Quick question about allergy meds

[Multimomma]

For backgrounds sake, esp those who haven't memorized my posting lol

1. We have kids with various food allergies, they are completely off of those and not showing any internal issues. three kids with food allergies are also the three kids who are showing environmental allergic reaction.

2. We have completely reworked our house, mostly wood floors, no upholstery, no curtains, safe stuffed animals etc. Years ago.

Our situation now is that the youngest two kids, who definitely take after me, are having serious allergy issues. Classic black eyes, eczema, stuffy noses. The oldest just has a stuffy nose. it has been weeks, just about when allergy season started in our area (and about the time *I* started having issues as well) Regardless, pediatrician and I both agreed that conventional medication needs to be tried, so we started Claritin for the weekend, just to see if it would help, have an epiphany or something. Absolutely nothing. At first I was hopeful, Friday morning Dan's nose was clear, and Ava's shadows disappeared. It's supposed to be 24 hours, give it once a day, type of stuff. So I was disappointed when Friday night they were both just as stuffy and symptoms reappeared. Today it did not seem helpful, and Dan especially was resistant to taking it because "it tastes gross"

SO my question is....has anyone else used OTC meds to control env allergies? Has Claritin actually helped anyone? Does it need to build up in the system or is it one of those 'should help immediately' type of things. Obviously, I'll be calling ped on Monday to discuss the results, but was hoping to have some additional information to take back in. Just tired of my kids being tired and miserable.

[peachskittles]

My 17mo takes Zyrtec...It is a blessing and a curse type deal for him (and from what the pharmacist said, many other children)...The side effects that most commonly affect children are trouble sleeping at night and tiredness during the day...I actually halved his dose and it seems to have curbed the effects he was having...The pharmacist told me I could request Claritin from the doctor but it doesn't work as well as the Zyrtec does...The side effects for Claritin, though, are greatly minimized...

[purplepaisleymama]

We tried claritin with our youngest and all it did was reduce his redness to a pinkbess all over his body. I read the insert and researched online and found out that the reason claritin has so many less side effects as the other antihistamines is because the dose is actually below theraputic, meaning that when you take a 5ml dose (the prescribed amount) you would actually have to take 10mls to have effect. Somewhere I read that when the FDA feat reviewed and approved the drug it was actually written that it was not enough drug to stop any but the most mild symptoms. When I asked our allergist and our pharmacist they both agreed. We switched to zyrtec. The allergist and the pharmacist both said that the claritin would not be effective and that if it were it would only be if we increased the dosage to be equivalent to the zyrtec. It did not help our son. Though our son had no better reaction we now know that it is from a corn allergy, so we had just diphenhydramine (benadryl) made and are having a bit more luck
I hope your kids are feeling better soon, we are battling the everyone has different issues thing here too, it is getting exhausting!
laura

[Multimomma]

Purple paisley, that's exactly what the PA said Thanks

We've decided at this point that we'll double the claritin, but space it out 12 hours for Ava cause she's so little. So, the recommended dose, but twice a day. And Dan and Bre will just get a double dose in the mornings and we'll give it three more days to see if it helps.

I don't know why they are pushing claritin right now, but if it doesn't work we'll move on to zyrtec.

and on the corn allergy, there was only one form Bre could have, some new type of liquid gel that was corn free. : and of course there wasn't a generic version, so it was $30!

[KimPM]

DH takes Claritin/Loratidine (maybe twice a year) when he accidentally gets gluten from who-knows-where. He gets these uncontrollable constant sneezing fits from the gluten and the Claritin really stops that. I looked at the side effects of Zyrtec (which the dr. gave him a sample of a long time ago) and they were longer than the list for Claritin. He decided not to even try the Zyrtec.

Oh, and he says that the Claritin seems to attentuate (not completely get rid of) his symptoms (and it does stop the sneezing), but he still feels his body reacting at a low level even with the Claritin. He only uses it for a "rescue" anyway when the reaction seems out of control.