Allergies - how effective are the injections for common allergies?

[Pegasus]

DD10 has allergies to who knows what. It's much worse in the spring but she has nasal symptoms year round. We give her a daily Clariten (off-brand) pill which helps some but she's far from symptom-free. We did talk to her pediatrician about her allergies and he prescribed one of the nasal sprays (Nasonex) to use in addition to the Clariten. Well, she used it for about a week and complained about having dizzy spells. We stopped the Nasonex and the dizzy spells went away.

 

She says she'd rather have the runny nose than the dizzy spells and I agree.

 

DH has recently brought up the possibility of seeking allergy testing and shot treatments. How successful are these treatments for common nasal allergies? I really don't think DD will go for this as she strongly dislikes shots.

 

Besides buying stock in Kleenex, do you have any other ideas?

 

Thanks,

Pegasus

[Sara in AZ]

My sister has been doing shots for the last year, and she noticed a HUGE difference this allergy season. She was fine while everyone around her was sniffing and sneezing. They have been a major commitment to get, however. Lots of Dr. visits. Several years ago I saw an allergist who treated my allergies with sublingual drops. The idea was they tested to see what you were allergic to, and then made a special syrum with small amounts of those substances. Then you would place the drops under your tongue each day, starting with a very small amount and then working up to a maintenance dose of 30 drops or so. Your body would become desensitized to the substances as you increased the dose. It worked really well for me, and was much less invasive than shots. Unfortunately our insurance doesn't cover that doc anymore, so I've been miserable this year. :-(

 

I know there are a lot of doctors out there that do this. I hope you can find relief for your dd!

[Mom0012]

Both my kids and my husband have terrible allergies. Their allergist prescribed Astepro and Nasonex for them all. The sprays help quite a bit, but my daughter and husband were still having pretty bad symptoms, especially in the spring and fall. My son seems to get pretty complete relief with the sprays.

 

They all also started allergy shots last January. It took a while for us to see an improvement, but both my husband and my daughter are doing so much better. My husband has been totally off his medication for a good chunk of the year. He's just mentioned he needs to start taking it again as we are getting into ragweed season and this has always been his worse time of year. My daughter has been able to drop back to just the Astepro and stop using the Nasonex because of the shots. She's also been much happier and healthier since about February and spring is usually a horrible allergy time for her.

 

My son could not continue with the shots. He had a severe reaction that required an epinephrine injection and he also had a lot of anxiety about getting the shots. He would worry about it for days. The shots are painful. Both my husband and my daughter say the shots really hurt, but once they built up to the full dose, they only have to go once every three weeks. I do know that a lot of places have patients come in every week or two weeks. It just depends on the office.

 

Because of the problems my son had with the shots, I took him to a different doctor who uses allergy drops. So far, there has been no improvement, but I have been told it takes about a year with the drops to see improvement. We will see. The drops are more expensive than the shots because they are not covered by insurance. It is supposed to cost about $200 for a 3 month supply, but I am finding the drops are really only lasting us 2 months. I need to talk with the doctor about that.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

Lisa

[Pippen]

My allergies were bad year around and I've done really well with the shots. I'm highly reactive to the serum but they dilute my shots to half strength and I'll never move up to the higher dilutions.

[Mom in High Heels]

My allergies were bad year around and I've done really well with the shots. I'm highly reactive to the serum but they dilute my shots to half strength and I'll never move up to the higher dilutions.

 

Ugh! Me too!!!! They had to break my shots down to 4 separate shots at the absolute lowest dosage. Any movement up and I break out in hives. What a PITA. I get 4 shots twice a week.

 

Having said that though, the shots are crazy helpful. It took about a 6-9 months for me to really notice anything (because the dosage is so low), but I can now go off meds (I take 4 different meds twice a day) during the fall and winter. Hurrah!! When we lived in GA, I had an allergist who used drops under the tongue, which was much better than feeling like a pin cushion. However, the drops are not as effective IMO. It took almost a year and a half to notice any difference (and we only lived there for 2 years). If you're not moving (dh is military so we're always moving), I'd say try to find an allergist who uses drops. You can do them at home (it's such a pain to drag myself to the allergist twice a week) and there's no needles involved. Oh, except for the testing, which involves many needles and lots of itchiness if there's a reaction.

 

One thing that I use that has really helped my nasal allergies is usin a neti pot every day. It helps clear all the gunk out of my sinuses and I'm much less sniffly during the day. My allergies are so severe that even with the shots and all the meds, I still have issues. The neti pot is a huge help though. You might try starting her using one of those before you look into shots and see if that helps. Best of luck to you and your dd. Having allergies is no fun at all.

[Mom0012]

Mom in High Heels and Pippen - Do you find the allergy shots to be really painful? I am very unhappy with the doctor's office we are using, and often wonder if they are administering the shots correctly. When I read about allergy shots online, it often says it shouldn't be very painful.

 

Lisa

[Pippen]

No, as a rule I don't find them to be painful but what I've found is mostly it depends on the person who is giving them. I've been going for a lot of years and some nurses are much better than others. I've had nurses ranging from I can't even tell I've had the shot to those who leave bruise marks of their fingerprints from grabbing my arm so hard. Now I have them write on my chart what works best for me: light pinch and a little ice pack taped on my arms afterwards.

