Hayfever- what's the best anti histamine?

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I've been taking 10mg lortadine every morning and last night my eyes were all itchy and watery. This morning I woke up with swollen eyelids and under eyes. Is there anything which actually works for 24hrs?

I have 180mg fenofexadine hydrochloride from the doctor but I think you can get 120mg otc. It works very well for my dreadful hayfever.

Watching with interest......... I have the injections the 120mg fenofexodine the over the counter nose sprays and eye drops..... yes nothing is touching it this year. It's making my life a misery!!

The best one is the one that works for you.

I use cetirizine, plus opticrom eye drops and a steroid nasal spray.

This article is worth a read:

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/apr/10/hay-fever-misery-20-tips-doctors-allergy-experts

Fexofenodine is good, if it doesn't help then you make contact with your gp surgery who can prescribe a dose higher than what you can buy otc.

Definitely do a combination of steroid nasal spray like beconase (take regularly, don’t wait for hay fever to play up), antihistamine pills that you haven’t used before (if you usually use loratadine switch to another) and opticrom for eyes.
Doctor can prescribe stronger drugs if necessary, and my gp also said you can take up to 3 a day of the “once a day” tablets! I find one morning and another at night works.

I get it so badly in June/July only a kenolog steroid jab is effective.

I echo it's the one that works best for you and I supplement daily tablets with a nasal spray when needed, which is usually in summer.

I think the warm, dry weather in March and April has increased the impact of tree pollen for a lot of hay fever sufferers this year - I've certainly noticed it more although it's not as bad for me as other pollens.

Fexofenadine in our house, along with a saline rinse and showering before bed. Fexofenadine over the counter is called Allevia, it comes in 120 mg, but you can take 1-1/2 tablets to make it 180 (which is the dose when you get it on prescription)

You will need to try a whole range of anti-histamines before finding what's right for you. I spent years going through GP prescriptions, over-the-counter medications and herbal remedies.

I was on loratadine for a while, after someone bought it for me by mistake, and it worked better than whatever I was on before. A lot of threads on here recommend fexofenadine, and I noticed that they sell it in my local supermarket, so I tried that. It's been brilliant so far, so I took to using that, but this year's hot and dry weather means that I'm also using more Optrex hay-fever eye-drops again.

You can get this from an online doctor if it's more convenient. My DH got some from the Asda online pharmacy and saved him the palava of getting an appointment.

speak to your gp. I now have an “antihistamine ladder” which works well but would advise medical input before using otc meds in any way other then advised by the label. But fexofenadine a great starting point.

Fexofendine in our house!

Loratadine seems to be the one that keeps my asthma under control but I tend to find it does bugger all for any other allergy symptoms. I find cetirizine better for that.

Fenofexadine here too, it's the best thing since Triludan was taken off the market. But I also have a ladder of medication, up to blue and brown inhalers for the 3 weeks certain trees bloom and I suddenly can't breathe.

Nasal spray with steroids.

I use Fexofenadine. Allevia is the brand name one people recommend but Boots do an own brand one that I find works just as well for slightly cheaper (£8-9 a box instead of £13, I think).