Environmental Allergies in young children?

My 4.5 year old started with a runny nose yesterday and when she sneezes, she lets it shoot out all down her mouth and chin (sorry tmi!) No other symptoms--like no coughing. She woke up in the night crying pathetically about her stuffy nose and after an hour I gave her some Dristan spray. About a month ago she had a pretty brutal sinus infection for over a week.



Now, I apparently have environmental allergies, which cause sinus infections extremely often (so I relate to her discomfort). I only developed these in the last few years. I'm afraid she could be developing the same problems. Do children of this age present with environmental allergies? I will probably just take her to the doc soon, but I'd like to hear some other parents' experiences. Would she be too young to start allergy shots? Spring is just beginning.....sigh.Environmental Allergies in young children?She could certainly have environmental allergies. It can occur in children as young as 1 year of age or so. One can do skin testing for environmental allergies from about age 1. For children less than 6 years of age, the skin test is usually less comprehensive than for older children/adults (maybe 10 tests-looking for cats, dogs, dust mites, and some pollens, vs 40-60 tests in an older individual).Environmental Allergies in young children?Take her to a doctor. They wouldn't test my daughter until she was 5, she is allergic to certain trees, grass and cats (we now have 2 cats and she is OK with them now, so long as she does not pick them up and hold them close to her face. I also dust and vacuum everyday to keep dust and dander down). Too much dust in the house can trap some of these. My daughter takes Zyrtec and uses a RX nasal spray called nasonex. But don't give her anything until you take her to a doctor.