GP won’t prescribe hayfever medication for child

[HelloSunshine100]

Single parent, working, receive universal credit, no child maintenance
child 8 years old has bad hayfever- needing to have piriton twice a day. One bottle of piriton lasts for 7 days at cost of £6. Will have to buy throughout the pollen season however long it lasts. Likely will need some nasal spray as well
Gp won’t prescribe antihistamines or any medication for hayfever for a child
i understand adults have to buy their own antihistamines, hayfever relief medication etc but was kind of hoping they would prescribe for a child?

They should be having non drowsy antihistamines which are very cheap, especially non brand from Savers/home bargains etc. Usual management's washing face, clothes, keeping windows closed. Kids are expensive.

Get her to practice with small pieces of cheese or the hard outer part of a cucumber or anything else rigid that you can cut into a small piece.
lean slightly forward don’t tip her head back. It sounds counterintuitive but tipping the head back actually closes the throat more.

Again Piriton will make them very sleepy. There are non drowsy alternatives that only need one dose a day. Ask the GP for advice.

Piriton has never made either of my children sleepy. It’s not a given. Depends on the reaction of each person.

So teach them? Tablet on tongue. Put knuckle under chin and push up whilst tilting head back (stops gagging mechanism), then drink some water.

Or grind up the tablet and put it in some peanut butter or something?

My dogs can't/won't swallow tablets but they will swallow cheese, so I put the tablet inside the cheese and voila! Sorted!

Piriton is very expensive but Lidl do 14 days of tablets for about £1, so these would last him a month.

I don’t think forcing a tablet down a child’s throat is the answer!

Home bargains does a antihistamine medicine for just under £2- peach flavour.

OP you’ve had some excellent advice here about antihistamines etc.
I just wanted to share with you something about hayfever that has changed my sons life so much (and I was told about it on Mumsnet many years ago).
Get your GP to refer your son to a pediatric allergy specialist. They can prescribe a whole host of different medications that can help.
Depending on the severity he could be eligible for immunotherapy, which can be life changing.
Not one GP told me this was a possibility even though my son suffered so very badly. After treatment he is nearly affected now. Go ask for the referral!

People suggesting cheaper ones like cetirizine or loratidine (the type you get anywhere for like a quid a box) don't always work for everyone so it's not that simple.

The only one that works for me is chlorphenamine, which is the piriton ingredient - you can only buy it in pharmacies over the counter - I do agree with getting the unbranded version though which is what I do. You can also take it every 6 hours which I find more helpful than the one a day ones as usually it's worn off by late afternoon (even the ones meant to last all day)

Because as @Comedycook mentioned earlier in the thread her child was on a residential trip.

Thank you! I will try this.

Doesn't have to be forced. They can learn. They'll have to learn at some point.

Hayfever tablets are tiny and if he only needs half of one smaller still. Try hiding in a spoonful of jam or chocolate spread

The hayfever tablets are tiny and your dc would probably only need half. A pack of 30 is 79p in b&m (horse needs 30 a day so have checked the cheapest). That would last your dc 2 months. They can definitely learn to swallow such a small tablet or you could just wedge it in a haribo or put in a spoon of yogurt

That was in response to the poster who advised knuckles under a chin to “teach” taking tablets!

Own brand liquid antihistamines start at 2.99ish. If you get loratadine or cetirizine you only take it once per day rather than four times. The pharmacy can often even give it out for free.

It's as much about the time as much as the cost of the items. Gp's don't really need to be advising on hay-fever, they wouldn't have any other appointments available during pollen season if everyone went to the GP.

The cost of processing a prescription to the nhs is about £20 a time I was told by a pharmacist, which seem excessive for something which can be bought for a couple pounds over the counter. Add on the cost of a GP appointment to request the prescription, and that £2 hay-fever medication has cost over £50 - not a great use of nhs resources.

Not sure where you are but do you not have Pharmacy First. I'm in Scotland and you can go to any pharmacy and get paracetamol for your child for free. It includes loads of over the counter medications. My son gets hayfever tablets and nasal spray for free.

I took my ds to the GP once as he had tonsillitis for a week ..and I wanted to see if he needed antibiotics. Doctor said he didn't and wrote me out a prescription for Calpol or whatever the generic equivalent was....I didn't ask for it and I didn't need it. I had plenty of Calpol at home. To be fair, this was over a decade ago.

I think that used to happen quite a lot, and then they realised it wasn't an effective use of nhs resources, so now GPS are not supossed to prescribe over the counter meds.

We had some prescribed for DC last year as they were going on school residential and school needed prescription. Otherwise we just get OTC for at home.

My da has prescribed hay fever medication but that is because over the counter doesn’t work so needs something stronger. They are tablets though and so we put them in his food, took a bit of getting used to but they are small and he reminds me now that he needs them! If over the counter work then not sure you will get a prescription for them.

My 7 year old hates the taste of the medicine so learnt to swallow the tablet it’s half a tiny tablet. Started off having it in yoghurt then progressed to just swallowing it! They really do slip down pretty easily so it’s worth a go! Bribery of a bit of chocolate afterwards may have been used the first couple of times !! 😂