Bright Futures

Here in the Valley, spring usually brings baseball games, time outside and enjoyable temperatures. Along with these also comes pollen allergies that may interfere with your child’s ability to enjoy the outdoors. As summer approaches and temperatures warm up, many families look to outdoor water activities to beat the heat — and with summer, comes a new wave of seasonal allergies.

Has your child had to miss out or leave an event due to constant sneezing, itchy eyes or runny nose? Has your child’s asthma or eczema become worse, leading to more frequent doctor or hospital visits? Phoenix Children’s Allergy & Immunology Clinic is here to help! Many issues can be prevented by identifying your child’s triggers and learning how to best manage them.

Hay fever, coined in the early 1800s since the “odor” of hay seemed to cause symptoms, is known medically as allergic rhinitis. Those with eye symptoms may also have allergic conjunctivitis. Symptoms include:

• Itching in the nose, roof of mouth, throat, and eyes
• Sneezing
• Stuffy nose (congestion)
• Runny nose
• Tearing eyes
• Dark circles under the eyes

When these symptoms are present, our team can perform simple tests to determine what indoor or outdoor allergies are present. This can include testing the blood or skin testing. Based on skin testing patterns, common outdoor triggers seen in Phoenix and Scottsdale include Bermuda grass, Timothy grass, Russian thistle (a weed), lambsquarters (a weed) and ash tree. 

In June, it is common to find higher levels of ragweed and palo verde outdoors. When you know what your child is allergic to, you can better avoid these triggers. Occasionally, no allergies are present on testing and other causes or testing is then recommended.

For accurate pollen and mold counts, Phoenix Children’s Allergy/Immunology Clinic has partnered with Mayo Clinic Arizona to establish a program in which samples are collected from each location and reported to the National Allergy Bureau. You can subscribe to the National Allergy Bureau’s email alerts here.

Many parents (and children) dislike taking daily medications for their allergies. For some, the mediations aren’t effective. Thus, in addition to prescribing medications, we also offer allergy shots to help provide long term relief and “tolerance” to prior allergens.

Expanding access to allergy/immunology care

Phoenix Children’s Allergy & Immunology Clinic has locations across the Valley and offers treatments for a variety of conditions including allergies (seasonal, animal, food, and medications), asthma, eczema, immune deficiency and more.