How to Know if You Have Covid or Allergies

March 14, 2022 Post a Comment

Understanding the Differences Between Allergies and COVID-19

If your child has a cough, a sore throat, and a runny nose, you lot probably wonder: Is it allergies or could it be COVID-xix?

Allergy flavour has kicked off earlier this twelvemonth than usual. This ways that all of the fourth dimension families are spending outdoors while social distancing could exist leading to symptoms that look similar to COVID-19, the coronavirus that is making so many people sick in the area. But in many cases, these symptoms are really triggered by a reaction to pollen or grass.

Dr. Subhadra Siegel the managing director of the Allergy and Immunology Program at Boston Children'southward Health Physicians, says it'southward important for parents to know how to tell the departure between allergies and illnesses, such as the flu and COVID-19, and so they can respond appropriately.

Listening to the symptoms

"Right now many people are broken-hearted and concerned with COVID-nineteen existence and then widespread," Dr. Siegel says. "But I tell parents that while the symptoms of allergies and COVID-nineteen can be like, there are some concrete means to tell which one their child is experiencing so they volition know how to treat it."

Here are several differences that can be important clues:

An illness similar COVID-19 causes a system-wide response, while an allergy, which is an overreaction of the allowed system in response to exposure to a trigger, is unremarkably more than localized. For instance, a child with a influenza or COVID-19 may have a fever, body aches, chills, a sore throat, weakness, and respiratory symptoms. Someone with allergies will exist more likely to accept the symptoms centered on the nose, eyes, and throat, and they commonly won't have a fever.
"Allergies cause itchiness: itchy eyes, itchy nose and sneezing, and a tickle in the throat," she says. Itchiness is usually not a symptom of illness.
COVID-nineteen doesn't seem to cause much in the way of nasal symptoms, Dr. Siegel says. That means if your kid is sneezing a lot, it's more than likely allergies, a common cold, the flu, or another disease that isn't related to COVID-nineteen.
Children with allergies may also take asthma, which tin can cause wheezing, cough, and breast tightness. While many people with COVID-19 also have a cough and chest tightness or difficulty breathing, most of the time this isn't accompanied by wheezing, Dr. Siegel says.

Managing allergies with medication

For a child with allergies, your medico may recommend using allergy medications to prevent or manage the symptoms. This tin can include antihistamines (a medication that blocks histamine, a chemical your body releases when exposed to a trigger), nasal corticosteroids (prescription medications that relieve symptoms past reducing inflammation in your nasal passages), and if your child also has asthma, a rescue asthma inhaler (this contains a medication that opens airway passages) and inhaled corticosteroids (this reduces the inflammation in your airways).

Ways to manage seasonal allergies at habitation

Have your kid clothing a hat and sunglasses to prevent pollen from getting in their eyes.
Remove your child's wearing apparel as before long every bit they come indoors and launder them to remove allergens.
Leave shoes at the door and then your family unit doesn't track allergens through your dwelling house.
Wash your child's hands and face as soon every bit they come up in from the outdoors.

When allergies and illness co-exist

Remember that children with seasonal allergies can still get sick. "With chronic nasal congestion, people don't clear germs as well from the olfactory organ. Therefore, they can go more viruses and those viruses can linger longer," Dr. Siegel. This means that if your child has allergies and then gets new symptoms that don't answer to allergy medications, it's important to bank check with your pediatrician.

Anyone who has any illness symptoms must make certain to quarantine at abode to avert spreading the germs.

Schedule a telehealth visit

Most BCHP pediatricians are now seeing patients remotely using telehealth visits to assess symptoms. In some cases, your child may need to go become a flu or strep test to rule out these other illnesses. COVID-19 tests are still limited, so your pediatrician will advise y'all on whether your child needs testing. BCHP physicians can also prescribe allergy medications remotely.

Learn more nigh our telehealth visits.