Any ideas to help with seasonal allergies?

My older son (non-ITPer) suffers from severe seasonal allergies. He is mostly allergic to birch and oak trees, all grasses and most fresh fruits. Anyway - I'm wondering if there is some type of natural remedy we can try to help him deal. He takes an allergy medication year-round (Zyrtec or Xyzol) and doctors have recommended that he do allergy shots but we have always resisted. He has a steroid nasal spray that he uses if things are really terrible, but he uses it sparingly, along with some eyedrops as needed. Anyway - I'm wondering if there's any homeopathic remedy that could help him, instead of all these drugs. He's very active and the allergies definitely get in the way of his outdoor enjoyment.

Thanks for any help!

I personally believe that people go way overboard with this natural treatment stuff. Your post got my attention because I am a male who had ITP which after years I finally traced to seasonal fall allergies. I tried drugs and nose sprays but they really didn't do that much to help my allergies or my ITP. After some agonizing decision making I decided to try allergy shots, knowing that there was not only a chance that this could "cure" me but could also make my condition much worse. I rolled the dice and won. My ITP has been under control for over 10 years. I'm not sure what your concerns are about allergy shots. I know that some people say all kinds of bad things about vaccinations, flu shots, etc. but I have never heard any horror stories about allergy shots unless there was some kind of a mixup and you got the wrong shot or the wrong dose. Allergy shots are really very benign. They do not contain any drugs that I am aware of, only very small amounts of the allergens you are allergic too. The shots start at very miniscule doses and work up to higher and higher doses, desensitizing your body to the allergens so you eventually get to the point where you are not allergic to them anymore. Two drawbacks are that you don't notice much improvement for quite a while until the shots work up to higher and higher doses and the other drawback is that you must probably continue them forever and forever (with more time in between shots the farther you go) as if you discontinue the shots there is some evidence that you will eventually fall back to being allergic again. These two drawbacks though are very minor compared to the benefits. They really do work very very well once you have built up a desensitization to the allergens and there really are no side effects or troubles with the shots themselves. It is very well worth doing and I really believe you are doing yourself a disservice by ignoring them and looking for natural remedies (which for the most part are a crock anyway). One more thing: Once you have built up a desensitiaztion to the alelrgens it is not necessary to take any drugs or nose sprays anymore if you don't want to. Please reconsider.

There is a homeopathic call Allergiplex that I have a number of friends that take and they swear by it during allergy season. You can buy it at www.pureformulas.com . It is $15 a box (at last check).

One thing you might consider - allergies are an overactive immune response to a substance. Another immune issue to consider since he has ITP (also an immune issue). If you do constitutional homeopathic treatment it would treat not only his ITP but also the allergies. My son had 40+ food allergies that have all gone away with treating his ITP homeopathically. Something to consider since it's just nice to heal the entire body and not deal with issues one by one. H-pathy deals with the body as a whole.