 

Mom in High Heels, I always take Allegra-D the morning of my shot and together with the ice pack it greatly reduces the chance of a reaction. If I skip either, I'm bound to react. Also, when my allergies were improved so much but I still hadn't reached a higher concentration, I asked my allergist to treat that level like the top so now I've backed down to every 10 days. I had to start all over a few years back with new grasses and it about killed me to go back to 3 times per week.

[Mom0012]

No, as a rule I don't find them to be painful but what I've found is mostly it depends on the person who is giving them. I've been going for a lot of years and some nurses are much better than others. I've had nurses ranging from I can't even tell I've had the shot to those who leave bruise marks of their fingerprints from grabbing my arm so hard. Now I have them write on my chart what works best for me: light pinch and a little ice pack taped on my arms afterwards.

 

Mom in High Heels, I always take Allegra-D the morning of my shot and together with the ice pack it greatly reduces the chance of a reaction. If I skip either, I'm bound to react. Also, when my allergies were improved so much but I still hadn't reached a higher concentration, I asked my allergist to treat that level like the top so now I've backed down to every 10 days. I had to start all over a few years back with new grasses and it about killed me to go back to 3 times per week.

 

Gosh, that is kind of upsetting to hear. There are only 2 nurses in this office and I haven't been pleased with either one. There are no other allergists in our town, so going somewhere else would mean a 40 minute - 1 hour round trip. My daughter is in tears every time she gets her shots and we've got at least 2 more years to go.

 

Lisa

 

ETA: I read back through this thread and see that you are only able to tolerate the half strength. I think that might be the difference. Whenever we have missed our shots, they have backed down on the strength for a shot or two and my daughter will always come home skipping because the shot didn't hurt.

Edited August 1, 2010 by LisaTheresa

[Omma]

Sometimes they are a bit painful, and other times they seem completely pain-free! I have been getting allergy shots for years, and now my adopted son gets them, too. They have helped IMMENSELY!

 

I first took them when I was a dc, and then my parents stopped taking me and I lasted until I was in my late 20's before needing them again. I took them for a few years and was doing really well with them (w/ 6 weeks between shots). Then my dad suggested I stop them, so I did. Big mistake! I had repeated sinus infections and had to start back at the beginning dose. I am allergic to ALL the environmental allergies they test for, but could only get a little bit of one item until I built up resistance.

 

My ds started them when he was 7 and he is now 10. He has horrible food allergies as well as a birch pollen test that registered over 12,000 by RAST testing (he cannot eat apples or thin-skinned fruits either, as they are related somehow to the birch tree pollen). They were giving him every allergy medicine under the sun before he started the shots, and now he only needs a bit of Zatidor during the spring season for itchy eyes. I am very happy with the shots.

 

I think if the parent treats the shots as no big deal, then the dc will be more willing and able to receive them. And I'm sure it helped my ds to see other people (ie, ME) getting them without problems!

 

Hope this helps!

 

Brenda

[Mom in High Heels]

They are painful for me if my dose is too high. Talk to your doc about backing down to a low dosage and see if that helps.

[Pegasus]

Wow. Thanks for all the information and personal experiences. :D I didn't even know there were drops so we'll research all of our options.

 

Pegasus

[Baseball mom]

This may not be a popular idea but I take ds to the chiropactor. I didn't realise a chiro could help but it has. He was to the point where he was taking alot of meds daily. I read about the chiro and started taking him. In a few weeks he was down to no meds.

 

The first couple days they seemed worse then it was like things started lining up and he cleared up. He has really bad allergies in fall and spring. During those times he still takes an occcasional allergy pill but otherwise he is fine.

 

The cost worked out to about the same as the cost of all the meds he was taking.

[Sun]

I had shots as a kid, and the difference between before and after (even now 20 years after) is like night and day. They were a major pain in the neck to go get, but in the end they were so worth it. I can only imagine that they've gotten better in the last couple of decades too.

[Heather in AL]

No, as a rule I don't find them to be painful but what I've found is mostly it depends on the person who is giving them. I've been going for a lot of years and some nurses are much better than others.

 

I agree that it depends on the person, but I also realized that *where* I got the shot mattered. The nurses liked to give it in the back of my arm, and I found that pinched quite badly. I asked if I could get them on the sides like a vaccine, and they said yes. That made a world of difference.

 

Also, for me, it didn't matter if I had a full dose or a half dose... it was where & who.

 

They were a major pain in the neck to go get, but in the end they were so worth it.

 

Don't you mean a pain in the arm? JK!!! I couldn't resist that one! :tongue_smilie::lol::lol:

 

I felt better within mere weeks of starting my shots; it was incredible.

 

My allergist doesn't do the SLIT (under the tongue) method, but I would prefer that to the shots. Either way, I'm *so* glad I got them (I have been off them for 6 months now and have had nary a sniffle!)

 

Oh... if you search the boards for 'allergy shots' you should get some hits. This subject has come up a few times.