Help! Allergies

onlymeggan · August 2012

My poor baby has been sick for what seems like a year. The dr. says back to back colds and finally I change to a different dr. The new doc says allergies. She says he's probably allergic to our 4 cats, Great! He'll be fine for a week or two and then BAM cough, runny nose, red eyes for a few weeks. This has been going on forever. I wish someone could tell me for a fact what is going on with him and what he's allergic too. Obviously, if it's the cats then they will be found new homes but I don't want to take such a drastic step if we don't know they're the problem. Is anyone else going through this? Any suggestions? I'm just so frustrated and stressed out. I just want to make my lil guy better and keep him that way. Crying

JoJoMama730 · August 2012

I think some gals on here had their LOs allergy tested, so I'm sure they will weigh in about that. I've been keeping a close eye on G because I have 2 cats and am allergic myself - not severely so, though. But when I see her rubbing her nose and eyes for several days in a row, I start wondering. . . . .

Sorry to hear your little guy has been feeling crummy for so long! Figuring out what he is allergic to (or if) is the first step to feeling better.

stephy1221 · August 2012

Just popping in to say for me personally this was a bad year for seasonal allergies. Because the winter was so mild the ragweed wasn't totally killed off around here and I was on my claritin non stop. Just wanted to throw that out there. An allergist obviously could say more but it could be allergies but not to the cats.

onlymeggan · August 2012

Thanks! The pedi said that he's too young for seasonal allergies. If it's allergies it's dust mites, the cats, or possibly a food.

lrn327 · August 2012

Oh, I'm so sorry! C has food allergies (milk, peanuts) but is also incidentally allergic to cats. We only found that out through the bloodwork though. I think though not am certain you can have the prick testing done to determine a cat allergy. (They prick the skin a tiny bit with a little hook that has the allergen on it.) The bloodwork is usually the first step though and it might give a general idea of the severity though can definitely not pinpoint a severity. Subsequent bloodwork can show whether an allergy might be disappearing too. I'd ask for your pedi to order the panel. If you're concerned about food or environmental allergies, they can test for those too. If you have the bloodwork, I'd recommend really pushing water and other liquids a day or two in advance (it makes a HUGE difference) and having a special, fun snack and toy for LO to distract him.

smithpaint · August 2012

My poor little guy has been dealing with allergies for the past 8 months at least (it seems like he's been "sick" since last summer). We finally got him on allergy medicine 4 months ago which is really helping. He still has some symptoms though even after doubling the dose of his medicine (per his doctor). On Sunday my grandma watched him for 4 hours or so. She has cats in the house. When we went to pick him up he had extremely red eyes and face. It looked like a major allergic reaction. So now I wonder if he's allergic to cats. We have cats outside, but he interacts with them some. So we may be in the same boat as you. It would be nice though to know what is causing all of his symptoms.

smithpaint · August 2012

onlymeggan:
Thanks! The pedi said that he's too young for seasonal allergies. If it's allergies it's dust mites, the cats, or possibly a food.

Interesting - I hadn't heard this. We are taking my 3yo to the allergist and then possibly taking Isaac after that. Maybe it is cats!

GrayGhost13 · August 2012

There are so many different kinds of environmental allergies that I would definitely seek allergy testing as a next step. I would want to see an allergy specialist, particularly one that's familiar with pets and children so I could get some advice on managing the situation. A lot of pedis and GPs jump to rehoming way too quick because they don't have the knowledge on how to manage an allergy and it sounds like a quick fix, but the prospects for rehoming an adult cat in this economy are so bad, rehoming would be the last thing I'd consider, personally.

Here's a link with some tips of what you can do to help manage a pet allergy if, indeed, LO has one. But I'd definitely want to get to the bottom of the cause before assuming it was the pets.

I really hope you can get some good answers and your LO feels better soon!

lrn327 · August 2012

onlymeggan:
Thanks! The pedi said that he's too young for seasonal allergies. If it's allergies it's dust mites, the cats, or possibly a food.

