Coping with Grass Allergy: Our Top 10 Tips
Grass pollen allergy is more formally called seasonal allergic rhinitis. With it, you’ll get symptoms that include runny nose, congestion and, more often than not, watery eyes. Those who are severely allergic, may get hives with grass pollen contact and, on occasion, even anaphylaxis if grass proteins get into the blood system due to scraped skin.
Top 10 Tips For Managing Grass Allergy:
1. Let’s get obvious: don’t mow the lawn, delegate. Ah, you live alone, there’s no one to delegate to. In that case, allergists advise Allergic Living that it’s best to: take an antihistamine before mowing and wear an N95 protective mask.
2. Keep the lawn short, that way, it’s not pollinating. (Grass pollinates through the air, not by insects like showy flowers. This is why it gets so easily into the nasal passages and eye ducts.)
3. Check your local forecast and pollen count every day. On high grass pollen count days, head for the mall or take in a movie; not a good time to be outdoors. Damper days are better: the wetness holds the pollen on the ground.
4. Cool your home with a combination of closed blinds and drapes and air conditioning. It’s important to keep the windows shut to keep out grass pollen, which pollinates for most of the summer.
5. Change your clothes when you coming in from a few hours outside. Washing your clothes frequently will reduce your personal pollen load.
6. Change the clothes frequently of babies and toddlers, so you don’t inhale the pollen they’ve picked up. Also, wipe off the dog’s fur and bathe the animal (more frequently than he’ll care for) during the summer.
7. The heck with that outdoors smell: do not hang out your just-washed laundry in the pollen-filled summer breeze.
8. Don’t tough it out, seek medication relief and enjoy your summer. Start by trying a newer, non-sedating antihistamine for daily control during the height of grass pollen season.
9. If antihistamines alone don’t help enough, visit your allergist and ask about nasal corticosteroid sprays. These can be highly effective. You may also be a candidate for allergy shots (immunotherapy), for relief in the years to come. For eye symptoms, your allergist can prescribe good eye drops.
10. When your grass-allergic child will be playing on grass, aside from taking medications, he/she should wear cool but long pants when possible to avoid contact.
In better news, high grass-pollinating season ends with the arrival of August.
Donnie
I’m allergic to grass, and some foods in the grass family. My corn allergy is quite severe, and I’m also allergic to sorghum, millet, wild rice and have a mild allergy to cane. I can eat brown rice without any reactions. I don’t think I’m allergic to wheat, rye, barley, but I have Celiac and can’t eat them anyway. Oats may be a problem either way. Grass pollen is hard to avoid in season. I can’t avoid corn, because it is literally dumped into almost every food, or used to process or package foods. Many non-food products contain corn in one form or another, including cornstarch on bathroom tissue and facial tissue. That is hard on someone with hayfever and G.I. allergy symptoms.
Alvaro
Claritin is weaker than Zyrtec but less lekily to cause drowsiness.Zyrtec is about as strong as Benadryl and less lekily to cause drowsiness than Benadryl, but it does make some ppl drowsy.If Claritin is too weak and Zyrtec makes you drowsy, you will have to reduce your exposure or suffer until you get a prescription. Nasalcrom is OTC and useful for some ppl, but only if its used 4 times daily so this medication does not make sense for ppl who have allergies for many months of the year. It prevents but does not reverse allergy so you have to use it for a few weeks before you feel the difference, unless you start it before the exposure.In the meantime consider using a Neil-Med sinus rinse, a HEPA vacuum, washing the cats (or cleaning them with Aller-pet) frequently, keeping the cats out of the bedroom. If you keep the windows closed to keep out the pollen (usually a good idea in spring) you will also trap in the cat allergens, so only do that if you also use a good air filter in your bedroom (like the 3m filtrete or honeywell never use an air filter that makes ozone, please).sounds like your bf is a perfect candidate for allergy shots. they are scientific and really work.