Hay fever and education
Hay fever might not be classed as a serious condition, but it does cause many youngsters a great deal of distress – after all, trying to concentrate on the events of the English Civil War or the difference between adjectives and adverbs when your eyes are sore and your nose is dripping like a tap is hardly easy. However, it’s the cumulative effect of several seasons of hay fever – that is, the fatigue, irritability and feelings of general malaise as well as the symptoms related to the upper respiratory tract – that can really affect a child’s education.
There is nothing worse for a parent than seeing your child suffer. Another very real concern is the long-term effects of giving medications to a child. The fact is, though, that hay fever medications, when taken prior to symptoms commencing, can work so well at reducing symptoms that allergy experts claim that their very minimal risks are worth their numerous benefits.
Hay fever and exams
After perhaps several years of tiredness and poor concentration in the classroom during the hay fever season – missed days off school, too, from time to time – a child or adolescent is hardly likely to absorb information in a way that is conducive to a favourable outcome where exams are concerned. In the UK there are plenty of important exams: SATS must be tackled at 7, 11 and 14 years of age, followed by GCSEs and A levels.
Added to this, the main time of year for taking school exams coincides with the peak season for the release of grass pollen – that is, from mid-May to the end of June. As a result, in examination rooms throughout the country (and indeed throughout the Western world), youngsters can be seen looking miserable and unwell, with cold-like symptoms that detract attention from the exam questions they are attempting to answer. Clearly, the effect on their achievements can be significant. Indeed, according to some studies around one in five children and adolescents sitting exams at any one time achieve worse grades than anticipated – and all due to hay fever.
An approximate 40 per cent of youngsters drop a grade between their mock and final exams, when the same grade or a grade up is expected. Of those taking a sedating antihistamine treatment, this figure is believed to rise to a staggering 70 per cent. It is a great shame that children and adolescents are still taking the older, sedating hay fever treatments, when improved, non-sedating ones are available, especially when the older ones have such an obvious detrimental effect. It is not only the attention span that is affected, but also working memory, speed, observation and carefulness. The youngsters concerned must find it difficult to stay awake during exams, let alone answer taxing questions. Fatigue, listlessness and reduced motivation are also problems. Moreover, a bad night’s sleep due to sneezing and a streaming nose is likely to affect adversely performance in exams the next day.
University exam times are similar to those in school, so students with hay fever are just as likely to be hampered by their symptoms. Consequently, exam results might also not be what they should have been.
Controlling symptoms
Because severe hay fever can impinge so greatly on a youngster’s education and ultimately their exam results, it is important that their symptoms are kept under control – and that non-sedating medication is used. Visits to the doctor’s surgery well in advance of the start of the hay fever season are advised, to talk about symptom control, to enable the most appropriate medication to be prescribed. Some people are able to get their symptoms under control only by using a combination of treatments, while others, more fortunate, find that only one type of medication is required, which is perhaps available over-the-counter (without prescription) from your chemist.
If you really want to avoid giving medications to a child, consider trying the anti-allergy diet, using herbal remedies and/or complementary therapies. Children and adolescents with less severe symptoms may be able to manage by using the self-help guidelines alone, and perhaps by making a few adjustments to their diet.
Once hay fever symptoms are under control, you (or your child) will automatically begin sleeping better at night. As a result, you will wake up refreshed and find it much easier to concentrate on revision as well as exams.