Information Awareness Report

Recently while visiting my parents in Maine my four year old son had a bad allergic reaction to something in their house. He was in the finished basement of the house when the symptoms suddenly kicked in. His eyes puffed up so badly he could hardly see. I realized I did not know what I could safely give him to relieve his symptoms. This happened the first night we were there and late enough in the evening that the area pharmacies were closed. I also did not know what caused the allergy and therefore how to prevent it from happening again.

After doing what we could to make him comfortable (moving him to the second floor to sleep, washing his face) my husband and I had a brief discussion about what to get for him. Clearly he needed some kind of medication to help with the puffiness. I knew Benadryl made a children’s formula and so did Claritin, but I didn’t know how old the child had to be. Some medications are only for six and older. Since Benadryl can make people very sleepy, I started investigating Claritin first. I opened up the browser on my parents’ computer and typed “Childrens Clairitin” into the box on Yahoo’s homepage. Yahoo very kindly asked if what I actually wanted was “children’s Claritin”. I clicked on that link and immediately got a result for www.claritin.com/claritin/kids/index which took me to the homepage for Claritin’s children’s products. From there I was able to determine that Claritin has formulations for children as young as two. Reading the box at the store confirmed that it should relieve his symptoms.

This solved my initial query about whether it would be safe to give Claritin to my son. However it did not resolve the other question about what could be the cause or what to do to prevent it from happening at all. Also I wanted another opinion about the safety and usefulness of Claritin besides the manufacturers. Rather than do another search on Yahoo, I turned to a website I use frequently for other childhood issues when our pediatrician is not readily available.

The website is called www.askdrsears.com and has pages and pages of information about everything child related. I started at the homepage and clicked on the “medicine cabinet” link at the top of the page. From there I clicked on “allergy medication”. However this took me to a page only about Benadryl. From that page I typed in “Claritin” into a search box in the upper left corner. That only got me a result about Claritin and breastfeeding which was not what I wanted. Finally I clicked on a link on the left side of the page labeled “childhood illnesses”. This brought me to an alphabetical index where I easily found “allergies” listed. That took me to a very long page with everything I wanted to know. It described common symptoms, causes, how to distinguish allergies from colds, prevention tips and finally, a comparison of various allergy medications. Claritin was still listed as a prescription medication for children (out of date) but was considered safe and effective. It also lasts for twenty four hours versus Benadryl which only lasts for 6-12 hours. Since the allergy situation with my son is hopefully temporary (my parents live out state and he does not have symptoms at our house) I opted for the Claritin to give him the longest, non-drowsy relief.

After all this, I felt my questions had been answered to my satisfaction, Benadryl and Claritin were both safe options to give my son and I had a list of possible causes (mold being the most likely) and steps to take to prevent it from happening again. I felt comfortable with the answers the Dr. Sears website gave me, even though the status of Claritin was out of date, because Dr. Sears is a pediatrician with a national reputation. In the past my son’s pediatrician has also confirmed other advice I have taken from the website.

I learned that I, like many other people, turn to the web first for information. In this case, I did not have many other options due to the lateness of the evening. If I had been at home I might have called my pediatrician’s answering service, but this did not occur to me until I was writing up the experience. I also could have questioned the pharmacist in the store the next day, but I didn’t think to do that either. I have become very used to being able to find what I want when I want to without waiting for anyone else. Partly this is due to my personality; I tend not to ask for help until I am absolutely, positively sure I can’t do it myself. Having grown up with the web, I am also used to the idea that all the information you need is out there somewhere, if you can find it.

Bookmarks for this assignment can be found at my delicious.com page http://delicious.com/aterry97