Children’s Allergies
Allergies are common problems that affect nearly half of the world’s population. Every person, from a small child to that of an elderly human, nearly everyone has had a close encounter with the itchy, puffy and extremely irritating disease of allergies. However, children most commonly face the various types of allergic reactions as compared to the elderly people. This is mainly because of the food allergies children develop in their infancy stage.
Allergies are usually caused either due to certain active allergens, or may also be caused due to their inheritance into the children from their parents. As a result some children in the very infancy stages suffer from allergic reactions causing skin allergies like rashes, asthma, itchy nose, sneezing, nasal congestion, or hay fever (allergic rhinitis). There are several reactions that can occur due to these allergic reactions that occur in our body due to certain allergens. Children usually are allergic to food products and their ingredients. For instance, a large number of children are usually allergic to milk especially its protein. Similarly, a large number of children are also found to be allergic to grass, sun, and the dust particles. And as they are usually playing outside in the open with their friends, they suffer from allergic reactions due to these allergens.
Allergies are not extremely dangerous unless they are controlled and treated well in time. However, there are several cases where if you fail to treat the allergic reaction in time, people almost lose their life. But today, there are several diagnosis tests that help in detecting the specific allergens causing allergies.
Diagnosis and Treatment
There are three basic types of detection tests that help allergy testing in children for the active allergens.
Prick skin treatment: This test can be done at any age but is not extremely accurate in children below 12 months. This test is done by simply placing the various drops of the common allergens and then pricking the area to see the reaction on the skin.
Intradermal skin test: This test is nearly similar to the prick test except the fact that the allergens are injected directly into the dermis. This is accurate but, children usually can’t tolerate these pricks.
RAST (Radioallergosorbent test): This test checks the antibodies in the body created against certain allergic reactions. This is a more expensive test but is extremely accurate as compared to the other tests.
Medications
After a proper diagnosis is done, you can easily take the medications prescribed by your allergist based on the reports of the tests. However, some of the most common medications include:
Clarinex and Zyrtec: Both these medicines can be provided to children of 6 months and above.
Claritin: This medicine can be given to children above 2 years of age. However, the Claritin given to the adults is different to that given to children.
Nasonex or Veramyst: Similarly, even nasal sprays can also be prescribed for children based on the complexities and symptoms.