Its Allergies...RANT!

[Cataholic]

Jonah is my first (and last ) child. From 0-3 years he went to the doctor for check-ups- mostly. Then preschool began, and BOOM, we could drive to the pediatrican's blindfolded. (Don't worry, on top of using my cell phone while driving, I would NEVER attemtp that).

Jones tonsils/adniods came out last November. Mid December, he got sick, it turned into a sinus infection, took two courses of antibiotics before it went away. I had to argue with the ped to get the second course. The ped wanted to try allergy medication. Allergies? In Ohio in November? I guess it is possible...not probable, but, possible. I insisted on one more course of antibiotics, and wah-lah! Jonah cleared up fine. We finished the year- including the spring, summer and early fall (prime allergy season in Ohio) without any allergy'ish symptoms. Seems that the typical round of antibiotics doesn't necessarily get rid of a sinus infection.

In October, Jones caught a cold, and three weeks later, we go back to the md...sinus infection. Antibiotics....it goes away nearly, then comes back, and we go back again, today. Sinus infection. I mention that Jonah is also rubbing at his eyes, and this started one week ago. (He has been sick for 5 weeks now). We get a 2 week prescription of something stronger, AND the comment, "Well, I guess Jonah is just an allergy kid". WTH? I do the head swivel, and say, "allergies? Why do you say that?". He made a comment about the itchy eyes. Okay, my son has itchy eyes, one week, during 2 bouts of sinus infection, and it is allergies? You want him on allergy medication? Without allergy testing? WTH? I don't get it.

How does one develop an allergy, mid November, at age 4, out of the blue? Wouldn't it come on during 'allergy' season? Is it just a coincidence that he is also in the middle of a infection that deals with his sinus'? Aren't those little tubes all connected?

So, I leave the doctor's office, refusing the allergy meds, explaining that I will try a week's worth of antibiotic and see if the eye thing goes away. If not, THEN I will have Jonah undergo allergy tests..which I hear are a bit painful.

For those of you with allergies...help me out. Tell me what happens to you, what you do, how you feel....and I am pretty certain if it IS allergies, it isn't cats...as he has rubbed his eyes outside the house (like after picking him up at school..) and inside.

I really like his doctor...I just don't like the way he seems to 'push' allergy labeling on my perfect little pumpkin.

[Karen]

Allergies can happen to anyone at any time. November is about when leaf mold peaks in the North, and is when homes and businesses tend to turn on the heating systems full-bore. Both of these can affect people's allergies. I, for example, have a strong dust mite allergy. It has very little to do with what month of the year it is - if I am careless, I can aggravate that allergy. What kind of heating system does your home have? Anything with ducts can mean blowing dust around ...

Getting tested for allergies isn't very painful - but if you have allergies, it is very ITCHY!!!! The teeny prick to the skin are just that - far less painful than a pinch from another kid, or a scratch from a kitty. Just be prepared to distract him during the waiting time - they do the little pricks with various substances, then you have to wait ten minutes to see what "develops." They are a very LONG ten minutes. And you simply cannot scratch the itch, or you'll mess up the test.

It is ITCHY!!!!! but we deserve ice cream afterwards for being good.

[Karen]

Any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them. My first allergist was a sniffly old man - so I knew why he became an allergist - and the doctors I have had have had to answer a lot of questions. I am not an "easy" patient, but I am told at least I am cheerful.

[Cataholic]

Allergies can happen to anyone at any time. November is about when leaf mold peaks in the North, and is when homes and businesses tend to turn on the heating systems full-bore. Both of these can affect people's allergies. I, for example, have a strong dust mite allergy. It has very little to do with what month of the year it is - if I am careless, I can aggravate that allergy. What kind of heating system does your home have? Anything with ducts can mean blowing dust around ...

