If your child always seems to have the snuffles, or suffers from a skin rash or itchy eyes, she may have an allergy. This guide could help you to pinpoint what it is. We look at some common causes and symptoms and suggest ways in which you and your child’s school can work together to help her.

(We have used ‘she’ for children. This is just to make it easier to read.)

What causes an allergy?

An allergy occurs when the body’s defence mechanism gets things wrong. Our bodies are designed to fight off germs. When our immune system spots a foreign body, such as a virus, it produces antibodies and these rush through the blood stream to the danger spot and attack the intruder. But sometimes the immune system makes a mistake. It detects a harmless substance like pollen and produces antibodies to attack it. The antibodies produce powerful chemicals and it’s these that trigger the symptoms of the allergy, like a skin rash, a runny nose or a wheezy chest.

Some common causes

Pollen

Hay fever is worst between May and September, when the level of pollen in the air is at its highest. Symptoms tend to show up in the mornings and evenings, when the air is cool and the pollen drifts close to the ground. During the day, when your child is at school, she may find her symptoms ease off, but damp days make things worse because, without the help of the warm air, pollen grains can’t drift away. Hay fever often comes on round about the age of ten and peaks in the mid teens. Symptoms include a runny nose, puffy, inflamed eyes and, in six out of ten cases, a wheezy chest. If your child suffers from asthma, stay on the alert during the summer months.

Here are some things you can do to help:

• Check the pollen count (local newspaper, radio, TV, etc.) and, if possible, keep your child indoors when it's particularly high.

• Discourage her from playing out of doors in the early evening when the pollen count peaks.

• Make sure she closes her bedroom window before she goes to sleep.

• Keep car doors and windows closed.

• Give her sunglasses and ask her teacher to make sure she wears them at play times.

• If she has asthma, find out how the school deals with medication and inhalers and make sure your child knows what to do and who to ask for help if she does suffer an attack. Warn her teacher that she may be more vulnerable to an attack during the hay fever season.

There's a wide range of preparations that you can use to control hay fever. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about suitable remedies for your child.

House dust mites

These tiny creatures thrive on moist humid conditions. They live in bedding, carpets and soft furnishings, feeding off flakes of human skin. There's a theory that house mites are on the increase because homes have become more comfortable. If your child has eczema, house mites may be contributing to the problem. They can also trigger asthma, a runny nose and hay-fever-like symptoms.

Here are some things you can do to help.

• Keep your windows open to prevent a build up of warm, humid air.

• Run the central heating a few degrees lower, especially in bedrooms.

• Dust with a damp cloth.

• Vacuum frequently, preferably when your child is not in the room.

• If the problem is severe, you can buy protective anti-allergy bedding for mattresses, duvets and pillows.

• Cut out soft furnishings wherever you can – have wooden floors, blinds and few cushions.

• Persuade your child to stick to one or two soft toys at a time and wash them regularly. Believe it or not, the best way to kill the mites is to put soft toys in the freezer, then wash them every few days.

Animals

Most pets shed ‘dander’ – microscopic particles of skin that can cause allergic reactions. Birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, gerbils, cats and dogs all produce dander. About a third of all allergy patients show some reaction to animals, so it's quite a common problem. Symptoms include runny nose, wheezing, sore eyes and rashes. The solution seems obvious. If your child is allergic to animals, don't keep pets. But if you already have a dog or a cat when the allergy first shows itself, it isn’t quite so simple. You have to decide whether the psychological distress caused by sending the pet away outweighs the physical discomfort of the allergy and, of course, every case is different.

The practice of keeping a class hamster has almost disappeared, but if your child does have an allergy to animals then you should inform the school.

Food allergies

There’s a lot of debate about the role of food in allergy, but there’s no doubt that some foods do trigger a strong reaction. Common ones are milk, dairy products, eggs, fish, shellfish, chocolate and wheat. The symptoms can be dramatic. Diarrhoea and vomiting, migraine, and skin rashes are the commonest. If you think your child suffers from a food allergy, try to work out what it is by cutting out likely foods and reintroducing them one by one. When you’ve found the culprit, make sure she doesn’t eat it again. That’s easy at home. You can get round the problem at school by providing a packed lunch. If she is going on a trip or residential visit, inform the school in writing of the nature of the allergy, its symptoms and any necessary treatment. That way teachers and carers can make sure she doesn’t come to harm.

Anaphylactic shock

Most allergic reactions are a nuisance rather than a real threat. But there is one, thankfully very rare, that can have more serious consequences. In this case it’s important that both you and your child’s school know exactly what to do. Anaphylactic shock is a violent and dramatic reaction to an offending substance. Tissues swell, breathing becomes difficult, blood pressure drops and the skin may puff up into weals and hives. The treatment is an injection of adrenaline, administered as soon as possible. Anaphylactic shock can be fatal if it's not treated quickly enough.

Of the many children who are allergic to peanuts or bee stings, only a tiny proportion run the risk of anaphylactic shock. But, because it’s serious, it's particularly important to make sure the school is well briefed about possible problems.

This is what you can do to help your school.

• Inform the headteacher and class teacher in writing of your child’s allergy.

• Give your child a badge or Medic Alert bracelet to wear at all times, alerting everybody to the risk of anaphylaxis.

• Check the school's policy on administering medication and make sure that adrenaline is easily available at all times. In some schools the class teacher is trained to administer the injection. In others it’s the responsibility of a welfare worker or another carer. Make sure that you, and the school, are clear about who does what.

To sum up

Allergies, in the main, are a nuisance rather than a threat to your child’s health. Once you have identified the trigger, think about practical ways to eliminate it from your child's life. Do keep your child’s school informed. If the allergy is mild, a word with the class teacher is sufficient. If it’s more serious, put it in writing. That way it can be circulated to dinner ladies, welfare assistants and other members of the school community who need to know. The most serious reactions are thankfully very rare, but they do need careful management.