How to do allergy shots without causing as flare?

[LaurenK]

has anyone sucessfully done this? My PANDAS child reacts to EVERYTHING.

[Fixit]

has anyone sucessfully done this? My PANDAS child reacts to EVERYTHING.

 

We just had our first full round of maintenance shots today...i am hesitant with his c vial to go a full 4 weeks.

So i am going to do c again in 2 weeks...do another round of full maintenance 2 weeks after that...

Then try to go 3 weeks between full maintenance for a few rounds and then into the 4 week interval.

 

in answer to your question.....

for my ds...he NEEDED allergy shots. It was a very difficult decision, but based on dh family history of what i have observed with them, it was the next logical step. ds allergies are just too bad.

 

We had tried every med in the book and it was like using a dixie cup on a fire.

So..i carefully started with singulair. Ds did not have any adverse reaction that i was aware of...i watched vigilantly for signs of ocd or depresstion...

However, i did not correlate singulair to ds' tics. i felt like the allergy shots may have even decensitezed him from being so hyper allergic to everything he touched...he seemed to take the edge off the first few shots.

Lately i was wondering if the shots getting to the highest concentration were now making him worse.

 

So, what i did, after posting to the board and getting some good responses was.

Continue the shots...we were to close to maintenance to stop now...and kept in mind how he was at the start.

Slowly, over the course of about a week stop the singulair.....i would say that was one of the things that helped ds get better recently. I noticed he had more of his "allergy" symptoms appear, though not as bad as prior years by far. After reading the threads on h1 and h2 blockers i decided to give zyrtec anouther try. Ds is already on tagament, so that would cover h2,,,you can try pepcid to cover h2, the two of them also work alittle different. if ds wasnt' on tag already, i would try the pepicd.... anyway the zyrtec did just what we needed it to do. And it seemed, since it does work different than singulair that his arms reacted a little better once we started the zyrtec...the dr even asked if we did something different with this round of shots. i told him i just started zyrtec that morning about 30 minutes before the shot..ds c vial was always brutal on him..

 

in summary..if i were you...jmo...i would start zyrtec and pepcid 3 days to a week prior to starting the shots to go give his system a little prep time.(i had started sing about aweek prior to shots...but now that i think it can also effect tics i would not suggest singulair...unless all else fails, then try)

 

for us, i am glad i have done the allergy shots. it took ds more than 1 1/2 years to finally get to maintenance...i am praying that we are on the home stretch with his recovery

[nicklemama]

We are considering embarking on allergy shots. DS has developed allergies over the past couple of yrs. Right now, the Claritin, Flonase and Patanol eye drops are working pretty well for him. His allergies aren't awful but they are bad enough that the allergist recommends the shots. We have elderly cats. DS has developed a mild cat allergy. The allergist told us it would take 3yrs to complete the shots. I'm trying to figure out how I could get him to once a week shots for a yr.

[Fixit]

We are considering embarking on allergy shots. DS has developed allergies over the past couple of yrs. Right now, the Claritin, Flonase and Patanol eye drops are working pretty well for him. His allergies aren't awful but they are bad enough that the allergist recommends the shots. We have elderly cats. DS has developed a mild cat allergy. The allergist told us it would take 3yrs to complete the shots. I'm trying to figure out how I could get him to once a week shots for a yr.

 

 

I'm not sure if you are asking...but the shots are once a week. But because my ds is so allergice and pandas, i decided to use dr b in Ct as he is familiar panda kids and would be gentle going with his immune system. And i have heard of people getting a flare when starting the shots and have discontinued. Dr B start ds on uber low dose and i think that helped alot. it took ds 1yr 7 1/2 months to get to maintainence..that is every week folks. i think we only skipped 2 becuse of thanksgiving and once as a b-day gift because ds is just over it. we now get to skip next week (wha hoo)....

and will be at every 3 weeks soon. now other kids might ok going right to maintainence at 4 week intervals...but we decided we have come too far and ds is too seneitive to jump that far into treatment. I am looking forward to saving $45 a month in co-pays just for that!!!!

oh...as far as continuing...i think we will have 3 years at once a month to go.

i have heard of people who need to do them again after they have stopped for a couple of years...ie my dh's brother.

 

I was originally going to try sublinguals. i have heard good things about those and are becoming more available. you do those at home, every morning. but i have heard that the success rate is just a bit less than traditional shots. I just need to help ds the best i could to get a good result.

you might want to look at those if your child is not as bad as mine. they cost a little more for the allergens, but you don't have to drive anywhere and there is no co-pay.....so you actually come out ahead.

Edited April 7, 2012 by Fixit

[nicklemama]

I know its weekly for a yr. The allergist told me it would be once a week for a yr, every other week for a yr and then once a month for a yr. It seems daunting to go once a week for a yr. I'm not sure we are going to do it this yr. I can't keep DS out of flairs. He sees a biomed dr in a week and a half and I'm going to talk to him about it. We are considering another IVIG, at this point and I will not do the allergy shots until well after IVIG.