Getting tested for allergies isn't very painful - but if you have allergies, it is very ITCHY!!!! The teeny prick to the skin are just that - far less painful than a pinch from another kid, or a scratch from a kitty. Just be prepared to distract him during the waiting time - they do the little pricks with various substances, then you have to wait ten minutes to see what "develops." They are a very LONG ten minutes. And you simply cannot scratch the itch, or you'll mess up the test.

It is ITCHY!!!!! but we deserve ice cream afterwards for being good.

We have had several frosts....killing frost. Does that effect leaf mold? And, is it worse inside than outside? Jonah shows no difference. AND there isn't any redness, puffiness, watery eyes, etc. It seems like his eyes are dry. We have force hot air, and it doesn't seem to matter where he is...my house, mom's house, in the car, outside...it is present (I mean, present as much as it can be in one week's time ). Our house is sealed up tight....and the heat is on 60 degrees, but it is still blowy inside at times.

Jonah gets ice cream on a regular basis...I will have to take it up a notch. Thanks for the information!!

[Karen]

We have had several frosts....killing frost. Does that effect leaf mold? And, is it worse inside than outside? Jonah shows no difference. AND there isn't any redness, puffiness, watery eyes, etc. It seems like his eyes are dry. We have force hot air, and it doesn't seem to matter where he is...my house, mom's house, in the car, outside...it is present (I mean, present as much as it can be in one week's time ). Our house is sealed up tight....and the heat is on 60 degrees, but it is still blowy inside at times.

Jonah gets ice cream on a regular basis...I will have to take it up a notch. Thanks for the information!!

The leaf mold happens after a killing frost, when the sun warms things up during the day. If he kicks through leaves (what kid doesn't?)- bingo, he's kicking up leaf mold spores. And tracking them in on his shoes. Another few weeks and the leaf mold will be over for the season.

You have forced hot air - when were the filters last cleaned/replaced? As to there seeming to be no difference between inside and out, etc., once your histamine level is sky-high (which is what happens when you are having an allergic reaction) it takes quite a while for anything to effect a change, good or bad.

Do get him tested, it will be good to know, one way or the other. And if it is allergies, well, that's not a bad thing - there are ways to deal very concretely and specifically with allergies, as opposed to trying to fight an unknown!

[caseysmom]

Are they using a different antiobiotic for the second round? Could be he is resistent or the first one is ineffective for him. He could be starting to get pink eye from the goop from the sinuses also.

We have a joke in our family that when something is wrong it must be the UV rays...that is our pediatricians favorite line

[Cataholic]

Are they using a different antiobiotic for the second round? Could be he is resistent or the first one is ineffective for him. He could be starting to get pink eye from the goop from the sinuses also.

That was exactly what I thought. The doctor said if there wasn't any discharge, it wasn't pink eye. I am afraid his little ducts might be clogged...but, the doctor said if that was the case, his eyes would be runny. Jonah says he is touching his eyes cause they are watery. But, I see no sign of water.

It isn't like he can't leave his eyes alone...I just notice he does this sometimes.

[Cinder & Smoke]

Allergies can happen to anyone at any time.

I, for example, have a strong dust mite allergy.
It has very little to do with what month of the year it is -
if I am careless, I can aggravate that allergy.

YUP ~ Soooo true!

I was sent to the "Allergist" when still a runny-nosed pre-schooler.
I had a nice assortment:
* Spring pollens
* Fall Pollens
* DUST
* Pet dander = NO pets 'cept hamsters till high school

Lil Sister reacted to:
* Some of the pollens
* CHOCOLATE (poor kid!)
* another couple of foods
* Pet dander

I went to the Pediatrician EVERY WEEK from Kindergarden all the way through high school
for my "allergy shot" in the arm!
Vacations in Canada? - Yup, we took the meds and I had a Canadian "Shot Doc".
Vacation at Grammy & Boppa's in Cleveland? - YUP - I had a Cleveland "Shot Doc", too!

You and The Kid *can* live through allergies ... the big challenge is to test to
determine WHAT he may be allergic to.

