Pollen Disease

by Yana Mikheeva

Summer is at the height. Everything is green and blossoming. We should be glad to sun and warmth, but, looking at our own offspring, who sneezes and coughs, we think desperately: “It would be better if spring would come later!”

What does spring bring? Everything starts blossoming with its coming. To be more exact, not blossoming, but filling the air with dust. Air pollen accumulates on pituitary membrane, conjunctiva and mucous membrane, comes to bronchus, contact with skin and causes allergy symptoms. Such people immune system treats harmless substance (pollen) as an enemy by mistake and switches on protective mechanisms at once, which suppress the enemy. Reddening, edema, fever – these are typical signs of struggle, taking place between protective forces of immune system and alien substances.

There’re lots of names, but the essence is still the same. Pollen disease or hay fever, spring catarrh, pollen allergy – these are names of the disease in different times. When you face pollen disease for the first time, you can easily treat it as ARD by mistake – these diseases start almost the same way: coryza, stuffiness in nose, watering, fits of sneezing, sometimes cough. But coryza under pollen disease (nasal allergy) – is a continuous flow. A day and night of such nasal allergy, and more than 1 liter of liquid will pour out your nose. Eyelids get inflamed, tears are streaming down, purulent discharges appear. Quite often shortness of breath, crepitations in chest and cutaneous eruptions also appear. A distinguishing feature of such allergy is its seasonality. All sings of this disease disappear, as soon as plants finish blossoming.

Attention – diet!

If your child suffers from pollen disease, don’t give him honey. If the reaction is caused by birch, alder, apple-tree, don’t give him apples, cherries, plums, nuts, carrot and potato. Don’t use medical preparations, based on birch buds and leaves, alder cones. Allergy on wormwood, geranium, dandelion, sunflower won’t allow to eat oranges, sunflower-seed oil, halva. Even if your child eats apples and bananas during year, avoid them in

spring all the same.

Is this disease in-born?

From birth, your child may only have predisposition to allergic reaction. On the first year of life, such babies usually have food allergy. Pollen one is usually formed not earlier than on 4th year of life. It can be seldom met in earlier age. If a baby suffers from allergy on some food, his cheeks turn red, and his mother starts bathing him in herbs – chamomile, bur-marigold. This way, mother forms her baby’s allergy on pollen too, not knowing it. So, when you notice the first sings of the disease, carry out allergy tests at once and start treatment.

Remember: allergy tests should be done only since November till March. Tests, made in May, for example, can provoke exacerbation. In this case, wait till the season of risk is over with the help of preparations, relieving a baby’s condition. In some cases, signs of pollen disease can appear not only during plants blossoming, but also in winter. This is connected with provoking factors’ influence on organism: smell of tobacco, paints, cold etc. And another fact, a baby, whose parent suffers from allergy, runs 30% risk of allergic reactions’ development. If both parents have allergy, the risk is increased up to 60%. This way allergy jumps from generation to generation.

How to survive spring and summer

Don’t open windows and doors in dry and windy weather.

Ventilate room only after rain. You can hang wet bed-sheets or gauze in several layers on open windows and doors.

Don’t go out early in the morning.

Take shower twice a day. When you come back home, wash your hair for sure.

Cleanse nose and eyes every day and gargle with salt solution – 1/3 tea-spoon of salt on a glass of warm boiled water.

Don’t dry cloth outside after washing, as pollen accumulates in them. Do wet cleaning every day.

Be careful with herbal treatment, avoid any substances that contain herbs, for example, shampoo.

Don’t grow following room plants: geranium, begonia, primrose, roses, lilac, ivy. Nine of ten patients, suffering from pollen disease, have allergic reactions on some

food. Prescribe a diet for your baby!

Calendar of allergenic plants’ blossoming

March – snowdrop, alder-tree

April – hazel, birch, poplar, elm, maple, willow

May – oak, lilac, apple-tree, dandelion, conifers

June - timothy-grass, fescue

July-August – wormwood, buckwheats, nettle, plantain, sorrel

P.S. During pollen disease exacerbation, sensibility to any negative influences increases, risk of allergic reaction on dust, animals’ hair and medicines increases. The earlier you visit a doctor, the higher will be your chances to recover or stop the disease.

Remedies against pollen disease

Kestine: Children’s syrup with a comfortable dosage arrangement. Is used for seasonal or all-the-year-round nasal allergy, nettle-rash, allergic dermatosis itch, skin manifestations of food, medicine, contact allergy, nasal allergy under bronchial asthma treatment.

Analergin: Tablets in capsules. Are used during seasonal and chronic nasal allergy, allergic conjunctivitis, itch, chronic nettle-rash, giant urticaria, allergic dermatosises, accompanied by itch and eruptions.

Claritin: Tablets for adults, syrup for children. Prevents symptoms of allergy: sneezing, itch, nasal discharge, watering, itch and eye reddening.

Telfast: Tablets. Removes skin itch, skin intumescences and reddening.

Erius: Tablets and syrup for children. Struggles with sneezing, nose and eye itch successfully.

Yana Mikheeva is the creator of Baby Health Directory - Pregnancy, Birth, Parenting and Baby Care resources. Are you going to get pregnant? Visit our friendly resource and read information on pregnancy and parenting, painless childbirth, growth and development of a baby, baby health, safety, signs of pregnancy.

She also has All about women site where you can find articles on various subjects, such as: diets, receipts, health, cellulite, figure, aromatherapy, wholesome food, psychology of relationships, pregnancy, parenting, fashion and many others.

Other Articles:

Sources Of Antioxidants
What exactly are antioxidants? And why is it so vital to our core health? At the molecular and cellular levels, antioxidants serve to deactivate certain particles called free radicals. In humans, free radicals usually come in the form of O2, which is the oxygen molecule. The oxygen...

Tanning The Natural Way
This is a call to everybody. Save your skin, now before it's too late! Having a tan makes you look more healthy and gorgeous. But how do you do it without bad consequences? There are a lot of people who would like to have golden brown skin. It is not a new sight when people go to...

Brown Sea Vegetation - Not as Bad as You Might Think
Out of the three sea plant categories, the red sea plants, the green sea plants, and the brown sea plants, brown sea plants are the most commonly known around the world. Brown sea plants are found in the many kelp beds around the world, and are usually the ones we have to deal with...