Hay fever in children: what remedies work well?

[roisin]

DS1 (nearly 10) is really suffering. His eyes are very sore, and swollen. He rubs them, and that makes it worse, and all the skin round his eyes gets sore too.

Nose streaming as well - poor lad

He's always been very sensitive to any kind of medication, and most things just wipe him out.

We've tried Piriton, but it makes him very drowsy and only takes the edge off the hay fever.

We were advised by the consultant re DS2's asthma, to only give Piriton in the evenings, as it has such a powerful drowsy side effect in lots of people.
He recommended supermarket own brand anti-histamines, given first thing in the morning.
We use Morrison's own brand, and so far it has kept the hay-fever symptoms down really well.
He said to just take one a day, but we can add a piriton at night if the symptoms start to show up.

Apparently Benedryl for children is non-drowsy and can be used from 2+ ... I know it's the same stuff as I take for hayfever (the only one I can take without getting either drowsy or hyper) only at a suitable child dose. Worth a try?

(the active ingredient you're looking for is cetirizine hydrochloride - that's the non-drowsy one)

Just checked - my generic Tesco one-a-day (also cetirizine hydrochloride - the yellow packet) say adults and children above 6 years old. So that may be more suitable?

We picked up some Piriteze which is a once-a-day with cetirizine hydrochloride, but it's not for U12s. So we'll have to go out again to find something else

I wanted to keep him in today to give him chance to recover, but he's just been out in the garden for an hour playing water fights!

Me and ds use Lotoradine based ones. Ds has syrup from Boots and I use generic pharmacy tablets.
They are both non-drowsy and work wonders for my itchy eyes and ds' streaming nose!

DS2 is using the Benadryl at the moment. It's keeping the symptoms at bay and doesn't make him drowsy. Also have the eye drops and the Beconase nose spray.

i use allerief and it is fantastic. it works in about 20 mins.