Cats and allergies

[Rhiannon]

Pamina, don't know if you're still reading, but I am allergic to cats and if your child is allergic to them I suggest you find them a new home. Being allergic makes you miserable! If I go to anyone's home for the first time I will always ask if they have a cat so I can dose myself up with antihistamine/ventolin inhaler and I have to sit by an open window. Cat hair gets everywhere and not being in the room with a cat makes no difference. It makes your skin itch, your throat (inside) and scalp itch, you wheeze (like breathing through a straw), itchy eyes, runny nose and if I have been somewhere that has a cat and I didn't and had no medication, I still feel the effects two days later.

So I'm sure you'll know pretty quickly if the baby is allergic! Good Luck!

I'm very allergic to cats and can tell as soon as I walk into someone's house if a cat lives there. Keeping them out of the way before a visit makes no difference, nor does the fact that some cats are rarely in the house. The symptons of my cat allergy are very like having an extremely bad cold, if I stay in the house I end up wheezing and have trouble breathing, these symptons last for days after I have left the cat's house. Whenever I visit my sister who has 2 cats I end up spending most of the time in the garden on my own!!! Anyone who doesn't suffer from any type of allergy are very lucky!! In my experience they find it hard to sympathise with a sufferer and think the allergy just causes 'sniffles'.

My husband doesn't have any allergies but becuase of my own I keep my daughter away from anything that triggers a reaction in me and, hopefully, she won't be a sufferer too.

My eldest daughter had repeated chest infections from 4 weeks old. We had 2 dogs at the time, but was assured by my doctor that it was vary rare to be allergic to dogs so that shouldn't be a problem. My huband has a strong history of allergies in his family, and had allergy tests when my daughter was about 2 - shortly after her 6th lot of antibiotics in 7 months! He was, of course, allergic to dogs. Although it was heartreaking to see the dogs go (we were lucky in that the breeder rehomed them, so we did at least get updates on progress) since then my daughter has only had 1 chest infection in 3 years. I don't know whether she would have developed an allergy had we not had any pets when she was born, but suspect so. My youngest daughter is allergic to dairy, so I guess if the pets aren't there they will find something else!

Hi Spring,
My husband has a similar allergy to yours triggered by cats, horses and mice (and lions!). We still find that friends/ acquaintainces don't really take it seriously and think he's a bit melodramatic if he doesn't want to come to dinner at a house with a cat in it. But left in a room with a cat for more than a couple of hours and no asthma spray he'd probably expire. Anyway I just wanted to say that recently he's found taking Trilludan Forte a few hours before visiting someone with a cat really helps - and he can last much longer (3 hours or so) without wheezing. Have yu tried it? If not, give it a go.

I have a cat allergy that sounds just like Spring's. The strange thing is that I didn't develop this until my mid 20s....having lived with cats for most of my life.

Robbie, how did your husband discover his allergy to lions!!! I'm afraid I'm immune to Triludan now, I start taking it days before I visit my sister (and her cats) to build it up in my system, however it just means that the reaction starts a couple of hours later.

My other allergy is Christmas Trees. Before we realised I had this allergy I used to have itchy skin every Christmas!!! Also, I developed hayfever in my early 30's - and am hoping it will go away again!!

Spring, we were on safari and everytime we got downwind of a lion he'd start sneezing.It used to really piss off all the Americans who were busy capturing the moment on video thinking they were David Attenborough. Tee hee.