In hind sight - I always wondered about the "pet dander" diagnosis ...
Sis and I both had enough friends WITH dog or cat pets that we were
almost constantly exposed to dogs & cats in friends' homes.
How's come OTHER Kids' pets didn't cause grief and sniffels?

Mom got tired of hearing YEARS of whimpering & whining ... when I came home one day
and said I'd found "OUR Dog" at the police station she agreed to "have a look".
"Lady" played up to Mom BIG Time ... we all went home and *leaned* on Dad.
"Lady" came HOME the next afternoon.
Nobody *died* from her being in the house (especailly ME - she shared my pillow every night!)

[Freedom]

Johanna, so sorry to read Jonah is under the weather.

I think lots of folks have covered the allergy side of things; I tend to agree with what has been said.

I noticed you mention forced hot air for heat, and the "house is sealed up tight." You may want to check the humidity level indoors. He will feel better with a humidifier in his bedroom at night. Even if it is allergies, this will help.

I have a table top "thingamabob" which shows the temperature and humidity. Bought it years ago, at Sears. When I bought this house, it had forced hot air for heating. I had a humidity unit added to it. I can adjust the humidity level from the same thermostat that I use for heat. Good humidity levels are between 40% and 60%. May be something more you wish to check into.

[shepgirl]

Cataholic our youngest son was born with allergies. The first time he started sniffling we thought it was a cold, but he was clear and the pediatrician said it sounded like allergies. By the time he was one he was on allergy meds and he didn't go through the tests for anything since he could flare up at anything and everything. As a teen we thought he was outgrowing the allergies but by 18 they returned with a vengeance. He now has to carry meds everywhere he goes as he could eat something that he has eaten before without any effects but suddenly be gasping for air on a particular day. And yes, his eyes are the most annoying part , he constantly holds a cold wet facecloth on his eyes.
As a child he had a dog, we never deprived him of this as he was dog crazy. Our doctor didn't think it would make much difference for the allergies anyway.
His allergies are year ronund off and on, so I don't think there is a specific time for this.
Sorry to hear about your son, hope it's something else but I think they learn to live with it as they age.

[jennielynn1970]

I've had allergies since I was a baby. Between foods and environmental, I've got it covered. Some I grew out of, others got worse.

When I was little, I had no stuffed animals. No carpeting. No pets in the house. I was allergic to grass, and living on a farm, that made for a BIG problem. I couldn't even walk barefoot without my feet cracking and bleeding from grass. It stunk big time.

These days I can do the barefoot deal, but I have more food allergies (chocolate included). Spring is horrible when things are blooming. Fall is horrible when things are decaying. Turning on heat (I have hot forced air) makes things dry in the house and the dust flies around more. I have some huge Honeywell HEPA filter machines going in different rooms. They help. I'm sure having 8 cats in the house doesn't help at all, but they aren't going to leave anytime soon, so I deal with it. I'm on Singulair, Advair, I have a rescue inhaler, and I take Zyrtec most of the time.

Allergy testing, depending on how they do it, can be a pain. My allergist drew a few vials of blood and ran tests that way. Other people I know had allergens placed under the skin or whatever they do, and see how they react that way. I preferred the drawing of blood to that. RAST and PRIST testing I believe is what I had done. Food allergies have to be narrowed out by focusing on the offending food one at a time, at least that's how my mom's allergist did it for hers. Mine, my doctor and I figured out by how I reacted (hives, migraines etc...) when I ate them. I kept a log book of what I ate, how I felt, and what reactions I had.

Allergies can be a pain until they are managed, but they can be dealt with, and Jonah doesn't really have to suffer. If there are food allergies, there can be alternatives, and sometimes you don't realize what you are missing because you just don't have it. Chocolate is still something that I get mild reactions to, but I'm not a fan of the taste, so I don't really care that I can't have it. Strange, huh??? I'd be more upset if I couldn't have fruit, because that's what my mom usually gave me for snacks and dessert instead of chocolate treats.

