Allergies

Baby Girl has another cold.  Who would've thought, huh?  We were actually healthy for a week or two, but then she went back to the sitter's (the sitter took a vacation), where one of the other kids had a snotty nose and a cough.  And now, guess what?  She's got a snotty nose and a cough.  She's really handling it well and it's only cut a couple of naps short, but she is overall sleeping fine.  I'm hoping she's on the uphill now--we'll see.  As usual, if it doesn't clear up some by mid-week we'll be heading to the doctor to have her ears checked.

Oh, and now I've got a runny nose.  I was blaming it on allergies yesterday, but today I'm not so sure. 

This brings to me to my ongoing question--to medicate or not?

I was having this debate mostly when I thought it was allergies.  You see, before getting pregnant, I was on four different allergy medications with limited success.  I am allergic to just about every environmental allergen out there and the worst part is that it settles into my ears and causes major ear pain and dizziness.  Oh, and my other allergy sufferers have runny eyes and nose and sneezing, making it obvious they're suffering...and I don't.  So that sort of sucks.

But since getting pregnant and then nursing full-time I haven't dealt with much as far as allergies go.  I've had days where I felt stuffy or had some ear pain, but it was never as bad as it had been--yay!  Unfortunately, it seems that whatever those hormones were doing to keep me from suffering has stopped working and now I need to make some decisions about whether I should start taking some medications.  The medications that I would think would be the safest for nursing (since I am still nursing once a day), nose sprays, aren't classified as particularly safe.  And the pills are going to do some drying and I fear they will impact my supply (which is pretty much non-existent anyway).  So I could take the meds right after nursing Baby Girl and hope that she doesn't get much through the milk the next evening, which is what I'm leaning toward. 

The biggest problem, though, is that I'm frustrated that there isn't a single doctor that can help with both symptoms and knowing what's safe for nursing.  Even my OB/GYN didn't seem to know for sure what meds are safe during nursing.  My primary care physician looks it up in a book, which is more than any other doctors I've had.  My allergist, though, didn't seem to know what would be safe when I'd asked him previously, which is why I haven't been back to see him since 2008 (besides the trip for Baby Girl's allergy testing).  I need someone who can look at my allergy symptoms and suggest medications that will work well and will also be safe for Baby Girl.  There are suggestions out on the web, but I would prefer to get it from a doctor who can see the whole picture.  I suppose that's where a holistic doctor would come into the picture...but they don't seem particularly apt to prescribing meds, which, in this case, I need!

Just frustrated, I suppose.  I'm not looking forward to suffering through the next 7-8 months without any allergy meds.  I'll do what I have to do, but am hoping I can find some sort of happy medium that won't harm Baby Girl but will help me with my symptoms.