What You Should Know About Severe Allergies And Your Young Child

As a parent, you want your child to always be as healthy and happy as possible. However, if they constantly seem like they are congested, sniffling, and are just plain uncomfortable, you may come to find that they have severe allergies. Once you begin to suspect that your child is suffering from year-round allergies, you may wonder what you can do to help them feel better and get their allergies under better control.

Go To An Allergist For Thorough Testing

Generally speaking, it is not enough just to say that your child has allergies and determine for yourself what they are allergic to. It may seem obvious to you what they are allergic to based on their reactions, but you never know.

For example, if your child sneezes and sniffles every time they go to the park, you may assume they are allergic to tree pollen or the flowers that line the paths. There are actually a myriad of things your child could be allergic to at the park including the aforementioned pollens as well as grass, animal dander, mold, and a myriad of other potential outdoor allergens.

Taking your child to an allergist for allergy testing will help to pinpoint the allergens that are giving your child trouble. The allergy testing process involves the allergist putting small drops of concentrated versions of different allergens on your child's skin. Then, they prick the skin will a tiny needle and wait several minutes to see if there is a skin reaction. The sites with redness, swelling, or the like are considered substances that your child is allergic to.

Getting Treatments For Your Child's Allergies

There are many different treatment options available for your child's severe allergies once you know the exact sources of their discomfort. Generally speaking, you can start with either an over-the-counter or prescription allergy medication that contains an antihistamine. Antihistamines help to stifle the immune systems hyperactive response to allergens.

While this can help on a daily basis, severe allergies also often require more intensive treatments to garner long-term effects. Immunotherapy is one such option. This treatment is often also referred to as allergy shots and is a way to reduce the severity of your child's allergies so that even without antihistamines, they will feel better in general.

The shots contain small amounts of all of the substances that your child was found to be allergic to. This will trigger their immune system to react, but only a small amount. The idea is to build up tolerance in the body so that the immune system eventually will not react at all or very little to those substances. These shots usually occur once a week or once every few weeks in increasing doses until the immune system reacts as little as possible.

Now that you know a few of the steps that you can take to help your child with their severe allergies, you can get started as soon as possible and get them feeling better as soon as possible. Talk with a specialist such as Allergy & Asthma Clinic of Wyoming LLC for more information.