My 18 month old DS has always had fairly severe excema. We have been treated in hospital since he was about 4 months old and he has had various food allergies diagnosed which have helped.
He is currently having a flare up which I think is now infected which I've put down to having a cold and teething.
However when we went for our appointment with the dermatologist yesterday he took one look at him and said he'd developed a dust mite allergy (but didn't test for it) and also prescribed a twice daily anti histamine which he should take "long term".
He quoted a study which found that children that took the anti histamine on a long term basis were more likely to grow out of their allergies. He also said it would help with his scratching.
I can understand the scratching argument but I've never seen any research suggesting it could help grow out of the allergies. Has anyone else had experience/knowledge of this? I'm really reluctant to commit to using something like this long term although I'm quite happy using Piriton etc on an 'as needed' basis. No potential side effects were mentioned but I'm sure there must be some.
I need to arm myself with some info before I go back to argue my case so please help!