Benadryl - could it be making it worse?

[parents4eyes]

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Edited September 8, 2010 by parents4eyes

[peglem]

We are giving our daughter Benadryl for another condition. She had been taking it nightly for 2 1/2 months when all the problems (OCD/ rages) started. We stopped the benadryl thinking the long term use was affecting her brain. She was off the benadryl for a month before we got the PANDAS diagnosis. A week later we started the benadryl up again (because her other condition worsened). We have only seen insignificant improvements in her behaviors after being on antibiotics for three weeks. I wonder if the Benadryl could be interfering. (We always us dye free.) Most our docs say it will not, but one doc says that it can cause mental issues with children. Have any of you experienced problems with benadryl? We give it to her at night and it puts her out because of that I always assumed that it was not causing anxiety.

Benedril makes my daughter ragey- then it knocks her out. We don't use it anymore.

[thereishope]

As with any allergy meds, each child reacts different to them. Like peglem said, some may get rages or some get hyper or sleepy on Benadryl. But, then for my son, he's the opposite...dye free Benadryl is the best allergy med for him. He doesn't even get sleepy on it. He gets hyper after being on Claritin for 10 days. So, if you think it's adversly affecting her, it may be time to try something else.

[kimballot]

I agree with Vickie and Peglem - all kids respond differently to allergy meds. Try to find meds that are dye free, of course, and liquid is better at a young age because you can adjust the dose more easily. It is very important to keep an objective log of behaviors when you change any meds., so you can go back and look for trends over time.