Product Review: Children's Claritin

*Disclaimer: I received this product free as a BzzAgent. I do not receive compensation for my review and all views and opinions expressed are my own and given freely.*

While I love living in Oregon for the most part, this is a state with some serious pollen problems. I've gone outside to find my red Jeep completely yellow with pollen if that gives you an idea of what I mean when I say a serious pollen problem. Having allergies and living in Oregon means I am well acquainted with all brands and forms of allergy medications. My husband and I had hoped that our son would be blessed with no allergies, or at least develop them later in life, but that didn't happen. If you've never seen a very young toddler with allergies let me tell you, it is heartbreaking. We had been doing Children's Allegra, but when I had the chance to try out the Children's Claritin I couldn't say no.

First, the differences between the two. Allegra is a 12 hour dose whereas Claritin is a 24 hour dose, meaning the bug won't wake up completely miserable if I gave him a dose the day before. Claritin is sugar free, the Allegra is not, though both are dye free. Allegra had weird rules about what you can and cannot take at the same time as the Allegra (like no juice, which is a problem when you do smoothies for breakfast every single day), Claritin did not. So already off the bat Claritin is winning, and the Allegra is looking less and less appealing.

Now onto the really important stuff, how well did it actually work? To compare how well it worked on bad allergy days I gave my son a dose while I went medicine free (the things I do for science). His allergies typically present themselves with itching, watery eyes, sneezing nose, and a snotty nose. If they go untreated for about a day he will then develop a cough like he has a mild cold. Day 1 on Claritin was nice and sunny (a rarity for Oregon in April) so we took a half hour long walk around our neighborhood to both burn some energy and to test out the Claritin. No coughing, sniffling, or sneezing, which is a good thing, there was a touch of itchiness but I expected there to be some after he dove into a bush chasing after a squirrel. I on the other hand was a sneezey, drippy, snotty, and itchy mess dying to get home and take some Benedryl. Day 2 and 3 were pretty much the same, though with less itchiness on his part.

The Claritin works great, which is all I could ask for, has less bad stuff than the Children's Allegra, and didn't wind my son up like the Allegra did as well. I will for sure be switching over full time to the Claritin as soon as we finish up the Allegra. The only thing I wish they'd work on the flavor a bit, there was a sharpness to it that I didn't like though the bug didn't seem to mind it at all. If you're child has allergies, what do you do to combat the symptoms and keep them up and running around?