Guess who's coming to visit? An allergic guest!

December 4, 2002

You are to be commended for considering ways to help your sister enjoy her visit with you. These fun times of interaction and reminiscing for the allergy sufferer can also mean a dreaded exposure to something that will make them miserable.

How can we help our allergic guests?

Remember the three hallmarks of allergy treatment:

1. Avoidance
2. Medication
3. Injections

Allergy injections probably won't help much unless they were started several weeks or months prior to the visit. So we will concentrate on avoidance and medications.

Avoidance is the first line of defense against allergy. There are many degrees of avoidance. The most drastic, of course, would be to get rid of your cat and thoroughly renovate your home to remove traces of cat allergen. This way your sister has no worries when she comes to visit. But of course that is not the most reasonable choice to make.

A more reasonable choice would be to think of making your home as close to being "catless" as you and your cat are willing to do while she is visiting. Here are some possible options from more drastic to less drastic. You may not be willing to do the ones at the top, but find a comfortable starting place for yourself as you read the list below.

Avoidance Tips

1. Find a friend or family member who is willing to keep the cat for a couple days before your sister comes and throughout her visit.
2. If you can't leave the cat with someone, keep it outside during her stay.
3. If you can't keep it outside, keep it out of rooms where she will spend most of her time during the visit.
4. If you can't keep the cat away from her, wipe it daily with water or a conditioning product such as Allerpet while she is there. Provide a mask for her to wear while the cat is in the room where she is.
5. Before your sister's visit, have your carpet professionally steam cleaned, along with any upholstered furniture in your home. If that is impossible, steam clean it yourself.
6. If you cannot steam clean the carpet before she comes, begin vacuuming the whole house daily for at least a week before she is scheduled at come. Vacuum the whole house or at least the area she will be in again just before she arrives
7. Wipe walls and non-upholstered furniture with water or cleaner.
8. If the cat has access to the area where she will spend most of her time during her visit with you, concentrate especially on that area during the cleanup process.
9. Purchase a good hepa air purifier and keep it in the area where your sister will be visiting.
10. If you've been holding or petting your cat, change clothes before coming close to your sister. Cat hair tends to stick to clothing and is easily transported from one person to another.

In addition to avoidance, your sister may be helped by medications. She should seek the advice of her physician regarding medications and prescriptions, but here are some tips to help:

Medication Tips

1. Antihistamines can help during periods of exposure. Your sister should take her antihistamine for at least a couple days before her visit with you, and especially she needs to take it the days she is at your house.
2. If your sister's allergy includes asthma, she should be sure to take her asthma medication as prescribed, and bring her rescue inhaler with her.
3. If the visit is planned several weeks in advance, a cromolyn sodium inhaler may help prevent an allergic attack. It can take up to six weeks of use before the inhaler begins working, so it should be used well in advance of a planned visit. Cromolyn sodium inhaler is available without prescription, but your sister and others should ask their physician if cromolyn sodium is right for them before using it.

Finding Products

You can find some of the products we've recommended above through our sponsored link here.

For my response to this question from a different perspective, see:
Deciding whether to treat an allergy to cat

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