How to deal with your child's allergies?

Children get allergies from coming in contact with allergens like dust ,pollen etc. Allergens can be inhaled eaten or injected or they can come in contact with the skin. Allergies tend to run in families, if a parent has an allergy, there is a higher chance that his or her child will also have allergies too. The risk increases if both parents are allergic.

If your child is allergic here are some tips to follow:

·        Keep windows closed during pollen season.

·        Keep the house clean and dry to reduce dust mites and mold.

·        Stop anyone from smoking near your child.

·        Check with your pediatrician for safe effective medicine that can help alleviate allergic symptoms.

·        Avoid foods with artificial color like Kissan jam, candy which has colour , boondi ladoo, jalebi, tandoori masala, chips, frooti, fanta etc.

      Avoid strong fragrances like room freshener, agarbatti, perfumes, citronella, mosquito repellents, bon fires etc

It great to maintain hygiene but it is also important for your kids to play in dirt because it prevents allergies and teaches your child’s immune system to become stronger. It’s better not to be a hygiene freak – always sanitizing, sterilizing etc. This only further weakens a child’s immune system instead of helping it. Indians have a strong digestive system in comparison to the people abroad since they have higher tolerance to bugs due to repeated exposure this leads to a more robust immunity. 

The so called hygiene hypothesis claims that the lack of exposure to early infectious agents in childhood causes the immune system to make mistakes in thinking that food protein is an invading germ. Doctors are of the view that we are creating allergies for our children by over cleaning our environment. The overuse of antibiotics also poses an issue by altering the microbial environment of the gut, thus the immune system has no exposure and causes it to malfunction and act inappropriately.

My son is allergic as well, he get this recurrent cough whenever the weather changes. The doctor puts him on anti-allergic syrup. I was an allergic child as well and I am hoping he grows out of it as well in due course of time. I cannot give him anything which has artificial colour or flavor, need to avoid burning of aggarbati, keep him away from dust and cigarette smoke, keep him away from strong fragrances like perfume and mosquito repellents. I have to make him use a N-99 mask in winters when the pollution in delhi gets worse.

Our city in Delhi needs to take drastic measure to counter the problems of pollution in our city. Our children are living in a gas chamber. We need to save our city and we all need to do our bit to counter pollution. Sensitize our children not to burn crackers, make our children walk (its good for them too) wherever the distance isn’t much, teach our children about the environment and how they can be instrumental in educating everyone around them about the measure they can take. 

Whenever my son walks into a shop and we have to make a purchase he refuses to take a plastic bag and wants to carry a jute bag/ cloth bag from home. He doesn’t let anyone litter outside on the roads. Stops people from using aggarbatti and dhoop, doesn’t burn crackers during diwali and prefers making a rangoli with home - made colour. Children are like sponges and learn really fast and stick to what they have been taught. We should encourage our children imbibe ways to save our environment because they are the future and have to face the consequences of the previous generations actions.

Tips to improve your child’s immunity:

  a) Ensure that your child gets sufficient sleep, lack of sleep cause decrease in immune cells which fight illnesses and cancer.

· b) Breast feed your baby for as long as you can as breast milk improves your child’s immunity.

· c) Make your child have more servings of fruits and vegetables

·  d) Don’t let anyone smoke in front of your child

   e) Ensure that your kids get ample exercise

· f) Maintain hygiene – make your kids wash hands before every meal and after using the bathroom and playing outside.

· g) Don’t use antibiotics unnecessarily as it causes  antibiotic resistance.

Inculcating all these measure mentioned above will help in boosting your child’s immunity.

“What about organic peanut butter?”

“It’s a slightly more expensive risk of anaphylaxis”

-          ANON