What to help seasonal allergies?

[47chromosomes]

My pollen allergies are so bad! I've never been pregnant through the rough time of allergy season, so I'm wondering what you all are doing to help your allergies. My eyes are so itchy, I am sneezing like crazy, and my nose is so runny. I feel awful. I really need to go to the doctor next week as my asthma is flaring up as well. Anyway, tell me what you know about what's okay when pregnant, and also if you have any other tricks. My best trick--stay inside.

[HeatherB]

Homeopathics are very safe during pregnancy, so I'd look into those. You can do individual remedies, or try combinations like bioAllers brand. My DH takes their Pet Allergy and gets good relief from it (he is extremely allergic to cats, which my parents have!).

Hope you feel better!

[BlackSheepPDX]

Salt/baking soda/water nasal flushing helps a good bit....gets the irritants off the membranes, reducing the irritation. I haven't attempted a neti pot, I just use a baby nose sucker, fill it, and shoot the water up my nose, letting it drain back out.

[phoebemommy]

Can you get any local bee pollen? It's supposed to help. It has to be local. You might try a health food store.

[HeatherB]

Oh, yes! LOVE the Neti pot! It's actually a LOT easier for me than the nasal syringe thingy. And quite effective.

[rparker]

Here's what I'm taking and it's all been cleared as "safe" with my doctor:

Claritin (daily)
Benadryl (as needed)
Pataday eyedrops (as needed)
Rhinocort nasal spray (as needed)

I'm also using my neti pot and prefer to use the neti pot before going to the nasal spray which I only use when my bloody noses become super frequent.

It really depends on how severe your allergies are and how bad your local climate is for pollen. I was taking all of the drugs on that list a lot more frequently when we were visiting DC/Maryland... now that I'm back north it's mostly just Claritin and eye drops. My last pregnancy was during the same months but I only needed an occasional Claritin because I was living in a way dryer climate (i.e. temps over 100 so a lot of plants die in the summer).

Oh yeah, my epi pen and "in case of emergency" oral steroids are on the approved list too. I agree with you though that the best strategy is avoidance.

[Kellyh_01]

My midwife says Claritin is fine, so I take it daily. Some days it helps, some days it doesn't.

[47chromosomes]

Thank you thank you for the suggestion!

I'd forgotten about the neti pot idea. I have been rinsing my eyes out to get irritants out of them as I don't have any allergy eye drops (plus trying to avoid medication when I can). The neti pot is the same idea but for my nose, so I will try it.

rparker: It sounds like you and I have similar "badness" of allergy symptoms. I broke down last night and took some Claritin, it was so bad. We are in a horrible climate for allergies. Mild, moist climate. If I was allergic to mold I would really be in trouble, but it is just animals and pollens. I live upwind of a floral farm. We really couldn't be in a worse place, but here we are. I'll be at the doctor next week hopefully to fill my asthma meds. I will ask about getting some eyedrops to. Oh, I am so miserable!

[rparker]

One thing I forgot to mention about the eyedrops I take... I did avoid them (mostly) in the 1st trimester because they're pregnancy category C. I've read the studies on them though and their rating is based on one study where rats were made to ingest large quantities of the drops orally. I figure that's pretty different than 1-2 drops topically.

There are also OTC antihistamine drops but I haven't taken them because my husband (who's an MD) says that it's not a great idea to overdo antihistamine eye drops. (For anyone, not just pregnant women.) The other thing with Pataday is that it's expensive. I have pretty good health insurance and my copay for them is $40.

Yeah, allergies totally suck. I'm allergic to pretty much every common environmental allergen (including mold) except dogs... and that's after 7 years of allergy shots Good luck getting your asthma meds sorted out!

[MaerynPearl]

Originally Posted by phoebemommy

Can you get any local bee pollen? It's supposed to help. It has to be local. You might try a health food store.

VERY much a recommendation... it helps your body get used to the pollen so that you do not even get the allergies anymore.

but as was said, it MUST be local.

[FishBounce]

Oh I hear ya! My allergies have been making my asthma go haywire. I actually ended up in the ER earlier this week because of it.

Now that I know Claritin is OK, guess what I'll be buying tomorrow?
For me, steamy cups of tea have helped when the itchiness gets bad. The steam in my face seems to make things tolerable. Also, staying inside as much as I can with the a/c going has helped too.

Hope everyone feels better soon!

[COgirl19]

Claritin is safe (just plain Claritin, not Claritin-D) and my midwife offered me a perscription for Singular. If you are looking for something more natural, pollen is supposed to help as stated above. Also, local honey is also supposed to help for the same reason. Hope you can get relief, allergies can really stink!