Anyone deal with Enviromental Allergies?

[Mydreamcametrue]

Tyler has always had a runny nose, since as long as I can remember.  He also had a pretty bad milk intolerance until about 2 months ago. 

He has been drinking Whole milk for about 2 months now, BUT now we cannot break this sinus infection/runny nose, cough he has.

We had our allergist appointment last week and he only showed allergic to Dust Mites.  There was allergy cells in the nose (showed under the microscope).

The allergist only gave him a nasal spray.

I had to take him back to the doctor today because the runny nose has turned green again and I though another sinus infection.  Everything seems okay, but the his Ped. also added in Singulair and Zyrtec. 

I have also taken all curtains out of his room and layed down the foam play mats over his carpet so it creates a barrier and the dust mites want live on the foam mats.

So anyhow...  I am now thinking it is weird that since we have started all whole milk, he has all this nose problems that we can't get rid of. 

May also be though, it is just enviromental allergies - the dust mites and now with the proper treatment it will help.

Any thoughts or advice?

Thanks, Wendy

P.S: On a good note though, His skin is CLEAR!!!!  It feels like baby skin now.

[s_olano00]

Wendy,

DD also has several allergy issues and has been in treatment with an Allergist for 1 year. The first thing he prescribed us was Singulair and she took it for about 4 months. It was hell. DD suffered from extreme behaviour problems: she went from being a normal spirited child to throwing 10 fits a day, she would tell me repeatedly that she was sad, that she wanted to cry, she couldn't handle anyone "contradicting" her (I would give her juice in a red glass and she would throw it away crying desperately that she wanted the blue one), she would be crying one moment and laughing the other... it was hell for me. I felt like I was failing raising my child. One day, the Allergist called me and asked me if I had noticed a change in DD's behaviour (if she had turned violent, specifically) because he had received a warning from the FDA about the side effects of Singulair. As soon as I hanged up the phone, I went and Googled about it and the results were horrible. I took her off Singulair immediately and felt like the worst mother in the whole world. DD went back to her normal self after 1 - 2 weeks.

I beg you to read about the side effects and make an informed decision whether to give your LO that medicine or not.

DD is also allergic to dust and mold, and has suffered from Sinus and Rinitis and at the moment we are treating it with a spray called Rinalin and 2 inhalers - Ventolin and Becotide. It has done the trick for already 2 months. We keep her room with very little furniture, no carpet, we wash the curtains every 2 weeks, no pillows or stuffed animals allowed in her bedroom and we dust and clean the house everyday whenever DD is out of the house, and we are considering buying an air purifier for DD's room, but I am still not sure how much it will help, since I won't keep DD in her room 24/7.

Another approach that helped us a lot was taking her to a clinic where they practice Biological medicine. There, they performed a test called BICOM where they made me take a sample of EVERY food that DD eats, samples of household cleaners used at home and samples of the paint, dust and anything I could take and I found out that although DD didn't test allergic to a lot of things in the traditional allergy test, she proved to be "sensitive" to a lot of food. I stopped giving all those things to her and her condition has improved. I feel that although she is not 100% cured, she is more "resistant" now and she doesn't fall into crisis that easily.

I hope I haven't bored you with all this, and I urge you to take a deeper look into Singulair.

Take Care.

[Mydreamcametrue]

Oh wow thanks.  I think I noticed some of these side effects with DS1 and taking the singulair.  I never really thought about it, but now it makes sense that it good have been from that.

How long until you noticed these awful side effects?

So far after 2 days, DS2 is doing awesome on it.

Thanks, Wendy

[s_olano00]

To tell you the truth, there wasn't a drastic change - things sort of escalated little by little and that's why I thought that I was the one doing something wrong (not being patient enough, not paying enough attention to details regarding DD, etc).... if I try to remember, there was an incident where DD threw a quite memorable meltdown about 1.5 months after starting Singulair.

Only after I read the boards where people shared their experiences with Singulair, I was able to connect the dots and realise it was the medicine affecting DD's behavior, otherwise, I would have attributed it to an extreme case of the terrible two's + me not handling it properly. Needless to say, DD's went back 100% to her old self about 1 - 2 weeks after I stopped the medication.

I am glad your LO is doing quite well on Singulair - DD was doing OK (not perfect, but not that bad either). In our case, because of the extreme side effects I decided to take her off it.

Take Care.

[JennŠ]

About the air purifiers: go for it and keep lo's door closed as much as possible.  The 8-12 hrs (maybe?) that lo sleeps, they are then breathing cleaner air.  Makes things better the rest of the day.  Make sense?   
Dust mites need more than 50% humidity to live.  If you have a dehumidifier, the lil' buggers croak. 
There are powders and such to use on the carpet that kills them, then vacuum.  Stuffed animals are ok if they can be hot washed.   
Encasing the mattress and pillow help.
http://www.allergyguarddirect.com/ 
http://www.allergycontrol.com/Default.aspx
Happy pesticiding!!

[Mydreamcametrue]

I put down that foam playroom floor mats in his room.  I covered the entire floor.  I have a air purifier (keep door closed). I have to run a humidifier because we have gas heat and gets really dry, but is set in his room at 40%. 

To be honest about the singulair.  That is the was he acted BEFORE starting it.  His tantrums were really bad, to the point I was scared.

[s_olano00]

To be honest about the singulair.  That is the was he acted BEFORE starting it.  His tantrums were really bad, to the point I was scared.

Wow! 

Then on the brighter side, it's good that your son is not presenting any side effects after taking the medicine and you can enjoy the benefits!!! In our case, it has been quite a struggle to control Anna's allergy symptoms mostly because she is a bronchial hyper-reactor (all her allergic reactions are manifested through her respiratory system, mostly bronchospasm) and it usually takes her about 2 weeks to recover from it.

Good Luck!!

[JennŠ]

Wendy, don't forget the rest of the house.  Damp cloth for dusting, etc.  I've done the powder to kill stuff in the carpets, bit of a pain.  There's a laundry additive that lets you wash bedding/toys in warm water instead of hot.  My fave is the humidity thing.  Dry air kills them, also makes it harder to breathe when you get a sinus infection.  Can't win...