An Allergy Specialist in Birmingham, AL can help children who are sensitive to substances such as pollen, bee venom, animal dander, dust mites, soap and various kinds of foods. Allergies are extremely common as a health care issue, with some 50 million U.S. residents estimated to have problems with one or more substances. Children often outgrow certain types of food allergies, while others tend to last a lifetime. Kids who are allergic to pollen or other non-food items also tend to continue being afflicted during adulthood.
Allergy symptoms manifest in various ways ranging from mild to severe. One child may react to an allergen with a runny nose, other deals with itchy hives, and another youngster develops a shock reaction that can be life-threatening. Certain substances are more definitively connected with severe reactions than others are. Kids who are allergic to bee stings will likely need to always have an injection of epinephrine immediately available to prevent a serious reaction. Peanut allergies also tend to produce very serious symptoms. Contact allergies can cause minor to moderate rashes that, while not debilitating or life-threatening, are continually aggravating.
A reaction to a harmless substance is essentially a malfunction of the immune system, which mistakenly identifies the substance as dangerous. An allergy specialist in Birmingham, AL may recommend a series of shots that inject a tiny amount of the allergen into the body, allowing the immune system to gradually become accustomed to this allergen. Many children and adults experience significant positive results from this treatment as provided by a clinic like Alabama Allergy & Asthma Center, and no longer have to deal with hay fever or other unpleasant symptoms.
Another option is to take prescription medication that does not produce unpleasant side effects like many over-the-counter allergy drugs do. This does not resolve the allergy at the source, but can provide substantial relief. These types of solutions are very welcomed by families who hope to reduce allergy symptoms in their children. The family may be able to keep a beloved cat or dog, or continue to go camping in places where pollen is an issue at certain times of the year.
