still doing benadryl at night allegra in the morning, but ds keeps forgetting to take the allegra.  I have noticed (he did too) that his skin is overall less dry and some of his chronic eczema patches have cleared up. 
I remember when he was little, I used to give him benadryl a lot (he had a lot of hives before food allergy dx) and I would see that his skin cleared nicely. 
Interesting.  The pollen counts are down, but we're going to do the benadryl through may.

ds doing much better with the benadryl added at night.  Pollen may be coming down a bit, but his skin is less irritated overall

Quote from: eggallergymom on April 17, 2012, 07:52:14 PM
I'm sorry about the hivey kid! Not fun. I'm getting hives on a near-daily basis right now, too, thanks to the pollen and tree mold. I clearly missed the magical window for starting allergy meds and am now playing a bad game of catch-up! I hope your son finds some relief soon. That must be distracting in school.

^ Yeah, I'm in the same boat there.

Hope you find a solution soon, hives are not fun.

ours is a dustmite and pollen filter, it has really helped him sleep at night, has  quite nasty rhinitis.

he goes from tree pollen, to hay fever, to mold with added dustmite.


my teen boy can eat huge family share type bars in mins, and for the first time has a very slight belly and slightly more rounded face now!

hang in there, eragon. 
My ds seems a lot better today.  even when he woke up he said he felt better.  I think rain is predicted which might help wash away some of the pollen has coated everything. 

eragon there's nothing wrong with giving a treat to someone going through a hard time.  I don't consider it weak.

You mentioned a pollen filter in the bedroom.  Is it the same thing as a room-sized air filter?

 just a tick list to check if you have covered everything  this is what we have tried over the years...

wrap around glasses,

hat .

eye drops

nasal sprays. /vaseline dabbed in nose to trap the pollen etc.

nightly antihistamine, currently on double dose at night and morning for other odd reasons too complicated to waffle on about (sigh... )

step up with the ezcema skin routine, etc.

change clothes and shower when he gets home.

keep bedroom window shut,

pollen filter in bedroom.

cold /frozen drinks to cool that raw itchy throat.


have to say that zytec liquid caused real bad mood, huge anger swings , teachers asking me what was going on at home as he had changed overnight.....

claritin liquid, = eyes rolling back and going grey in near faint.   

tablets are so much better for them now he is older, the rubbish they put in the liquid stuff is scary and quite damaging imo


sometimes he is so misrable i end up giving him an extra treat or two. but thats not good parenting,  but what can i say? I'm weak...

Oh thanks for the eyedrop tip.  I haven't heard of that drop.  He used to use Patinol with a lot of success.  His eyes haven't bothered him in a long time.  Now he wears contacts, yesterday and today he wore his glasses though. 

I hope the new regimen works!  This pollen season is so bad.

If the eyes continue to be itchy, Zaditor is a good OTC treatment.  It burns a lot the first few days you do it, but then it isn't a big deal.  At least, that's ds2's experience.

Yeah, he was really uncomfortable.  My dh wigged out that i picked him up.  he's normally really empathetic about things like this, but today he was like "tell him to suck it up"!  I said ok @hole you try sitting in class with both arms covered in hives and your eyes burning and itching.  sheesh.
He is better tonight. 
I used to give him benadryl when he was little when he had spring trouble.  Hoping adding it will make him more comfortable.

I hope he is feeling a little less itchy tonight. Hives are so uncomfortable, I feel for him. Reactine works for me, but I am pretty sure that it is the same as Zyrtec so I don't really have any helpful suggestions. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for him.

Quote from: Mookie86 on April 17, 2012, 04:34:56 PM
My doctor doesn't like mixing antihistamines.  I had asked about combining a low-dose Allegra with Zyrtec.

If you don't want to try switching to Zyrtec, another option might be the 60 mg 12-hour dose of Allegra.  Some people take it 3x per day.  You probably could continue doing the 180 mg at night and then add 60 mg in the morning.  That might get him through outdoor time at school, but it wouldn't be as much as taking 360 mg per day.

Was the doctor recommending doubling the dose permanently or just to get him through this rough patch now?  I'm curious how long you can do such a high dose.  I'd been advised that you can double it for a short while, but I never sought clarification what that meant.

I hope you find an answer soon!

they told me to use a different antihistimine for the second dose.  allegra at night/clariton in am or allegra/zyrtec.  the nurse is a spaz like I said before and I said oh.  he tried both allegra and clariton when he was little and the clariton did nothing and the zyrtec was bad mood wise.  she talks a mile a minute and is pretty much worthless. 
So, I decided that maybe some benadryl at night and allegra in the morning might work.  I might call back tomorrow and talk to the other nurse who is awesome and see what she says. 
I told him to stay inside after lunch. 
He also takes Singular.  He would do this until the pollen calms down.  it hasn't rained for awhile and the ground is covered with it. 
probably didn't help that he was playing basketball during recess?   

I would try the zyrtec again too.  My ds has to constantly rotate antihistimines.  After a while they just don't work anymore for him.  Also, Eucerin makes a calming cream that helps with itching.  They used to have a body wash too, but I couldn't find that last I looked.

I'm sorry about the hivey kid! Not fun. I'm getting hives on a near-daily basis right now, too, thanks to the pollen and tree mold. I clearly missed the magical window for starting allergy meds and am now playing a bad game of catch-up! I hope your son finds some relief soon. That must be distracting in school.

My personal opinion (shared by our allergist) is that mixing antihistamines is fine-- so long as you remember that you're dealing with pharmacology that is all in the same drug class.  That means that if you wouldn't take 3 doses of allegra, then you also should not take two doses of allegra AND one of zyrtec.  With most second-gen antihistamines we routinely (ie-- for a week or so at a time) go up to 200% dosing in DH and I, and as much as 150% in DD. 

If you do need that much medication, though, it might be time to discuss something in another drug class as an add-on.  YMMV, of course, and it's probably worth a conversation with the doc, but this was the point at which we've added on Singulair.