Cetirizine VS Piriteze (Hayfever)

[GhostRyder]

Hi all

I wonder if any of you lovely people who suffer from or know somebody who suffers from hayfever can help me.

My DC suffers from the most horrendous hayfever type symptoms. Doc said it could even be an allergy to dust. Doc prescribed Cetirizine 10ml to be taken daily and I’ve always stuck to this and been consistent but it doesn’t seem to stop DC waking up every morning without fail to excessive mucous running from nose and watery irritated eyes.

I tried Piriteze - purchased it from the pharmacy for £6 after feeling very let down with Cetirizine. The bottle lasted me just over a week and I noticed DC was waking without the usual symptoms.

I rang the docs and asked if I could get Piriteze on prescription and they said Cetirizine is exactly the same thing as Piriteze and I’m already getting that.

My question is, am I imagining this or is it really not the same thing. Why was Piriteze more effective in stopping the symptoms?

I’m now thinking to spend £6 every other week to get this for DC, it will add up thought as DC needs to be on this indefinitely from what it seems.

What would you do?

Ha @emmthedilemma I was so bloody cross with the GP when she prescribed them to me, because I couldn't believe they'd work. I wanted a referral to an allergy clinic, or something else having suffered for years and having found nothing that worked and I'd tried everything even the bloody infrared nasal prongs that made me look like a grotesque reindeer with a dripping nose.

Then, when they did work, I was even more bloody cross that I'd not been prescribed them before! I'd had courses of steroids to get through job interviews (who'd employ someone whose nose resembled Niagara falls!?), I'd been told to take 4 cetirizine a day, and tried every OTC antihistamines going. Plus all the nasal sprays, the incessant showering and hair washing, not hanging my clothes out to dry, closing all the windows, yada yada.

And yet, the fexofenadine worked immediately. Not a single side effect. Well, one side effect, mozzies can bite me now and I don't get giant red rings of heat and swelling around the bite. Yay!

Fexofenadine all the way. And if an 8yo can have it, he most definitely should and he'll thank you for it. People underestimate the effects of hay fever. It used to make me feel rotten and exhausted and kept me indoors for months and months at a time.

Just to add some personal experience:
I take Cetirizine Hydrochloride to manage the skin reaction's that I get from my Asthma medication.
If I take one daily tablet from any of the pharmacy brand, or any of the different supermarket brands that I have bought so far, then I still get some mild reactions.
If I take Piriteze, I have no reactions whatsoever, at all. This is what I have noticed over 3 years.
If I accidentally take a non Piriteze tablet, then I notice the following day, when I start to get skin reactions again.
Go back to Piriteze again and it all clears up.
So, same active ingredient or not, the tablets effects are not the same.
(Which is very annoying as they are vastly more expensive)