From natural options to nettles: Putting hayfever 'cures' to the test 

When her 10-year-old son gets hayfever symptoms for the first time this summer, Esther N McCarthy, leaps into mammy mode to try to cure him. They trial homoeopathic remedies, high-tech household gadgets and good old-fashioned nettles.

Apropos of nothing, the ten-year-old gets hay fever this summer for the first time.

Selfish, some might call it. Suddenly, all the warnings and the precautions and the cures become more than background statistics and the difference between a fun summer frolicking through fields and a miserable one where I can’t ban Son Number One (SNO) from the screens because he has to stay inside.