Everyone can agree that allergies have been at an all time high this year. Many who never experience allergies, are getting hit hard this year. Your children might seem like they have a never-ending cold, or complain of itchy eyes or headaches if they’re experiencing allergy symptoms. Here are some ways to help your child through spring allergies.

Identify

Make sure you know whether what your child is suffering from is a cold or if it’s allergies. Pay attention to the color of your child’s mucus. Clear and watery typically points to allergies where as yellow or green can mean a cold.

Age Matters

Allergies can effect us in different ways depending on our age. Children as young as 1-2 can react to indoor allergens such as dust mites or pet dander while children as old as 3-5 can begin to experience seasonal outdoor allergies.

It’s Genetic

Children can often inherit allergies from their parents. It’s not always the same allergy, but how prone you are to becoming allergic is something that can be passed along.

Delivery Is Important

A combination of over the counter allergy medicine and nasal spray is the recommended way of fighting allergies. With this combination your child might start to feel better even before the worst parts of the season are over, but make sure that you don’t stop treating allergies even if symptoms have gone away. Doctors recommend you administer nasal spray to your child at bedtime. Make sure your child understands to sniff and not snort when receiving the spray so that the medicine can make it fully into their system.

Avoid Pollen

This might seem obvious and not worth mentioning. But always TRY to avoid heavily pollenated areas or times of day if your child is suffering from allergies. Grass and weed pollen is worst in the morning, so if you’re planning a play-date or outing, think about later in the day. After extended outdoor play, make sure that your child is bathed to eliminate any traces of pollen that could be on his or her hair or clothing. That way when they go to bed that night, they aren’t bringing pollen onto their sheets or pillows.

These are just a few helpful hints at ways to deal with allergies in children and even adults. With allergy season in full swing, make sure you are treating your allergy symptoms seriously!