Can you mix two hay fever drugs?

[NinetyNineRedBalloonsGoBy]

My 14 y/o son is suffering very badly this year with hay fever. Normally cetrizine hydrochloride works fine, but it's not touching it. I tried him on lotradine too - no joy. Both are one a day pills. Can he take both in one day if hours apart - say one in the morning and one at bedtime?

It's worth making an appointment with the dr to ensure safe dosage. A numbers of years ago I spoke with doctor and listed all the drugs I tried. When she looked up ingredients many have the same components. She then found me one that was a different ingredient and I've been doing well for years. They can also look at combinations such as nasal inhalers.

Vaseline round nose is help, especially as it stops nose going red but doesn't cure it for me. I also tried local honey, honey was lovely but didn't do anything for hayfever.

This does seem to be bad season.

Fexofenadine has been my saviour this year as suffering badly. You can only get it on prescription but it is very effective .Optrex eye drops for itchy eyes and Beconase spray for runny nose and itching too .

you need to get fexofenadine on prescription. It actually works for 24 hours. Before I went in to this I took several certirizine a day on the advice of an immunologist. Over the counter doesn't last 24 hours but they're not licenced for more than 1. Speak to a GP. No reason for him to suffer.

The UK is one of the few places where fexofenadine has to be prescribed (we've quite a trend in backwards and outdated restrictions) but it works a treat if other things have failed.

Fexofenadine has never worked great for me. This year, so far, air purifiers dotted around the house (working from home) and beconase allergy defense plus nasal spray have been great. First year of using this spray (usually use the steriod sprays, eye drops, fexofenadine, citirizine, etc., I get via the doctor but doubt I'd even get through for a phone appointment right now) and it seems to be working well.

The one a day tablets do nothing for me, I just take benadryl acrivastine as mentioned by pps, it's an 8 hour tablet I take it in the morning and again at night if particularly bad. It generally does actually work. Also liquid Piriton is similar.

I read once that for the one a day tablets to work you have to take them continuously for several weeks before the season starts. Not sure of the truth of this but I haven't bothered with them for years as they seem to just be a placebo.

Dr told ds to take cetirizine regularly and chlorophenamine (piriton) as required. He’s been doing that since he was about 6.