectly for me and my daughter. Chinese Medicine. In only a few visits and only herbs that I could put in her apple juice and she would drink...her allergies were COMPLETELY under control. The accupuncturist has a little girl so he was great with mine. He never used any accupuncture or any needles of any kind. My girl accually requested going to see him (at 4 years old!) because she felt so much better when she was on the herbs. I cannot tell you the peace of mind I had by not giving my child any pharmacuticals that always have negative side effects. As well as the peace of mind I got by giving her herbs that had beneficial side effects. Call up some clinics and ask if they treat CHildren with Allergies, ours was recommended to us by a teacher at my daughters school. I t worked wonders. Plus, testing for allergies is best after the age of 5 as their allergies aften change after that.
I hope this was helpful, and the best of finding the best doc for your precious child.

Rebecca

WOW!! You have had a lot a great advice on this. My husband and son have had some real hard times.
I have taken a class on the Allergy Overloads Technique with Nick Lamothe,PhD Allergies Lifestyle & Health.
PO Box 1710
205 Center St.Suite B
Eatonville,WA 98328
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____@____.com
That was the best things I have ever done. Nick actually teaches you how to competely get rid of all allergies. (if all you know is convential med, then keep an open mind and go with it). Nick is so humble and such a fantastic teacher/person.

I also would check into what Charmaine H and Tiffany B. was saying about the local bee pollen, honey and jams/jellies. Stephanie W. also had some good ideas about rining hair and clean pillow case on every night. I totally believe in the all natual ways, Brenda D. was talking about a homeopathic aproach using Hyland's brand. That would be worth looking into also. I use super foods, this is what Cyndi Z. had mentioned. I do know that they are expensive but worth it. I get mine over the internet. I can't remember the site but you could google it. I do understand that allergies bring your immune system ways down. It would be very inportant to keep the immune system working as good as possible. However, I would be very careful introducing new products if she is already having so many allergies. I sounds to me that she is just having an overload of alleries. An allergy is simple! Basicly your body is forgetting how to process things. Nick teaches you how to retrain your body to automaticly know what to do with things. This results in no more allergies. It's very easy once you understand what to do and why.

You might do one of two things
1. contact him to get an apponintment
2. (the best one) find out if he will be giving a class close to you and take the class. He charged $75.00 for the class. If I remember right it was a 6-8 hour class. You actually get a certificate that you took the class.

Good luck, remember to be thankful that your daughter is just having allergies that can be fixed.

Hi Patty! I do wellness coaching and research is showing that super foods can actually help in providing additional nutrients to the cells and that in turn can help alleviate allergies. Medications can help with symptoms only and often carry side effects. I would love to get you a sample of what I give my family (kids ages 3 & 6)...it is a liquid whole food containing 9 different sea veggies, the inner filet of aloe vera, and black cherry. I have recently been working with a 3rd grader and have seen much improvement in her allergies...so much, she doesn't need medication anymore. Let me know! C.

Some alternative things to look into:

grape seed extract (include skins)
local honey
really really good vitamins, NOT Flinstone or the like.

I'm at work or I'd expand. Message me if you like! :)

I am a great-grandma and I was taught by my Great-grandma that whenever you move to a new place, buy some locally made honey or find some locally made jelly-jam-preserves made with locally grown/picked fruit. It will build a resistance naturally. Of course you can always learn to make your own like I did. But keep in mind that HONEY is your #1 best choice....it worked for me and my extended family; I hope it helps you.

C. H. (OR)

I have suffered with allergies since I was 10. I was given Benedryl. It put me to sleep. My mom is a big natural remedy person (she could open up her own health food store). My mom gave me natural remedies, but they didn't work.
Claritin comes in a Children's formula now. My Brother-in-law has been cutting a Claritin in 1/2 for my nephew since he was 3 or 4 for his allergies. But, I would give her the Childrens Claratin. It works great for me, doesn't make me sleepy or anything, and it works on my stuffy nose, sneezing, and my water, itchy eyes.

Hi,
My recommendation would be to double check if the doctor can do blood work to check for allergies. Our son was tested at 3 months of age that way since he was too young for a skin panel.

Good luck to you and your daughter!

I have had great success with Zyrtec....it treats indoor and outdoor allergies. Nothing else was working and the doctor recommended that and it has worked really well.....you might give it a try...

Oh I took all dairy products away from her too and switched her to a very good tasting soy milk.L.

If you can get a pet as in a dog, purchase a chihuahua. My older brother had severe allergies when we were growing up. He was having to get allergy shots three times a week. He was allergic to everything like dust, mold, pollen, dogs, cats, grass, bees, etc. My parent's looked into home remedies and nothing ever worked until they came across this little dog. This breed of dog, takes the allergies away from humans and deals with it on their own. They are also known to be good for asthma. After two years of having this little vivacious dog, my brother didn't have to have his allergy shots anymore and is now a healthy adult that only has seasonal allergies.

Ask her doctor about Singulair, it works great for my son.
It is a chewable tablet that tastes good so they don't mind taking it.

