To Treat Or Not To Treat: Medications, Kids and Allergies
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In
“Treat allergies? I’m a ‘naturalist’ and believe the body should heal itself”, T’s mom told me in a recent visit. He was in for ear pain and later in the visit I discovered he actually had an ear infection. Suddenly this “naturalist” mom wanted an antibiotic.
When to medicate is a difficult topic and one I spent an interesting hour talking to pod-casters, Vicky and Jen, last week about on “Vicky and Jen: What Really Matters”. Vicky, Jen and I focused on the sickness related seasonal topics, fever and ear infections, and spent a great deal of time discussing the confusing topics of antibiotic and over-the-counter cold and cough medicine use in kids.
Had we more time, I would have loved to have discussed seasonal allergies, another very common “when to medicate” issue for parents that causes a great deal of angst and confusion. And, is an area I find many parents don’t quite understand - which is understandable! Allergies can be confusing and the time alloted to a typical office visit works against us when a complicated issue arises that takes time to explain.
I talked about seasonal allergies recently at A Dose Of Dr. Gwenn and went through all the different ways to combat symptoms once they strike. What is hard to understand about allergies is that treatment has a dual purpose: some is targeted at immediate relief while other aspects are preventative. The immediate relief medications can be taken “as needed” but preventative medications need to be taken starting before the season hits until it ends for it to really provide any benefit. That can be a drag but a necessary evil to keep the symptoms from really skyrocketing.
If the symptoms were just annoying, it would be less of of big deal to be so proactive about taking them daily but they do cause serious issues over time. As discussed in Reuters today, allergy symptoms in kids left untreated often lead to sleep issues. Kids who don’t sleep well will not function well during the day, including at school.
Many parents, like T’s mom, worry that they are “harming the child’s immune system” by giving a daily medication. Actually, it is just the opposite. If the immune system doesn’t have to combat the symptoms so vigorously, it can refocus on prevention. We are actually wearing our kids’ immune systems down by not treating their allergies - the troops are in constant alert and have no time to rest and regroup! Proper treatment gives the immune system time to fight the proper fight and not the peripheral battles of the side effects.
By the way, both of my kids have allergies and without treatment they become truly miserable half way through each allergy season. We’ve had to tweak things here and there but it is so worth it to help them be comfortable.
So, parents, if your kids are chronically sneezing or have runny noses or coughs as the allergy season hits, call your pediatricians and talk about your kids allergies. This is one area of your kids lives where you do want to treat!
Image: Reuters on Yahoo! News
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