When the Family Pet Makes Your Child Sneeze

Itchy and watery eyes, a stuffy or runny nose, sneezing and wheezing all add up to one miserable child. More than likely, this miserable child suffers from allergies. For some children, allergic reactions are caused by trees, mold and food. For others, the culprit is the family pet.

Each year, hoards of children are subject to allergy testing. "Allergy to pets is diagnosed by clinical history," says Marek Pienkowski, MD, Ph.D, an allergist and immunologist, in Knoxville, Tenn. Doctors look for "symptoms consistent with allergic disease with exposure to animals and allergy testing, either by the so-called 'skin test' or the Radioallergosorbent (RAST) blood test."

For animal owners, when the test results are positive for pet allergies, life as they know it comes to a screeching halt.

Elissa Sonnenberg, of Cincinnati, Ohio, watched her oldest son go through a 3-hour skin prick test to determine the source of his allergies. "Do you have pets?" the allergist asked. "We don't," said Sonnenberg. "Don't get any," she was told.

It seems like a simple solution. But by the time an allergy is detected, pets may already be full-fledged members of the family.

"By the time we knew it was the animals making [my daughter] sick, we had a dog, two cats, a hamster and a rabbit," says Jess Boetig, of Philadelphia, Pa. Because of the number of animals and the severity of the allergy, her family needed to find new homes for the pets. "It was really hard on us," says Boetig. "We knew it was necessary, but it was still hard."

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Talk About It
The first step towards lessening the blow of removing a pet from the family is communication.

"It's important to talk to the child," says Dr. Emily Soiderer, a veterinarian, in West Lafayette, Ind. "Tell her exactly what is going on, and what is going to happen to the pet."

Another way to alleviate separation stress is to get the child involved with finding the animal a new home. "[My kids] made the final decision on where each animal would go," says Boetig.

According to Dr. Soiderer, the ideal situation for both the children and the animal would be for a relative or family friend to take the pet. "That way they can maintain contact, and they know the animal is in a good home."

Another child friendly option would be a "no-kill" organization. Dr. Soiderer uses Animal Aid, a group in Brighton, Mich., as an example of a "no-kill" organization that will foster an animal until an appropriate home is found. She points out that these organizations are volunteer run, and their resources are limited. Because of this, non-profit organizations like Animal-Aid should be a last resort.

By knowing the people who will adopt your pet or by utilizing Animal Aid-type organizations, a family can rest assured that their pet is not being mistreated.

Sometimes, despite logical measures, a child is not able to emotionally cope with the separation on his own. In this case, grief counseling may be necessary.

"Even though the pet doesn't die it's still a major loss," says Dr. Soiderer. She points to telephone hotlines and family counseling as ways to deal with separation grief.

A list of grief and loss support hotlines is available at the American Veterinary Medical Association's Web Site. These hotlines are staffed by veterinary medical students who are specifically trained to deal with this type of emotional grief.