Allergic rhinitis is a long-term problem. It takes time and effort to control allergies through home treatment.

Avoid allergens

By avoiding or reducing your contact with allergens, you may be able to reduce your allergy symptoms and manage them without medicine or with fewer medicines. Controlling your contact with allergens and reducing your symptoms may also make it less likely you will develop complications such as sinusitis. You do this by:

• Controlling dust and dust mites, which includes dusting regularly and washing bed linens in hot water.
• Controlling animal dander and other pet allergens, which includes restricting pets to certain areas of your home.
• Controlling indoor molds, which includes cleaning bathtubs and showers monthly.
• Avoiding outdoor pollens, which includes staying inside while pollen counts are high.

For more information, see:

Allergies: Avoiding indoor triggers.

Allergies: Avoiding outdoor triggers.

Manage symptoms

If avoiding allergens does not relieve your symptoms or is not possible, you:

• May try taking over-the-counter allergy medicines such as chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton, for example), diphenhydramine (Benadryl, for example), or loratadine (Claritin, for example) to relieve symptoms. Don't give antihistamines to your child unless you've checked with the doctor first.
• Treat a stuffy nose by using decongestants or cleaning your nasal passages with saline solution (salt water). Don’t give decongestants to a child younger than 2 unless you’ve checked with the doctor first. If your child’s doctor tells you to give a medicine, be sure to follow what he or she tells you to do.
• May be able to prevent or manage mild sinus infections by keeping the air in your home moist and drinking plenty of liquids.

It is helpful to track your symptoms and how they affect you, such as when they keep you from sleeping, make it difficult to concentrate, or make you sleepy. Also track your allergens and how long after exposure to them you develop symptoms. This information will help your doctor prevent and treat the problem. You can keep a symptom diary (What is a PDF document?) to track this information.