Dr. Greene
Five Key Questions About Seasonal Allergies
Despite all of the uncertainty, one thing we can count on is the arrival of spring and, with that, the arrival of seasonal allergies. If your children are lucky enough to get outside right now, it’s likely that the symptoms of seasonal allergies are approaching their peak. Here, our resident pediatrician and co-founder of Bambini Furtuna, Dr. Alan Greene answers five key questions parents have about seasonal allergies.
- Written By
- Dr. Alan Greene
- Illustration
- Ola Niepsuj
What are seasonal allergies?
Let’s start with allergies. We have this incredible immune system that is constantly on-guard, paying attention to things in the environment that might be harmful to us. Allergies happen when the body identifies something that’s actually not so bad as dangerous and then mounts this disproportionate immune response. Chemical warfare ensues. The body releases histamines, leukotrienes and prostaglandins that lead to all the symptoms of allergies that we all know.
Seasonal allergies are essentially allergies to pollens. A classic time for seasonal allergies is the pollen surge of springtime. That’s a time when many plants dress themselves up with these beautiful flowers, that are there to attract, birds, and bees and other pollinators and that’s how the plants reproduce. There are also a lot of plants, grasses, weeds and trees, that aren’t flowering but that make lighter pollen. They pump out millions and millions of grains a day that get carried by the wind. It’s the yellow stuff that you see on cars, and when that pollen gets in the nose your body starts to mount a response.
How do you tell the difference between an allergy and a cold or virus?
Particularly now, many parents are concerned with how to tell the difference between allergies and a cold or virus. This can be really tricky because they are in some ways the same thing. Your immune system identifies something that doesn’t belong in the nose. It might be a virus in the case of a cold, or it might be pollen in the case of allergies. Your immune system mounts a response, creating sneezing and congestion. The difference is that in the case of a seasonal allergy, it’s a slightly different part of the immune system. It releases histamine as a dominant part of that which causes itching. If there is itching of the nose or itching of the eyes and a clear nasal discharge, that’s more likely to be an allergy. Especially in a family or kids that have allergies. A virus, on the other hand, triggers white blood cells to come, so it may start with sneezing and a clear runny nose, but pretty soon the nasal discharge starts to get cloudy from the white blood cells or creamy, or even green. There might also be a little bit of a fever because the body is trying to get rid of the virus that way. The duration is also different. A cold typically lasts about a week in kids, sometimes longer, but it doesn’t go on and on the way that allergies can. You also want to consider the child’s exposure. If there’s an exposure to something your child is allergic to or exposure to a child who has a cold or virus, that is helpful to know.
How do I help my child with seasonal allergies in the short term?
In terms of things you can do immediately, it helps a little bit to picture what’s actually going on with an allergic reaction. Our nose is lined with mast cells, which are immune cells ready to destroy particles that are not helpful to us. If the body is allergic, it has made antibodies to that specific pollen that sit on the surface of the mast cell and they’re just watching for the pollen to come around and that activates the mast cell and causes symptoms.
The very first thing is to try to avoid the pollen connecting to the antibody and there’s a few ways to do that.
When kids come in from playing outside, that’s a good time for washing hands or even going straight to bath time. Take off the hat, the clothes and do the washing. Nasal irrigation and eye washing are two of the best things you can do. You can use a nasal saline spray for the nose and saline eye drops for the eyes, or the Bambini Furtuna Itchy Eye Solution. It’s natural and effective.
An air purifier can also help a great deal. A HEPA filter can get 99.97% of the pollen out of the air in the home.
You’ll also want to change the pillowcases and sheets frequently, particularly if there’s a dust mite allergy.
Finally, antihistamines can be a great way to stop the histamine being released from the mast cell and thereby alleviate symptoms. But they’re far more effective just before pollen exposure than they are after. So when your child’s allergy season is high, that may be the time to start taking them every day to try to prevent the histamine from being released.
How do I help my child with seasonal allergies in the long term?
If there are allergy issues and medications year after year, the best solution is to teach the body to no longer recognize the pollen as a threat. And that’s done through something called immunotherapy and that can be done with allergy shots. What you do is take a very small amount of pollen or other allergens and introduce them gradually. By getting tiny amounts over time, the body begins to learn it is not a threat. That will reverse the allergies.
There’s also Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT) where a little bit goes under the tongue. That has the advantage of being something you can do at home, something you can do when you travel and it’s very gentle.
But both options can take 3-5 years, depending on how many allergens and how allergic the person is, so it’s really a longer-term strategy.
Is there anything I can do to minimize or prevent seasonal allergies?
The tendency to develop allergies is genetic. Some people are far more likely to get allergies than others. If one parent has allergies and one copy of an allergy gene, then 25% of the kids will have it and if both parents do, 75% will. If either parent has two allergy genes, than 100% of their children will develop the tendency.
Having a pet before developing allergies is one of the best things you can do. A dog and a cat can be one of the best probiotics. Over time, we’ve decreased the diversity of the microbiome. Kids who are raised on a farm, or visit a farm, tend to have fewer allergies. So any type of animal exposure early on is great. Playing outdoors is also important not only for exposure to allergens, but to Vitamin D. Diet also plays an important role. The more servings of fruits and vegetables your child eats, the less likely to develop allergies. Specifically, citrus fruits and onions are known to calm the histamine release. Eating fish at least a couple of times a month has also been shown to decrease allergies. Exercise and sleep help a lot. Getting outside, eating well, sleeping well, exercising, these basic things that are known to improve health can also improve seasonal allergies.
