Bad allergies please help

jersangl

My daughter is 21 months. She has really bad allergies all year long. They cannot do any test until 2 years old, a few more months!! I feel so bad for her though. She has to take Singular and Zyteric every day. She is on an antibiotic usually once a m onth for her sinus infections. She is constantly sick. We are in the doctors office at least 3 times a month.

When I say allergies this is what I mean... She coughs persistent all day and all night. Her face is bright red with rashes all over it. She has constant runny nose and wheezes. Allergiest and Pedi said this is allergies.  The medicine obviously does nothing. I have a humidifier in her room too. I am looking for other ways besides just loading her with meds to help her. Any ideas?

So far I have to put her in the bathroom with hot water running, a new humidifier, to get an air purifier in her room, to get hyper allergenic pillows .

vernab

Has she been tested for allergies?  It sounds a little more like asthma to me with the cough and wheezing.  I would look for an allergy specialist.

godzprncs

My DD is 19 months and has pretty bad allergies as well. She had been taking singulair and allegra - and with our new pedi they have put her on flonase (a nose spray) and kept her on allerga. They don't want to test her because she is too young and the testing can be pretty traumatic. I also HATE that this has to be controlled by 2 medications but if it helps her - then I am all for it. Have you tried any other meds? Our pedi also prescribed albuterol to help with the cough. Sorry I have no other ways besides meds. But I hope it helps a little. Hang in there!

jersangl

No havent tried other meds yet. She has been on albuterol breathing treatments before for bronchitis, but she refuses it. Even with 2 people holding her down I cant get it in her. What test is traumatic? and how is it Traumatic?

sapphire angel

What about using an air purifier in her room/playroom? I leave one running in my bedroom at all times and the one for the main room runs only when I am home (it's suppose to get the whole room within an hour on high).

<ETA: I missed the air purifier in her room you mentioned. What about going a bit further and having one in each room of the house as well as using a HEPA filter on your AC filter? >

If I remember my own meds correctly the singulair is more for astham and the zyrtec for allergies right? What about trying a different allergy med such as claritin or allegra? I know zyrtec does not do anything for me but Claritin and Allegra work just fine. 

Albuterol treatments: are you using a nebulizer or inhaler with spacer? The inhaler is a faster treatment method I think and just as effective in my opinion. The spacer has a very soft mask that you can smash against LO's face without hurting them and then count to 20 seconds or 10 breaths I think. I think you are supposed to count breaths but my pedi said if I need to count seconds that was fine too. And trust me, I have smashed that mask against LO pretty hard and have never left red marks. She also reached a point of realizing the treatment has fast results in helping her breathe so she stopped fighting as hard. 

I think the traumatic test would be the scratch test? LO has only had a blood test for food allergies so I can't tell you anything about what happens or how bad it is. My older brother had the scratch test done in his 20s and he felt pretty miserable for awhile afterwards.  

jrlandrigan

Do you have any pets? Maybe she is allergic to pets you may have? DS had allergy testing a few weeks ago and he just turned 16 months old. I don't see why they say she is too young. I was expecting it to be very traumatic and just awful but it was way better than I anticipated. He had to lay on his belly for 20 min (I posted asking about others who had LO allergy tested and nobody said their LO had to lay flat like mine). He wouldn't lay there on my lap, which I never expected him to, so I layed on the table with him on top of me while DH read books to him to distract him. Then the allergist came back in to read the hives. He was tested because of nut allergies and came back also allergic to cats and dogs (we have two cats). The dr said they can build up a resistance to their own pets but have severe reactions to other pets.

ETA: I just re-read your post about her symptoms and to me, that sounds exactly like my allergy to dogs. I wheeze, get hives, swollen eyes, itchy, sneeze.. well not exactly but most of the same symptoms.

Either way, hope you can find something that helps.

anonsouthernbell

Take her to a good chiropractor that sees a lot of children - it seriously can do wonders!  Also, get some local honey.  I second (or is it third) the air purifier.  And finally, I would look into cutting dairy out of her diet right now and see if that helps any. :hugs: that must be so tough!

jersangl

Thanks for all the suggestions! I will be using most of them. She had a food allergy test already. She screamed but it wasnt bad at all. I think she was more scared. They poked her in the back, but it was over very quickly. 

She was tested for dog allergys. She doesnt have that!

anonsouthernbell

jersangl:

Thanks for all the suggestions! I will be using most of them. She had a food allergy test already. She screamed but it wasnt bad at all. I think she was more scared. They poked her in the back, but it was over very quickly. 

She was tested for dog allergys. She doesnt have that!

 

I have been told that the food allergy test results aren't very accurate for kids our age.  I am not sure why that it is or when that changes but just something to think about...