DS13 Severe Hayfever and Fexofenadine not working

[SplendidPendips]

DS13 is suffering from horrendous hay-fever, as he does every year. Horrendous blocked/runny nose that prevents him from sleeping is his worse symptom. But he also gets itcy eyes and it triggers asthma attacks. GP prescribed fexofenadine two years ago, he could only have the 60mg tablets the first year but since last year has been allowed 120mg. We make sure to start taking them before hay-fever season kicks off, take them daily, use nasal spray, shower every night and have an air purifier in his room. It's just not working. He's been up all night with horrible symptoms. What can we do? I am so so worried about gcses in a few years time. He can barely sleep or function.

I'm looking at air purifier for the bedroom. Do they help?

I'm told putting your pillow in a bin bag, sealing and freezing helps. And not drying washing on the line.

Air purifiers do definitely help but you need to keep all doors and windows closed and check the filtration power of the machine

Also have his vitamin d checked, low levels can make allergies worse

I get absolutely horrific hayfever from May-September. The same symptoms as your son. I take fexofenadine 180mg, nasal spray, and eye drops.
Last year the GP added montelukast to my daily regime and it really helped the asthma side of things. I was also prescribed a 5 day course of steroids which helped as well
I do a few non medical things that seem to help, although I know it's not for everyone.

• At the peak of hayfever season, I take my clothes off in the hallway after coming inside and then dependent on where I've been I either was my hands and face OR have a full shower afterwards. Then I change into "indoor" clothes.DD and DH also change after coming inside and wash their hands and face. It sounds really OTT, but it minimises pollen being tracked into the house and really reduced my symptoms.
• I use a neti bottle daily to do sinus rinses

-I dab vaseline around my nostrils as apparently it prevents pollen being inhaled as it sticks to the vaseline

• I have a gel eye mask that I keep in the fridge and pop on to bring down swelling if needed

We've also just rented a house with fake grass, although that wasn't because of my hayfever! I'm not a fan of fake grass, but it is nice to have my windows open, or go and sit in the garden and not have an allergic reaction 😁

I also take Montelukast and do think it helps - if you do go that route just keep an eye on mood changes and sleep changes.

yes to a referral.
there are steroid nasal sprays as well, but for children you need to discuss that with a dr.

also consider eye drops (chromo...) for the eye itching.

I assume you already do a lit to keep pollen outside (looking at pollen calendar, not outside clothing in bedroom, no pets in bedroom, no feather bedding, hair brushed befors bed, hair kept away from face...etc)

My DS is doing GCSEs this year and always gets terrible hayfever in exam season. The routine we tested last year and trying again this year is:

Fexofenadine (currently 120mg which is the most the GP would prescribe for hayfever)

Beconase for children nasal spray - Nasobec aqueous seems to be the same, both are steroid nasal sprays, for children they have to be prescribed as the OTC ones are a different strength for adults

Sterimar hayfever and allergy relief nasal spray - recommended by a friend whose child has multiple allergies. It's basically a saline nasal spray with fancy additions but it does seem to work more than the cheaper "standard" saline sprays, DS tried a few sprays and prefers Sterimar. He uses it in between the beconase doses

Haymax ointment around nostrils and under the eyes - again recommended by my friend - it's not the cheapest so I am sure vaseline would also be ok

I wanted him to use eye drops as well - sodium cromoglycate (Opticrom or similar) but he refuses to put anything in his eyes, unfortunately.

If the above fail I am going to suggest he takes a different antihistamine as well as the fexofenadine. Maybe clarityn as others have already said.

The other thing re: exams is that if he has exams on a day when hayfever badly affects his performance he can ask for "special consideration" from the exam board, it allows for a small uplift in mark due to acute conditions such as hayfever. It's obviously counted as a minor factor so it's only a possible 1% uplift but it could be the difference between a pass and fail. So I"very reminded my DS to bear it in mind and speak to the invigilator after the exam if his hayfever is very bad. That hasn't happened at the moment though.

Unfortunately we have to dry washing outside as we have no dryer, but my area doesn't have grassy back gardens so hopefully pollen isn't going to be too bad on the clothes.

Try asking the gp for a steroid nasal spray. That was honestly life changing for my DS of similar age.

I don't think people realise how debilitating hayfever can be

I get severe hayfever every year and usually take a combination of fexofenadine, chlorphenamine, inhalers, nasal spray and eye drops but it barely works

Last year I had the Kenalog injection and OMG, it was amazing...I could function and live a normal life! I'm pregnant this year and I don't think I'll be able to get it and I'm dreading my hayfever kicking in 😭

So my daughter is with the allergy team and has started immunotherapy as she has grass pollen mediated asthma and it's been pretty severe

Her routine is a twice daily nasal rinse followed by nasal spray (but she lies over the end of her bed so it gets to work) twice daily antihistamines and inhalers and then the immunotherapy - it's been full on and we are not there yet but I'd ask for a referral

My sees an allergy consultant and has just been approved to get a hayfever injection once every four weeks at the hospital. It's been a bit of a slog though. Also, she's seventeen and the doctor said that the injection isn't as effective in children as it is in adults so they would not have approved it if she wasn't almost eighteen.

She finds breathing the vapour of oil of olbas (in boiling water in a bowl) gives her some relief.

She has four fexofenodine a day and we have had a couple of pharmacists refuse to fill her prescription as it's so high.

It's really important not to hang their washing outside.

Assuming they can be taken together, I would definitely add an OTC antihistamine as well. Dh does this when things are really bad and it makes a big difference. Check dosages as I think the child dose for loratadine is lower than adults and the cetrizine dose is the same but not sure off top of my head.

I know it's been mentioned already, but Opticrom eye drops were the game changer for me. They sting a little at first but immediately help.

Just coming back to say thanks to you all. We added a second dose of fexofenadine in the evening for two nights and that has helped. I'll drop it back down to a single dose now that the pollen count is supposed to be lower this week, while we wait for a GP appointment. I will ask for a referral and I have jotted down notes of all your recommendations to discuss with him/her too.

Sodium cromoglycate eye drops you can get over the counter from the chemist to add in. Just to say that hay fever means your cells release hundreds of mediators, histamine is only one of them. Fexofenadine blocks the histamine but doesn’t stop it being released or the other crap. So avoidance or stopping the cells emptying is the only thing.

Ive seen some people say to find a local bee keeper as near as possible and eating the honey might give a low dose exposure to what is local and help a tiny bit. Try and keep the rest of his diet as clean as possible to give him the best chance, but a referral sounds like a good idea now.

Mine is the same whatever they say about the pollen count and the worst time is Wimbledon fortnight gradually going in August so I don't take much notice of what they say about pollen.

Glad to hear your ds has had some relief though.