Male: If a kid had allergies, do we have to give medicine every time the kid has an allergy or I guess sometimes you just let it ride its course, what will be the best approach for this?
Dr. Marcus: The symptoms of allergies can be runny nose, colds and coughing and the degree to which we treat those symptoms is dependent upon how uncomfortable the child is and how sick the child becomes. Mild allergy symptoms that are tolerable don’t really require any treatment other than trying to minimize exposure to things that the child is allergic to. More severe allergy symptoms may require treatment because they can be predecessors to things like sinus infection and asthma.
Male: In a house, are there some things you could do to make the house less of a problem for kids with allergies?
Dr. Marcus: The house is the first area that we focus on when children have allergies because the earliest things children become allergic to are indoor things such as dust, molds, and pets. Eliminating exposure to these things indoor then is a very important part of improving allergy symptoms. Controlling dust is one of our major focuses. We have learned that dust and the constituents of dust are a very important trigger for allergies in children and measures to control dust exposure are things that we review with parents frequently. Some of these measures can be things as easy as cleaning more often. You want to clean the house frequently especially focusing on the child’s bedroom. Try to minimize the use of rugs and carpeting since these tend to accumulate and trap dust more easily and more difficult to keep it dust free. Eliminating stuffed animals from the children’s room and from their bed is another important thing. And a very important place for dust is accumulating and children are exposed is in the mattress, the box spring and the pillows in the bedding. For mattresses and box spring and pillows we recommend having you put these things, mattress, pillow box spring into mattress covers that are made of either plastic or vinyl and that totally zipped around. By doing these, the mattress is fully incased in the cover and any dust that has accumulated in the mattress will not be exposed to the child. Beddings should be cleaned frequently and should be changed every two to three days. Changing your bedding once every one to two weeks would not be sufficient for maintaining the dust control.
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