I think I have a product that will totally help you. It worked tremendously for my husband and is all natural. My son loves it. "Xango" is a juice made from the mangosteen fruit from Asia. I am a distributor of the juice. It's all natural and tastes wonderful!! My three year old LOVES it. You just give her like 3 oz a day (or more if you wish) My son loves it mixed with his morning juice. He takes it in the am and before he goes to bed. We all do. My husband stopped taking his allergy medicine after two weeks, and stopped getting his allergy shots (that he had to once a week) after drinking the juice for two months. Hasn't done either since and that was three years ago!!!! Go to my website and check it out. Contact me from there, or on here!!
Hope to hear from you soon!!! I know this would help!!

www.mymangosteen.com/bandt

My 4-year-old daughter is having similar allergy problems. We have had some success with Naphcon A eye drops. It says to ask a doctor for kids under 6, but we skipped that part since we were so desperate to find some relief for her. The pharmacist at the drug store didn't see a problem with her using them. Anyway, she doesn't love having the drops put in, but she does see that it helps her feel better. Good luck!

you might want to try zyrtec. my sons allergy dr had him on it when he was just a baby. I use it now too. As far as a specialist you really are never too young. My son went when he was less than a year old due to severe food allergies. A specialist will give you some good advice and help on a level the family dr might not be able to do. The Northwest allregy and astma clinic in Seattle is great. The have clinics in other areas of the state also. I am sure that Mary Bridge has some good drs too. Also there is a pediatric size nettie pot of sorts. Its a bottle that helps you sqeeze saline solution into the nose and cleans out the sinuses. My 9 yo loves his.
Hope that helps.
J.

Hi,

Our daughter was 2 at the time when she developed an allergy to something. We never did figure out for sure what it was but it was a very hard time and she wouldn't have breathing issues but would break on it hives. We went to see allergy doctors and we discovered that they really don't know what to do for kids on allergies so they try things. We found that the trying was not a good thing for our daughter. Her personality actually changed and she was not the same happy little girl and the hives did not go away. We found some relief through homeopathy and I highly recommend it now. Sometimes you do have to use antibiotics or drugs to help things but we had much better success with homeopathy for her hives and allergic reactions than we did with the standard drugs that they were pushing on us.

Good luck and I hope you find something that works for your daughter.

D.

My son had such bad allergies they couldn't test him because he reacted so fast to so much! We tried lots of stuff on our own. We just kept going to a good allergy doctor who gave him medications that helped. One of his worst allergies was grass and we lived in a grass field and he is an avid soccer player. I took him to the neighbors when we mowed and kept the medications up and then started shots. He finally was able to quit the meds and is doing fine now but it was years of allergy ordeals! Just find a good allergy doctor and let him help you! Don't for get to shower before going to bed in a clean bed as when they are moving around they are collecting all that stuff on them and you don't want that to go to bed with them via themselves!

i just started allergy shots myself and interestingly enough, the allergist says that it's actually good to get kids on allergy shots (who are prone) as it reroutes their immune system so they will not get more allergies. it is a long process, at least 3 years of shots (weekly or bi-weekly for up to 6 months, then once a month after that) and if you don't complete it, you will lose the benefit.

my neighbor did the shots and he got so much relief from it however he didn't keep up on the maintenance shots so now he has to start over.

my kids were tested at around 18 months because my daughtr had eczema so we had to figure out the trigger (turns out it was dairy and milk).

even if you don't get shots, i'd recommend having them tested so you can know what your daughter's allergic to so you can avoid it. (she may have allergies you weren't aware of.) and they can prescribe you another med since yours isn't working.

good luck! i wish my parents had been as pro-active or i wouldn't be allergic to everything under the sun!

You could try Zyrtec. It's over the counter now. The allergist prescribed it for my granddaughter 2-3 years ago. I've heard that there is a children's strength available also. If you haven't used the Loratadine for at least 1-2 weeks it may still work. It does take awhile for our bodies to adjust to this sort of med.

If that doesn't work I'd recommend that you take her to an allergist. Yes, an allergist can prescribe different meds and has a greater understanding of allergies. My granddaughter goes to James Baker, M.D. who has a new office in NW Portland. He also has an office in Lake Oswego. He was recommended by several people including the school nurse.It is a bit far to go and there may be a pediatric allergist in Gresham area. Baker isn't listed as a pediatric specialist in the phone book but he does work with a great many kids.

I don't understand why your doctor wouldn't test her. Is he a pediatrician? My granddaughter has allergies, eczema, and asthma. Perhaps that is why her pediatrician tested her before she was a year old.

My granddaughter doesn't like the Nasonex either. We don't try to force her to take it but when she is uncomfortable enough she does sometimes. When she was a toddler we just lay her down or held her, facing forward against our body, and quickly squirted it in. The faster you can do it the more likely that it will work.

A doctor can also prescribe drops for the eyes. I've used them. They do work better than over the counter drops. My doctor also says if I use OTC drops to be sure not to use the ones that say they "get the red out." I don't remember why now. The plain drops do work better for me than the "get the red out" ones do.

My granddaughter was first prescribed Singulair which is an antihistmine but it works in a different way than other anti-histamines. She started taking that when she was 3. Her asthma was out of control and that might be why she took it. Then last summer her allergy symptoms increased and the allergist added Zyrtec and the nasal spray. Again this summer she is having more difficulty with allergies and he increased the dosage of Zyrtec. He said that if her eyes continued to itch and swell to bring her in so that he can try something different. Fortunately her nose isn't congested anymore. Most likely because of the Zyrtec.

What is of the most help to me is the original Sudafed. It clears my blocked passages. I don't know if it would be appropriate for a child.

P.~
My suggestion would be to find an Allergist or ENT in your area and have your daughter tested. Then the doctor can start her on a allergy treatment plan. I've dealt with allergies all my life and my daughter has them also (she's 3). The allergy testing now days is a lot better than when I was a kid, all they need is a vile of blood. I feel the faster you get them under control, the faster your child (and you) can have your life back. Hope you find a solution soon.
T. S.

My son currently takes Allegra twice a day, Rhinocord nasal spray, and prescription eye drops. The spring is what really kills him. I think maybe next year we will take him to a specialist. I can't say I have any real good advice, but to try to keep him from the pollen, to bath him often to wash the pollen off, a saline spray to wash his nasal passages clean, and to keep any pets from the house. My son is 10 now. Best of luck!! I know how you feel.
S. W