Winter allergies - tell me more.

[marmite79]

Posting here for traffic. Dd 5 suffered with hayfever over the nicer months until September time. She had to take antihistamine liquid daily as it was pretty bad at times.

Thought we would be okay during the now Autumn/winter but most days she wakes up snotty!! But is okay by mid morning and often needs an antihistamine! (I need to start giving her a dose before bed I think). Some mornings she is fine and others extremely snotty.

I’m reading dust mites, pet dander, mild etc? We have very little mold in our house (maybe very small patches but nothing major). But dust mites and pet dander (we do have a dog but she doesn’t sleep on our beds).

We have carpet throughout but I’m always hoovering it. (Every day). I clean bedding regularly and keep the house to a good level of hygiene but it’s not a show home and dust does appear in places.

However, we’ve recently decorated upstairs. Most recently this week Dd’s. Her rooms been cleaned fully and painted but she’s so sneezy. Could moving around furniture have cause these ‘dust mites’ to move and float around a bit more?!

I’ve just bought a radiator brush to get clean them out too. Can central heating trigger allergies? Seems to be when the hearings been on for a period of time (not had it on every day as it’s been quite mild where we live)

Advice?!

I always suffer for a month or so this time of year. Some form of rhinitis, daily antihistamine helps.

Antihistamine works much better at bedtime.
Dust and hoover her room regularly.
Minimise soft toys in her room. Low pile carpet or laminate.
Shower her before bed and wash hair.
No pets (upstairs if already have them)

Oh and a bowl of water or a radiator humidifier will help in her room

Don't have heating on overnight

The mould wont necessarily be in your house. Leaf mould is a big allergen so if there are lots of leaves around outside the mould releases spores (bit like grasses and trees in the summer arent in your house)?

In terms of helping - have you tried an air filter. My son has one and it helps a lot

Central heating makes me snuffly and headachey - always has. Worse at this time of year when it’s only just started going on. I seem to get used to it by the depths of winter.

Same here. It is like I get a fresh hayfever season starting in September.

I've had terrible hay fever since mid-September. No idea what can be behind it - no pets, no carpets and I've washed all my winter clothes so no accumulated dust. Must be something outside. Maybe leaf mould, as a pp suggests. It's pretty miserable, and I can tell you nothing gets you the stink-eye from others faster than having a sneezing fit in public (no matter how hard you try to suppress the actual sneezes) during Covid...

Hoovering the curtains every 3 months or so helps a lot here

Yes, moving furniture will stir up the dust. You need to 'wet' dust.

We got one of the fancy dyson fans with a filter thing. It's made a huge difference to my son's room.

My hay fever is off the scale at the moment, always is at this time of year so I’m guessing something to do with fallen leaves? It gives me such a bad headache and a bad mood

I have allergies all year round, with a small break around Sept and anther in March. I've never been tested but assuming it's hay fever in the summer and leaf mould in the winter, with a bit of dust stirring once the heating goes on in early autumn. I take an antihistamine pretty much all year round which generally does the job. At the peak times (e.g. May) I will need to take 2 - one in the morning and one in the evening.

Yeah I have year round allergies aswell. My eyes have been so itchy and sore the past week and I take a stronger prescribed antihistamine every night. In my doctors a few years ago I noticed a poster that had different allergens that were highest at certain times and I remember November was really high for some sort of mould spore.

I had tests at the hospital were they put different things on your skin and I got told I was allergic to pets and dust. My allergies are worse in winter the last few weeks they have been bad. You can ask the GP for a referral for the test.