Hay fever

Up to 20 percent of the U.S. population suffers from hay fever, which has an underestimated but significant impact on quality of life. Hay fever is the body’s response to environmental allergens. Symptoms include sneezing, runny, itchy and/or stuffy nose, postnasal drip, itchy, watery eyes and dark circles under the eyes (allergic shiners). If left untreated, hay fever can lead to snoring, recurrent ear infections, sinus infections, sinus headaches, asthma attack, eczema flare-up and more.

The allergy specialists at Cohen Children's Medical Center are dedicated to identifying and treating your child's allergies. In order to provide appropriate treatment options, it's important to identify the environmental triggers of hay fever. These triggers can be indoor (dust mites, animal dander, cockroach droppings, mold) or outdoor allergens (tree, grass, and weed pollen) or both. Our team will take a thorough history and perform skin testing and/or special blood tests (ImmunoCaps) to provide an accurate diagnosis. Testing can be performed for children of all ages.

We provide in depth counseling on diverse treatment options, which are tailored to your child’s needs based on symptoms and test results.

Treatment methods include:

• Avoidance measures of the identified triggers 
• Medications such as antihistamines, specific nose sprays and eye drops for symptom control
• Allergen immunotherapy, which works by administering gradually increasing amounts of certain allergens, achieving long-term tolerance. Allergen immunotherapy is available in the form of injections (SCIT, subcutaneous immunotherapy) and tablets (SLIT, sublingual immunotherapy)

Our expert allergists can help you determine the best treatment option for your child in order to achieve the best quality of life.