Has anyone had to re-home a pet because of DC's allergies?

[naturelover]

We think our baby son might be allergic to our cats. He has eczema and has had some wheezing episodes too.

Pet allergy runs in DH's family.

How likely is a cat allergy in view of the fact that the cats have been here the whole of DS's lifetime? I somehow thought he would be accustomed to them from birth and wouldn't be allergic.

And is there an effective way to test for cat allergy in a six-month old?

Obviously we won't re-home our cats unless strictly necessary.

morning.

Our dd2 has lots of allergies including dog. We have a dog who is nearly 9 and she is 18mo.

We found out she was allergic at around 8mo from RAST blood test.

The consultant told us as he is old and she is young there is no point re homing him as she would likely grow out of it/get used to it or he would die before our house would truly be rid of any dog traces (this apparently takes 2 years).

So he stayed. We don't let him upstairs and only have hard flooring downstairs. This is harder with cats though as they are better at getting to wherever they want..

We also based our decision to keep him on the fact that she is allergic to other things so even when we stayed somewhere dog free she didn't really improve. If it had only been a question of re homing the dog to get rid of her excema I would've done it though.

And then cried lots..

My parents had to do this with a pet rabbit when I was 3. Despite having been brought up with it (it pre-dated my arrival) my allergy to it got so bad that it became dangerous (I'm asthmatic). The same happened with horses (they used to take me to visit a riding stable a few times a week.

Even today I can't go anywhere near someone whose been handling rabbits or horses without an immediate asthma attack (let alone the animals themselves).

Sorry to be so negative but you should be aware that allergies don't always settle (although often they do).

We had to get rid of our cats as DS was allergic to them and we had had them since he was born.

He developed asthma just after we got rid of them, wish we'd got rid of them sooner rather han putting it off for so long .

We had a Dog and Ds became so allergic to him we had to re-home

My Mum has got cats and until Ds was 1 we were able to visit fine then on boxing day one year we went for dinner and Ds got so poorly we ended up rushing him to hospital
We can't even visit her house as it has turned into a full blown allergy including swelling and breathing probs x x

You could try re-oming the cat for a week or so and see if there is any difference in your Ds.

We have guinea pigs which we keep in the garage. Over the winter I suffered from guilt that they were cold (even though gave them hot water bottles) and unloved. I brought them inside and we petted them. DS2 (7) had an allergic reaction/breathing difficulties and was taken to A&E (it wasn't that bad but it was a Saturday night and his dad is a worrier).

The GPs are now back out in the garage/garden.

I wouldnt hesitate to rehome the cat.

my son has asthma and skin allergies to cats and dogs and even if we visit people who have put the pets out of the way he still comes out with a rash and wheezing problems.it takes a long time and a lot of deep cleaning to get rid of the allergens pets leave so rehoming the cats for a couple of weeks may not make any difference.

long term i would consider it though as the reaction may only get worse the more the child is around the pets.

our children have been allergic since they were little and are now 8 & 9 and havent grown out of it yet. my doctor said if there's any asthma type symptoms or actual asthma develops like it did with our first son its not likely to be grown out of.

its a hard decision but we had to put the health of our children first

good luck