[Catlady711]

Okay, my son has itchy eyes, one week, during 2 bouts of sinus infection, and it is allergies? ....... Is it just a coincidence that he is also in the middle of a infection that deals with his sinus'? Aren't those little tubes all connected?

Having had cronic sinus and allergy problems since I was 2 years old, I can tell you that my dr always said that one can irritate the other. Something can start out as sinus and 'kick in' the allergies, or visa versa. I can attest to that in the years of dealing with them. I've gotten to the point that I can tell by how it feels if it's the allergies or the sinuses causing the initial problem and either take OTC sinus pills or Benadryl and that usually takes care of it. I get most of my full blown sinus infections every spring and fall right when the weather starts doing the change in temps. In the years I had dealt with all that the antibiotics are basically only for the full blown sinus infections I get that progress to a cough that 2 bottles of Dayquil round the clock doesn't fix. I only go to the dr. for sinus infections about once every 3-4 years. My dr has always been reserved in prescribing antibiotics for things they won't help with because over use of antibiotics can lead to more resistant strains of things (think MRSA, Psudomonus, etc).

You want him on allergy medication? Without allergy testing? WTH? I don't get it.

It's not uncommon for a dr to prescribe antihistamines without allergy testing. Basically if it works that answers the question without the expense of allergy testing, unless it's necessary to narrow it down to the specific allergy. We sometimes do the same thing at work with dogs/cats and often it takes care of the problem.

How does one develop an allergy, mid November, at age 4, out of the blue? Wouldn't it come on during 'allergy' season?

Allergies seem to come 'out of the blue' however it's repeated exposure to something that finally overwhelms the system at some point causing the allergic reaction. For years I was able to walk bare foot in shorts through poison ivy and not wash up afterwards and not get it. Now I have to be careful just coming in contact with someone's dog that has run through it.

There are all kinds of allergies (dust, mold, pollen, environmental things etc). People just tend to associate 'allergies' with pollens which do tend to have specific time periods they are most active (ie; ragweed etc). In fact some allergies can be year round depending on the source of them.

I really like his doctor...I just don't like the way he seems to 'push' allergy labeling on my perfect little pumpkin.

Having an allergy isn't necessarily a 'label'. You make it sound like calling him a bad name or something. If he prescribes allergy meds and they work, your son would feel better and you're not wasting your money on unnecessary antibiotics.

Sorry, while I can totally sympathize with your worry for your son, I have to side with your dr. given the information you've posted.

Either way I hope your son feels better soon.

[Cataholic]

LOTS of great information! Thank you. See, last year, when Jonah developed this "allergy", we were given a script for allergy medication. I said I would rather wait and see if this "allergy" went away with one more week of antibiotics (I searched online and saw that a secondary infection- like a sinus infection- typically did not respond to a 10 day course of antibiotics), and it did. By the 3rd day of the second course, his symptoms were gone. I continued the meds..but, the symptoms were gone. So, whatever "allergy" he had went away, apparently, and never returned again until this second sinus infection in October.

When we went in to see the doctor for the second sinus infection, the doctor did not mention allergies at all. He said, "wow, this is pretty bad", he is pretty nasty in there (referring to his nose), and gave us a 10 day course of amoxi (same thing we got the 1st time last year). Jonah had no itchy eyes during this second infection.

We went back to the md, and he said that maybe the antibiotic wasn't strong enough (which is what I thought based on last year's issues), and gave us a full 2 week supply of something stronger- cefdinir. The pharmacist even called the md to make sure he really wanted Jonah on this for that lenght of time....THEN the doctor mentioned the allergies...

It isn't the label so much that gets me but the reliance on the allergies as the source of the problem. You would have to know the tri-state area, and Cinti in particular...apparently, we have conditions conducive to allergies here, and LOTS of people are told, "its allergies". Maybe it is...however, I get concerned because I have a 4 year old that has already had eye duct surgery, and tonsils/adnoids removed. I don't want to miss something alot more serious than allergies just cause the label is attached.