I'd have to respectfully disagree with your pedi on this one! They're only too young it is their very first season every encountering those seasonal allergens. So, for my LO at least spring/summer 2011 was his exposure season that sensitized him and then spring/summer 2012 hit us hard. He prescribed Zytrec by his allergist all season which helped immensely. Since our kiddos are all almost two, I'd think he'd be too young only if you moved from a different part of the country before this allergy season. You might want to get LO to a pediatric allergist asap to find out what is going on. The meds can really help a lot!

M&S07 · August 2012

I have to agree with LRN327. My DD was awful even last Spring 2011. That was her first time with breathing treatments. After a full year of runny nose and mouth breathing we were referred to a pedicatric allergist. They did the prick test on her (which was honestly no big deal) and found she's highly allergic to ragweed. The ragweed never completely died down here in NJ so it's been bad all year. Good news for us is that MH is also highly allergic to ragweed. When he starts being bothered then we instantly give my DD some Allegra (started this weekend) and it really helps her. The allergist also gave her Nasonex to help with the swollen annoids to reduce the mouth breathing until her facial structure grows to make room. We have a follow up with the ENT on October 1 to see if they agree but I think it's been helping thus far.

onlymeggan · August 2012

I give him Zyrtec every night but it doesn't seem to make any difference. The pedi just called me back and said to try infant benedryl to try and dry him up. He's choking on his drainage and it's scaring the bejesus out of me.

dee12807 · August 2012

onlymeggan:
Thanks!  The pedi said that he's too young for seasonal allergies.  If it's allergies it's dust mites, the cats, or possibly a food.

One of the docs in our group said this too, but the other 2 and the ENT said no way, he def had seasonal allergies. Children's Zyrtec kind of worked for us, but we switched to the claratin(target brand) and it works great. He gets 1/2 tsp each night and it has stopped the head congestion and subsequent ear infections.

I would def try an allergist though. I'm sure they would have more insight....

jillybean800 · August 2012

I also disagree with the seasonal allergies comment your pedi made, just because our pediatric allergist told us something different. Luckily, A doesn't suffer from seasonal allergies. But a blood panel will give you so many answers. A popped up positive on 4 allergens: peanuts, soy, eggs and cats. So that would have been our answer if we had cats, but luckily we have a non-shedding dog. It's also nice to know what he is NOT allergic to, so we don't always have to cross our fingers when giving him something to eat.

lulu8109 · August 2012

I would def ask your pedi if they can do an allergy screening or if they can refer you to an allergist. If it's that bad and been going on for that long, I think it's best to find out for certain what he is allergic to.

DS had really bad eczema as a baby and at one point we thought he was allergic to dairy. The pedi sent him for a blood draw allergy test and everything came back negative. It was a relief to know for certain, but getting LO tested was AWFUL. We both cried.

We now think he might have developed an allergy to peanuts. He had tested negative for that last year, but you can develop allergies that you didn't have before. More testing may be in our future. UGH.

Good luck!

enjoylife · August 2012

We took A to the pediatric allergist just after he turned a year. He never had any food reactions so they didn't test him for that, but I have a strong history of allergies/asthma and needed allergy shots for a couple years in high school so we asked them to test A when he broke out in hives for no reason. Turned out he has slight allergy to dogs. (We have 2 dogs) While I never connected him being allergic, he would have raspy breathing at times, but not always, it was when he was at my mom's house and my sister's german shephard was there that he broke out in the hives. I'm actually sensitive to certain dog breeds, not all, but I can't touch her dog without breaking out or getting teary. Our allergist said to make sure we vacuumed regularly (to help keep up the dog hair), wash the dog beds (since A likes to lay on them), we could buy an air filtration thing (we haven't since he got way better), and start him on singulair. Singulair has been expensive, but I hear they just came out with a generic so YAY, but it has been night/day difference. We have never needed his nebulizer they gave us as a precaution, when he has had his few colds this past spring he didn't need it or an ER trip either. The prick test was so minimal, I had it done when I was in high school and remember laying there while they did each spot, but the doctor we took A to was awesome, they had a little contraption already preloaded with the different that it just touched his back and in less than .2 seconds it was done. He didn't even cry or anything. We will test each year to see if the more exposure he has to environmental allergens changes. (I have bad reactions with pretty much anything green growing from the ground).

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