Do you know of any natural remedies for allergies?

Now that we FINALLY have health insurance again (WOO HOO!) I have taken my 7 yr old daughter to the doctor because I feared she might have sleep apnea which, of course, terrifies me. Her doctor wants me to monitor her sleep for the next two weeks just in case but she thinks Abby is just suffering from major allergies which is causing all of her sleeping problems.

Abby just started her new allergy meds yesterday and she threw up several times last night, she has a slight fever right now and the poor girl is absolutely miserable. I'm about to call her doctor's office in a minute and I'm not looking for medical advice from DUers, but I was just wondering if anyone here has ever had success with natural allergy remedies.

Allergies suck. Expensive drugs that create more symptoms then they cure suck even more. Feeling like an ignorant and horrible mother sucks the worse though. :(

my mother swears by it.

:loveya: That I do.

It's a known irritant, and a lot of pediatric allergists will tell you this. Works on adults, too--I have hideously bad hayfever, and cutting all wheat out of my diet (not that hard, and not that bad) makes me almost completely non-reactive.

are you sure it's not that hard?

If you really HAVE to have bread, look for bread made from rice flour (but you have to watch labels closely). Trader Joe's carries rice flour tortillas that I really like.

I still get the whole grains I need, just in other forms. And I really don't miss it at all (and I FEEL so much better--also keeps joint inflammation down).

Fortunately my daughter isn't big on bread so this sounds very doable.

It's a combination of allergies and an ear infection, and she's on strong antibiotics and ear drops and decongestants. I hate it, too.

When she was your kid's age, she had trouble with ear infections, partly from allergies, and we tried to treat them with medicines, but the kept coming back. After much research, I got the idea that it was her diet in general. I made her cut our white everything (sugar, flour, potatoes) and fried everything, and put her on whole foods for a while. Low on fruit, too, which has a lot of sugars, though obviously healthier than processed sugar.

In addition, I gave her doses of Flaxseed oil every day, and liquid acidopholus, and some immunity type vitamins and herbs.

After a couple of weeks, her ear infections cleared up and stayed cleared up until recently (she's fourteen), even though her diet went bad again within six months of me cleaning it up.

I decided at the time that problem was inflammation, which you get from too many sugars, free radicals, and other crap. Your body's tissues get inflamed, and your body's immunities get weaker, and that makes it harder to fight off allergens. The flaxseed oil helped with the free radicals and some other stuff I've forgotten.

Anyway, that's what I did. This isn't medical advice, since your daughter has different problems. Just inspiration, and an idea of where to look. I'd consult an allergy specialist with a nutritional slant (there's a good one in Austin, but I can't remember his name), and do research along those lines. The best book I found on it was Curing childhood ear infections," or something like that.

We tried stuff like local honey (which I've had no luck with in Austin), and homeopathic stuff (which had no effect). Some herbs helped, but I've forgotten which ones. They were all along the line of strengthening immunity and fighting inflammation. Again, I'm not a doctor, so don't take this as advice, just as an idea of where to look and what might happen. And if her condition is serious, drugs act more quickly and dramatically than any herbal or natural foods remedy. These are better at prevention or lessening severity than curing.

Good luck, and sympathies. Allergies around here are terrible now.

Although she doesn't have one right now, Abby has a horrible history with ear infections as well. I pride myself on her diet in comparison to many of her friends but I admit there is a lot of room for improvement. I like the idea of consulting an allergy specialist with a nutritional slant for the entire family actually.

Abby was prescribed Zyrtec and Rhinocort Aqua (a nasal spray). She loves the nasal spray because it allows her to finally breathe clearly and it works instantly but she gets a headache 15 minutes later. I'm not bothering with the Zyrtec anymore since it made her sick all night. It was the strangest thing jobyom, all three times she got sick, she did it in her sleep and she didn't wake up until half way through the process of being sick. She sleeps on her stomach and I had to pull her up out of it...I was afraid of leaving her alone the entire night for fear she would do it again, not wake up and suffocate herself. The ironic thing is that she's on the meds to improve her sleep.

Her doctor doesn't sound convinced that the meds have caused all her symptoms since a fever isn't the typical side effect of what she's taking. She might have coincidentally caught a bug at the same time she started the drugs. Big fun in the Smith household. I asked the doctor's office about alternative allergy meds but was told to try the over the counter stuff which I've done for years without any success. All we want is for her to sleep well.

I have a lot of research to do today regarding her diet. I welcome any kid-friendly clean meal recommendations you may have. Thanks again for your post.

it has literally saved my life this allergy season, which has been horrendous. I have TERRIBLE allergies that things like Claritin or most of the other OTC (or the prescription) stuff can't even touch. I stumbled on Triaminic Children's Cold/Allergy Elixir -- it is a grape flavored syrup that you take several times a day. It is available over the counter (no need to show ID), does not cause drowsiness, and stops runny nose - congestion - sneezing - itchy eyes/throat/nose. I cannot tell you how great it has been for me since first taking it. I found that if I take a dose in the morning and after work I can just about get through the day with almost zero symptoms. I am also hyper sensitive to allergy medications (sleepiness, ears ringing, bloody noses) and I have had none of the old problems with this product.

I know how miserable allergies can be -- good luck to your daughter!