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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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'

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

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

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