to ask the neighbours not to mow the lawn in the evening?

[CrunchyFrog]

Or to ask them to let me know if they're going to do so?

DS`1 has severe allergy to grass pollen. On Tuesday he had a reaction despite being indoors, with doors and windows closed, to the neighbour mowing the lawn. It seems more severe in the evenings. He had to go to the OOH GP and had a day off school due to the swelling and wheezing.

I don't know if it's overstepping the boundaries of neighbour though. Also, he's a big drinker, and I find him very intimidating.

The neighbour was here last year when DS1 had an attack that required an ambulance - again, it was evening mowing that triggered it. Neighbour knows this.

Really, WWYD? I feel that asking would be horribly U, but it's not very fair on DS1 to have time off school/ frightening allergy attacks either.

[Bonsoir]

My sister has a very strong allergic reaction to grass cutting. Her only solution is to live in an apartment with no garden nearby.

[expatinscotland]

You can ask. If he works days, however, it might not be possible for him.

[ChoudeBruxelles]

Ask

Could you afford to pay for the initial consultation privately - prob about £200 - so you get seen much sooner?

You don't have to have the rest of the treatment privately

[NorthernLurker]

I would be quite upset if you asked me not to do it in the evenings. I work. When else am I supposed to do it? I wouldn't want to make your child ill though so would be more than happy to nip round and say 'mower is coming out in 10 minutes'

[quoteunquote]

I would offer to cut his grass for him

Do this ^^ and then you can cut it when your child is out.

If he is very garden proud, he may well want to cut it in the evening as grass cuts better when it had a day's drying in the sun,

Pollen usually travels well, it is designed to, so unless he is the only neighbour, you will find any cutting in the area will be a trigger,

You need to move to somewhere like the middle of St Ives, not many lawns, lots of beaches and plenty of sea breezes.

[mistlethrush]

I find the 'grass pollen' and grass cutting making him react a strange coincidence. I leave part of my lawn uncut for the summer. It grows tall and some of it grows seed heads. When the seedheads are ready, they make pollen - but most of them are at least 12" high by then, and some a lot taller. I very much doubt that any of the grass that is being cut at the moment would have seedheads even if they had been allowed to grow sufficiently - its the wrong time of year for grass seeds. Tree pollen is a completely different situation - and they are just coming into flower here so there would be pollen around.

However, DH is allergic to cutting the grass - its the combination of the dust and the particles of grass that he inhales, together with a skin reaction to the grass on his legs/ feet.

If you look at the Met pollen forecast it says that grass pollen is mid-May to July here

Of course, I'm not saying that your DS isn't allergic to grass pollen - he could well be, but I would suggest that it is probably dust and or bits of grass that are probably causing the problem at the moment - not quite sure how that helps, but it might do.

[SugarplumKate]

Could you offer to do it for him? And do it as soon as DS has gone to school? Not ideal I know, but might be a way of broaching it.x

[CloudsAndTrees]

I wood ask if he could let you know when he's planning to do it if possible, or to just give a knock or send a text before he starts if he wants to cut the grass at impromptu times. Then you can at least shut the windows or go out if its a convenient time.

But I don't think you can ask them not to cut the grass in the evenings now that it's light when people get home from work. We prefer to do grass cutting in the evenings because we are at work most days and like to go out at the weekends. If it didn't get done in the evenings it wouldn't get done at all.

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

I would offer to cut his grass for him.

[valiumredhead]

We are testing out Prevalin this year - have a google OP.

[valiumredhead]

I also thought of a steamy bath helping when he does it.

[valiumredhead]

My hay fever is bad in the evenings too so is ds's. I think pollen settles in the evenings as it's quite common for sufferers to get it badly then.

In all honesty I don't think you can ask him to do it to a certain time table even though your son suffers.

It doesn't sound like he is someone who will be reasonable does it?

[HansieMom]

I would revise Puddocks note to
I can't ask you not to cut your grass in the evening
And leave out the part about him knocking on your door every time he is going to mow.

[storynanny]

If you were my neighbour I would definitely stop cutting the grass in the evening as I have allergies as do 2 of my sons. However if your neighbour is clueless about the misery he will prob say no and I'm not sure what else you could do. Sorry not to be much help. Perhaps he could at least warn you when he's going to do it and you could put him in a steamy bath for half an hour?
Pollen settles in the evening and is therefore more of a problem, apparently. We always suffer more in the evening.

[CrunchyFrog]

Self never heard of them!

[SelfconfessedSpoonyFucker]

Do you have hepa filters?

[AnyoneforTurps]

I like puddock's approach - acknowledge that he's perfectly within his rights to cut it in the evening but explain what a difference it would make if he didn't. Definitely don't go all "Won't somebody please think of the children?" which will only hack him off.

[CrunchyFrog]

The grass is the same as mine, which does also set him off, but I do it when he's away at his Dad's at the weekend.

The allergy tests didn't differentiate between types of grass, I was just told generic grass pollen. He gets a mild skin reaction if he sits on it with bare legs.

I am going to go and google pollen filters for the windows, if such a thing exists.

[ZZZenagain]

I don't think you can ask him to knock on your door and let you know every time. I don't think he would want to do that.

If you were my neighbour I wouldn't mind if you asked us not to mow the lawn in the evenings since your ds suffers, however maybe it is the only convenient time for him.

[TaurielTest]

Pollen counts are highest in the evening, something to do with cooling atmosphere, so him being more susceptible then makes sense.

I'd probably say - in a note or face-to-face - something like
"DS is really suffering like he did last year - remember the ambulance? He's on medication and waiting to see a specialist. Obviously I can't ask you not to cut your grass, but it would really help him if you could do it when he's at school, or give me a knock in advance if you need to do it at another time so I can take him out." And like PP say, acknowledge that he has a perfect right not to.

[BasilBabyEater]

Could there be something in the neighbour's grass that sets him off (daisies or more dandelions than normal or something) or do you think it's the actual grass variety that's setting him off?

[Justforlaughs]

I think that the most you could ask would be for your neighbour to knock on your door before he starts (assuming that he is work all day). The only other thing would be to offer to cut his grass for him, while your DS is in school. I'm sure you are only too well aware that the best option is to sort out the problem long term, and I wish you the very best of luck

[Sirzy]

I heard something a few days back about pollen being worse/out more first thing in the morning and early evening. No idea why though!

[CrunchyFrog]

tig We've seen the allergy consultant, and he's been pushed up the queue for review, but it's a long wait.

He already has daily double dose anti-histamines, eye and nose drops, 2 inhalers and a daily tablet. Then Piriton on top of that for attacks.

A whole lot of drugs for a 7 year old.

I'm just panicking I think, this is only the start of the season, the consultant will probably be September at the earliest. I don't know what to do.

[BasilBabyEater]

Can you give your DS medication in order to prevent an attack? If so, then maybe you would just need notice of when the neighbour is going to mow the grass.

If so, I'd approach him in a way that assumes he's a nice, kind helpful sort who'd be willing to do you a favour and acknowledge that he's well within his rights to say no. If you exaggerate how nice and kind and forbearing he would be to put himself out for you and how grateful you would be, he's more likely to agree - most people are very happy to do a neighbour a favour when it costs them nothing.