Hi all,
We saw an allergist 2 days ago for DD - she's 7 months and allergic to dairy, eggs and gluten, and she has mild eczema - and he prescribed us daily doses of anti histamines (Cetirizine) to give her in the evening before bedtime, supposedly to help her sleep by reducing the itchiness.
He also prescribed steroids and some moisturising creams.
The Cetirizine leaflet does say "not recommended before 2 years", but the allergist said it was fine.
The result was the absolute opposite!! She was very agitated all night, woke up every hour (instead of every 2 to 3 hours) and she was VERY hard to put back to sleep. Actually the poor little thing just collapsed into sleep from total exhaustion 3 times, it was terrible for the 2 of us.
I googled the side effects of AH on babies this morning and it seems that even though they make adults drowsy, they can cause overexcitement and hyperactivity in small babies, because they work differently in a child's body...
Have any of you experienced this?
I really don't feel confident with using this stuff any longer, and I really don't like the idea of using steroids on her either...
The first doctor we saw who refered us to the allergy testing said her eczema didn't need to be treated with steroids but only loads of baby oil... and I think that's what I'm going to do from now on.
Any advice more than welcome!!
Thanks