Recently, my family had occasion to test current over the counter allergy medication. My oldest son (10) has seasonal allergies. He is affected each year at this time by tree pollen. The poor kid get red rimmed eyes, his nose runs, he sneezes, all the usual stuff seasonal allergy sufferers get.
Each year as the season approaches I start him on a Chinese herbal formula Yu Ping Feng Wan. This formula helps him tremendously and he is made to feel well enough to play outside. Each year as Passover comes and we stop the herbs (the whys and wherefores are not for this discussion) and he begins to suffer.
This year we went out and bought Claritin, before the holiday began and he started taking it. The result was that it was as if he was not taking anything. We switched to Zyrtec in hopes that this one would help him. Within 24 hours my son developed persistent coughing bouts. So severe that he could not sleep and sounded like he was wheezing. Friday night I was with him doing acupuncture for over an hour to stop the coughing and help him sleep. The next day he was coughing again, so we stopped the Zyrtec and again did acupuncture. In addition I did Gua Sha (I have an older blog entry on Gua Sha 4/30/2008) on him, also to stop the coughing. This seemed to do the trick.
Our next question was, do we go get a third allergy medication or just stick it out for two more days. When I told him that we would hold off any other medication and that in two days he could go back to taking the herbs, he pumped his hands and said “yeah!”
It has been a week now that he is back on the herbs. He no longer has a cough and is not suffering from his allergies. Soon the tree pollen will go away and he will be so happy – me too.
Recently, my family had occasion to test current over the counter allergy medication. My oldest son (10) has seasonal allergies. He is affected each year at this time by tree pollen. The poor kid get red rimmed eyes, his nose runs, he sneezes, all the usual stuff seasonal allergy sufferers get.
Each year as the season approaches I start him on a Chinese herbal formula Yu Ping Feng Wan. This formula helps him tremendously and he is made to feel well enough to play outside. Each year as Passover comes and we stop the herbs (the whys and wherefores are not for this discussion) and he begins to suffer.
This year we went out and bought Claritin, before the holiday began and he started taking it. The result was that it was as if he was not taking anything. We switched to Zyrtec in hopes that this one would help him. Within 24 hours my son developed persistent coughing bouts. So severe that he could not sleep and sounded like he was wheezing. Friday night I was with him doing acupuncture for over an hour to stop the coughing and help him sleep. The next day he was coughing again, so we stopped the Zyrtec and again did acupuncture. In addition I did Gua Sha (I have an older blog entry on Gua Sha 4/30/2008) on him, also to stop the coughing. This seemed to do the trick.
Our next question was, do we go get a third allergy medication or just stick it out for two more days. When I told him that we would hold off any other medication and that in two days he could go back to taking the herbs, he pumped his hands and said “yeah!”
It has been a week now that he is back on the herbs. He no longer has a cough and is not suffering from his allergies. Soon the tree pollen will go away and he will be so happy – me too.