Let’s start with allergies. We have this incredible immune system that is constantly on-guard, paying attention to things in the environment that might be harmful to us. Allergies happen when the body identifies something that’s actually not so bad as dangerous and then mounts this disproportionate immune response. Chemical warfare ensues. The body releases histamines, leukotrienes and prostaglandins that lead to all the symptoms of allergies that we all know.
Seasonal allergies are essentially allergies to pollens. A classic time for seasonal allergies is the pollen surge of springtime. That’s a time when many plants dress themselves up with these beautiful flowers, that are there to attract, birds, and bees and other pollinators and that’s how the plants reproduce. There are also a lot of plants, grasses, weeds and trees, that aren’t flowering but that make lighter pollen. They pump out millions and millions of grains a day that get carried by the wind. It’s the yellow stuff that you see on cars, and when that pollen gets in the nose your body starts to mount a response.
How do you tell the difference between an allergy and a cold or virus?
Particularly now, many parents are concerned with how to tell the difference between allergies and a cold or virus. This can be really tricky because they are in some ways the same thing. Your immune system identifies something that doesn’t belong in the nose. It might be a virus in the case of a cold, or it might be pollen in the case of allergies. Your immune system mounts a response, creating sneezing and congestion. The difference is that in the case of a seasonal allergy, it’s a slightly different part of the immune system. It releases histamine as a dominant part of that which causes itching. If there is itching of the nose or itching of the eyes and a clear nasal discharge, that’s more likely to be an allergy. Especially in a family or kids that have allergies. A virus, on the other hand, triggers white blood cells to come, so it may start with sneezing and a clear runny nose, but pretty soon the nasal discharge starts to get cloudy from the white blood cells or creamy, or even green. There might also be a little bit of a fever because the body is trying to get rid of the virus that way. The duration is also different. A cold typically lasts about a week in kids, sometimes longer, but it doesn’t go on and on the way that allergies can. You also want to consider the child’s exposure. If there’s an exposure to something your child is allergic to or exposure to a child who has a cold or virus, that is helpful to know.
How do I help my child with seasonal allergies in the short term?
In terms of things you can do immediately, it helps a little bit to picture what’s actually going on with an allergic reaction. Our nose is lined with mast cells, which are immune cells ready to destroy particles that are not helpful to us. If the body is allergic, it has made antibodies to that specific pollen that sit on the surface of the mast cell and they’re just watching for the pollen to come around and that activates the mast cell and causes symptoms.
The very first thing is to try to avoid the pollen connecting to the antibody and there’s a few ways to do that.
When kids come in from playing outside, that’s a good time for washing hands or even going straight to bath time. Take off the hat, the clothes and do the washing. Nasal irrigation and eye washing are two of the best things you can do. You can use a nasal saline spray for the nose and saline eye drops for the eyes, or the Bambini Furtuna Itchy Eye Solution. It’s natural and effective.
An air purifier can also help a great deal. A HEPA filter can get 99.97% of the pollen out of the air in the home.
You’ll also want to change the pillowcases and sheets frequently, particularly if there’s a dust mite allergy.
Finally, antihistamines can be a great way to stop the histamine being released from the mast cell and thereby alleviate symptoms. But they’re far more effective just before pollen exposure than they are after. So when your child’s allergy season is high, that may be the time to start taking them every day to try to prevent the histamine from being released.
How do I help my child with seasonal allergies in the long term?
If there are allergy issues and medications year after year, the best solution is to teach the body to no longer recognize the pollen as a threat. And that’s done through something called immunotherapy and that can be done with allergy shots. What you do is take a very small amount of pollen or other allergens and introduce them gradually. By getting tiny amounts over time, the body begins to learn it is not a threat. That will reverse the allergies.
There’s also Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT) where a little bit goes under the tongue. That has the advantage of being something you can do at home, something you can do when you travel and it’s very gentle.
But both options can take 3-5 years, depending on how many allergens and how allergic the person is, so it’s really a longer-term strategy.
Is there anything I can do to minimize or prevent seasonal allergies?
The tendency to develop allergies is genetic. Some people are far more likely to get allergies than others. If one parent has allergies and one copy of an allergy gene, then 25% of the kids will have it and if both parents do, 75% will. If either parent has two allergy genes, than 100% of their children will develop the tendency.
Having a pet before developing allergies is one of the best things you can do. A dog and a cat can be one of the best probiotics. Over time, we’ve decreased the diversity of the microbiome. Kids who are raised on a farm, or visit a farm, tend to have fewer allergies. So any type of animal exposure early on is great. Playing outdoors is also important not only for exposure to allergens, but to Vitamin D. Diet also plays an important role. The more servings of fruits and vegetables your child eats, the less likely to develop allergies. Specifically, citrus fruits and onions are known to calm the histamine release. Eating fish at least a couple of times a month has also been shown to decrease allergies. Exercise and sleep help a lot. Getting outside, eating well, sleeping well, exercising, these basic things that are known to improve health can also improve seasonal allergies.