Any top tips how to help hayfever eyes ? My daughter is so fed up

[CassandraWebb]

We have antihistamine, prescription nose spray, some eye drops.
She can barely open her eyes, she doesn't want to miss school but she can't really function at all.

I'd love any tips on how to help her !

Thank you all there's lots here to try I feel a bit less hopeless!

We've got the sodium cromoglycate eye drops and they are helping, and am looking at ordering air purifiers

We've always tumble dried /indoor dried everything because my son has bad hayfever too (but Avamys nose spray worked wonders for him).

She's been having lots of showers but I am going to sort a cover for her bedding. I've also realised she often chills sitting in bed for a bit when she gets home from school so I will tell her to shower and change first.

Growing up I didn't really understand what my friends with hayfever were going through and it's been really eye opening how limiting it is.

Fexofenadine And Dymista nasal spray are my serious combo. Both available OTC if she is old enough.

Opticrom drops are excellent ! We all have hayfever and these drops works for everyone in the family .

She might like these, I don’t have hay fever but I do have dry itchy scratchy eyes and these help a lot

https://amzn.eu/d/cIoo6HI

tell her to wash her hair daily. It’s a faff but the hair is thousands of strands of surface area that holds pollen. It gets rubbed onto the pillow. One of the best things you can do is wash it before bed

Working/ Being in an area with a filtered air supply is great if you suffer from hayfever, but maybe not an easy solution for most ppl.

I second this. A good few years ago now but I couldn’t go out the door untill i was prescribed those.
Also shower at night to get pollen off hair and face .
Don't hang bedding outdoors .

Fexofenadine, becanase nasal spray and optex hay fever eye drops. No laundry dried outside...especially bedding. It also helps if I shower and wash my hair before bed.

How old is she? It really helps once you can put your own eye drops in. Maybe she can learn to do that? It was awful having to find a reluctant adult to do it for me at primary school and they usually bodged it too. Otrivine Antistin drops work best for me when my eyes drive me crazy but it's hard to find in pharmacies now, seems to be available online though.

She has my sympathy.
As a child I found wearing sunglasses even indoors helped.
Lie down in bed with a wet Kleenex over the eyes.
Wet enough it’s almost dripping.

Ok, hear me out because this is going to sound slightly unhinged but Dh has had hay fever for years along with dust allergies and a billion other random sensitivities. This year he has had no sneezing, no runny nose, no itchy eyes nothing, even when he was mowing the lawn. He recently decided to get his gut health in order and has been making and drinking kefir, that is the only thing we can put it down to. He doesn't take any medication for it ( he's one of those men who likes to suffer) so that's the only thing that we can put it down to.

The beconase nasal spray is a steroid, not a reliever, so needs to be taken twice a day, two sprays in each nostril, even if there are no symptoms. It builds resistance.

My eyes have been burning this week so much I’ve been pulling out eyelashes for relief- not a recommended approach!

Basically it’s frequent rinsing and wondering around with wet cotton pads on my eyes for relief. These few weeks are always shit for me- the grass pollen gets me every year. I knew it was going to be high forecast without even looking just by my eyes. Oddly though I’m not particularly sneezy and my eczema hasn’t kicked in- I normally get it in high pollen years but not every summer.

What meds is she on? Went from full on all over body hives and eyeball blisters to the odd sniffle with montelukast and fexofenadine. Were also advised to up the beclametasone inhaler.

I had it so bad as a teenager that I was taking4 tablets a day. Some had the side effects of drowsiness. I was laying on the floor reading some notes and my Nan came in and I was face down on the floor. She thought I was dead, obviously I was only asleep. My gp tried numerous tablets and injections. It appeared I outgrew it as I’ve not had any problems since I was 40, but especially as a teenager it was utterly miserable.

It's not crazy. It's a vagus nerve thing.

Olapatadine eye drops. They’re prescription only. I get them every year for DS and they are a total game changer. He uses those with allevia antihistamine and it seems to keep it at bay most days.

She has symbicort inhaler (asthma) , cetirizine and Avamys (nasal spray)

Montelukast (for asthma) caused a very rapid deterioration in her mental health so we had to stop it. It's been a miracle drug for her brother's asthma though.

Ah fab, thank you, it's given me hope that there are other options for eye drops and antihistamines

She's dyslexic so she's battling through the school day even before we add hayfever to the mix

My daughter used to suffer badly with her eyes. One year I realised she had hardly had any issues. Turned out she had started putting vaseline on her eyelashes to make them longer or some other idea she had seen on tik tok. But seemed to help her hay-fever enormously

So sorry, was the game changer for our boy.

Assuming that your GP has been looking into alternatives in different categories?

Can offer some hope in that by 19 he had effectively overcome it.

I suspect most unaffected people have no idea just how limiting it can be.

All the best to your DD.

My daughter suffers too, optician gave us a letter for GP to prescribe Ketotifen. It's similar drug to Olapatine so ask GP to prescribe 1 or other.

Cetrizine does nothing for me. Honestly Fexo and Dymista if she is over 12. Fexo can be used younger under docs. My second best AH is Benadryl but not the one a day.

I see she's asthmatic - might be worth a review with the asthma nurse as well, hayfever & asthma being so linked.

Fexofenadine is available otc - I think you can get up 120mg dose without a prescription - I've found helps in a pinch when I've run out of prescribed strength.

Jealous you're by the sea. Sigh.

Honestly, you really don’t need to do half the faff mentioned in this thread. Just get her onto Fexofenadine. You can buy it over the counter today while you wait for a presecription. Use it with the nasal spray you already have.