I don't see any symptoms of allergies in Jonah's life EXCEPT for this one week eye rubbing/blinking issue that just happens to be in the middle of a double course of a sinus infection. The test will be in the 14 day course of antibiotics....and I think if this goes away with the antibiotics chances are good there isn't an allergy, and I would not have him tested for naught.

Other answers to help put the pieces into the puzzle- filter is switched regularly (once a month cause I buy the cheap filters). No shoes in the house, Jonah hasn't walked through leaves (I know that sounds dorky, but, he hasn't.....it has been super cold here, I get home at 6 pm most nights, and it is dark....), no carpet in the house. The one thing I have done differently this year is that I have NO opened windows to help with humidity issues. I might change that.

I also might get the humidity thing you mentioned! Bottom line, whatever he has will be addressed appropriately by his ped and his mother. I totally appreciate the allergy information, and I do think I was guilty of thinking of just the outside allergy issues- forgetting the dust mite things. I can safely tell you that Jonah does not have any food allergies. He only eats 5-6 things and they are the same things he has eaten since he was 18 months....no issues.

Maybe it IS the UV rays?

[Cataholic]

If he prescribes allergy meds and they work, your son would feel better and you're not wasting your money on unnecessary antibiotics. .

You must not have young children. You can't get an antibiotic out of a pediatrican unless the doctor DOES think it is necessary. I had to argue with the doctor last year to get a one week suppy- which totally solved the secondary infection. It would have been- at least last year- an unnecessary expenditure to get the allergy prescripion. In that case, had I gave up on the antibiotic and just did the allergy medication, my son would have had an untreated sinus infection- which can be quite serious.

[Catlady711]

You must not have young children. You can't get an antibiotic out of a pediatrican unless the doctor DOES think it is necessary. I had to argue with the doctor last year to get a one week suppy- which totally solved the secondary infection. It would have been- at least last year- an unnecessary expenditure to get the allergy prescripion. In that case, had I gave up on the antibiotic and just did the allergy medication, my son would have had an untreated sinus infection- which can be quite serious.

It's true I do not have children, however a search on Google will give you an idea of the scope of physician's overprescribing antibiotics and have been for years.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...otics&aq=f&oq=

There are self-limiting conditions which resolve themselves on their own without medication, but when the timing occurs upon demanding an antibiotic, many people will assume that it was the medication that solved the problem, when in fact it did not. This can result in simply money wasted to treat things that will clear up on their own, or be best managed with 'symptom relief' medications; to the more severe consequences of contrubiting to antibiotic resistant strains of bugs.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) even has an entire web area dedicated to this problem.
http://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/co...now-and-do.htm

In addidtion, flare ups of Sinusitis may well be caused not by bacteria, but a viral infection, or allergy of which antibiotics have no effect on. In a Britsh medical study, they found many physicians prescribed antibiotics when they really didn't think they were necessary based on several factors, including parental pressure, time pressures, inability to correctly diagnose a bacterial from viral infection, even fear of losing client to another competing clinic.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0111162856.htm

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...usitis&spell=1

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...en&btnG=Search

Allergies, Sinusitis, & Athsma can all play a part in cronic Sinusitis. If your dr. is recommending allergy testing, blood work, or referral to a specialist, you might want to consider it. If there is more than one problem then treating only one will not take care of the other. There are some indications that all of these may have other factors causing these symptoms in which more testing may be necessary.

You mentioned that the main problems started when he started pre-school. There is always a possibility your child is picking up a virus the other kids are passing around, or could be exposed to something he's allergic to there rather than at home.

Since you've been through so many dr. visits, and repeated rounds of antibiotics and yet the problem is still there, it may well be time to consider another course of action to prevent or minimize future sypmtoms. If necessary maybe a second opinon with a different dr. or specialist.

Just a thought.

Regardless I hope whatever is causing the problem goes away soon.