My son has been struggling with allergies since just before he turned 2. He is now 3 1/2.
I was a SAHM for the first year and a half. My son was very healthy up until that point except for the severe reactions he had to vaccines.
Oct 08 I started working full time while his dad watched him. Around this time my son got his first ear infection. He was prescribed antibiotics for the first time and also around this time he started coughing (I'm pretty sure it was after the antibiotics but not 100%). He continued on and off with this cough (sometimes dry, sometimes mucus-ey) up until present (he has it about 1/2 the days of the month). Doctor advised us to take Claritin and it helped a little with the coughing.
Jan '09 we got a dog (basset hound puppy) and he has free range of the basement basement and he is outside while we are home. March '09 my son started daycare and was sick with one cold right after another and he ended up with pneumonia. This was treated with two strong antibiotics. Sometime shortly after recovering, he broke out in severe hives head to toe. Took him to the doctor and she suggested Zyrtec because it works better on hives (now the new allergist says Zyrtec is more for a runny nose??). It cleared them up slowly throughout the day and he continued to get hives 1-2x's a month for a year until the Zyrtec just was not doing much for him anymore. We had removed all fragrant and dye-containing soaps from our house, which did not seem to make a difference.
Also he had 4 ear infections total at age 2 that were treated with antibiotics, so he has been on them quite a bit.
In the past year, he has been to the doctor several times and have not received much help for his worrisome hives, so I finally took him to another doctor. She was concerned right away and said his airway did not sound so great either. She FINALLY referred us to an allergist and prescribed Singulair. Reluctantly I gave it to him. He has only had one very very mild break out in hives since starting it and I have not noticed behavioral changes in him. It has helped a little with the coughing too.
After waiting three months for the appointment, we saw the allergist yesterday who grilled me with 2933737 questions and was very thorough. He suggested I keep giving him Singulair with Zyrtec also daily and Benadryl as needed. He also sent me home with a nebulizer for when his coughing is severe. He tested for some environmental allergies via a regular blood test and we are waiting for the results. I am also starting a food diary.
I am going to give him the Singulair and Zyrtec for now but I do not intend for it to be a permanent fix. I want to get to the bottom of this and get him off the meds at least mostly. I hate the fact that my 3 yo is on daily medication!
I'm sorry this ended up soooo long, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible and ask for some insight from parents who have been down this road.
I was a SAHM for the first year and a half. My son was very healthy up until that point except for the severe reactions he had to vaccines.
Oct 08 I started working full time while his dad watched him. Around this time my son got his first ear infection. He was prescribed antibiotics for the first time and also around this time he started coughing (I'm pretty sure it was after the antibiotics but not 100%). He continued on and off with this cough (sometimes dry, sometimes mucus-ey) up until present (he has it about 1/2 the days of the month). Doctor advised us to take Claritin and it helped a little with the coughing.
Jan '09 we got a dog (basset hound puppy) and he has free range of the basement basement and he is outside while we are home. March '09 my son started daycare and was sick with one cold right after another and he ended up with pneumonia. This was treated with two strong antibiotics. Sometime shortly after recovering, he broke out in severe hives head to toe. Took him to the doctor and she suggested Zyrtec because it works better on hives (now the new allergist says Zyrtec is more for a runny nose??). It cleared them up slowly throughout the day and he continued to get hives 1-2x's a month for a year until the Zyrtec just was not doing much for him anymore. We had removed all fragrant and dye-containing soaps from our house, which did not seem to make a difference.
Also he had 4 ear infections total at age 2 that were treated with antibiotics, so he has been on them quite a bit.
In the past year, he has been to the doctor several times and have not received much help for his worrisome hives, so I finally took him to another doctor. She was concerned right away and said his airway did not sound so great either. She FINALLY referred us to an allergist and prescribed Singulair. Reluctantly I gave it to him. He has only had one very very mild break out in hives since starting it and I have not noticed behavioral changes in him. It has helped a little with the coughing too.
After waiting three months for the appointment, we saw the allergist yesterday who grilled me with 2933737 questions and was very thorough. He suggested I keep giving him Singulair with Zyrtec also daily and Benadryl as needed. He also sent me home with a nebulizer for when his coughing is severe. He tested for some environmental allergies via a regular blood test and we are waiting for the results. I am also starting a food diary.
I am going to give him the Singulair and Zyrtec for now but I do not intend for it to be a permanent fix. I want to get to the bottom of this and get him off the meds at least mostly. I hate the fact that my 3 yo is on daily medication!
I'm sorry this ended up soooo long, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible and ask for some insight from parents who have been down this road.
