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It's hard to comment on what might be issues for you. Common allergens are ragweed, chenopod, cottonwood, sage. Here's a link to Boise Valley Asthma and Allergy Clinic that gives regular reports during allergy season on what the current culprits are. My biggest issues are with sage in the fall and this past fall was pretty bad for me and DH who rarely has allergy issues. Then again I've had seasons with relatively little discomfort.
Additionally, a while back my dad cut his Christmas visit short and went back to Palm Springs as his arthritis was too uncomfortable in the damp humidity that accompanied a snow storm that blew in.
I would advise against all the synthetic drugs to treat these problems. I was born with a bad asthma when I was young and had horrible allergies. I have since changed the way I eat and take lots of natural supplements and remedies and I can resist most of the onslaught of allergies and illness regardless if I am in the jungles of Africa (way worse than Greenville probably with biodiversity of trees/pollen) or if I am in the deserts of Idaho.
Have you ever considered putting your daughter on a gluten free diet? Have you thought about eating organic foods and also avoiding pasteurized dairy products. Sometimes a vegetarian diet is a good option, not that meat is bad for you, but rather all the antibiotics, hormones and high Omega 6 fat content, as well as other junk in the meat may ignite many of the problems you are speaking about. I would seriously advise you to try to modify your daughter's eating habits as well as look into natural remedies before packing your bags.
Try to think outside the box. Doctors and pharm industry kept me sick for years. It wasn't until I researched alternative therapies and looking at my diet that I was free of these ailments. Remember, your body is fueled almost entirely by the food you eat and water you drink. Many forget about that and just run to the next miracle drug to cure the problem. Personally, I think running to another place to live will be actually a way to mask some serious health issues that your daughter has, that very likely should be remedied wherever you live.
Feel free to PM me if you need any advice.
I do pray that your daughter can overcome these problems, just as I did.
From someone who used to live in the DC area and has been subject to all kinds of allergies I can tell you it really doesn't make much difference unless your allergies are limited to specifically the kinds of vegetation/pollen that grow back there. I have hayfever here in the Boise area and I had it there. Sage about does me in in the fall, unless we have some wet weather to keep the pollen from spreading in the air. The first year I moved to the Boise area it about killed me during that time of the year. Fortunately even though it still bothers me my body developed somewhat of a tolerance for it. Here agricultural chemicals, smoke from distant fires (or maybe not so distant) will be a concern as the aforementioned sage and ragweed, etc. The bottom line is that if you have people who are that sensitive to pollen/allergies there probably isn't ANY place that is going to help much, other than an artificial sterilized environment. My recommendation is to see an allergy specialist and have them do a test on a wide variety of grass, pollen, etc. so you can get a list of exactly what they are and are not allergic to.
Sage about does me in in the fall, unless we have some wet weather to keep the pollen from spreading in the air. The first year I moved to the Boise area it about killed me during that time of the year. Fortunately even though it still bothers me my body developed somewhat of a tolerance for it.
In my experience, it isn't so much the rain that clears the air from sage. DH said he thought that made a difference for him, but for me, not so much. Just at Steve D has stated in the weather/allergen report, it's the first hard frost that seems to nip it and my sniffles in the bud. So if sage is your nemesis, you may have to wait until fall for relief! I wish I could say I'd developed some resistance afterall these years.
You know, Boise was rated one of the best places to live in the country for allergies. Even on Boise's worst days, it can't compare to how horrible southern allergies are... Mold, pollen, chemical plants, dust mites, roaches (yes, allergic reactions to roaches are bad and common) to name a few. Because of the high levels of humidity here, bad air is a constant.
Please don't tell people how bad the air is in Boise, or how bad it can get, when you have no idea how the place they are from compares.
Winters are horribly dry; my ex girlfriend used to get cracked skin on her hands every winter. My nostrils crack and bleed because of it.
It's hard to compare allergies here and in South Carolina. They're likely very different. We have a lot of sage and pollen which your family may or may not be susceptible to. Also consider the smoke from wildfires, the inversion during the winter and spring, and the rather long springs we have (longer allergy seasons).
Best speak to an expert. But yes, winters are extremely dry here. Perhaps not as bad as the southwest, but certainly worse than the eastern seaboard.
We are building a new home and, since the air so so dry, we are having a humidifier put on the furnace. It's a couple hundred dollars and will keep the relative humidity in the home at a more friendly level. If your children need moist air, I recommend that easy fix. Just an option if Idaho seems to fit your needs in all the ways except humidity.
Also, we are building North of Boise, so, when the inversion moves in, we are above it.
Last edited by Becca.thompson; 04-14-2015 at 06:55 PM..
Reason: Forgot to add something about the inversion
Here is our experience. I have allergy reactions to grass weeds trees and dust..... We just left Florida last summer to leave the humidity, I had few allergies there despite measuring 4s on grasses and weeds, the lawns in FLA are different than elsewhere. We went to southern Az for a few months, my allergies were terrible there, grass? no grass grew there. weeds? probably. Trees, few trees if any...mesquite, palo verde...dust...yes, LOTS of dust.
Scroll forward, we are now up in the Blue Ridge Mtns you can see from where you are, we are near Asheville, got here when the trees were bare and the grass was dormant. Todays allergen alert is no grass/weeds, trees medium and mold high. Very little hay fever right now, but the trees are in bloom, flowers in bud. No daily zyrtec or claritin right now, nostrils good, hands good. In Az my hands and nose were dry and had to use daily inhalers.
Boise? I predict that the drier air could work out fine for you, dust might be your worst problem, not near as many trees, grasses there as around these parts, but the weeds might be higher. I suggest you take her in to the allergist and get her skin tests done to see what exact things are here triggers. The shots are so long term and time consuming expensive and there is no guarantees that more allergies dont crop up later on. I am no medical person, I just live the allergy-person life myself.
For those in Boise with allergies, how are things going this spring season for you? I've been following the pollen counts and they seem fairly high. I know that there's no way to predict how any specific individual will respond in a new environment. I'm just looking for subjective impressions of the current spring allergy season. (I increasingly think it's unlikely that another relocation would help me significantly.)
Unfortunately you can not escape allergies, all you can do is hope to treat the symptoms. I can't think of anyplace that there is not something that affects your immune system. Yes, immune system, most allergens are harmless, it's your immune system responding to them.
There are people who can not handle a wet climate, just as there are those that can not handle a dry climate; then again there are those that can't handle the cold and others the heat. But I guarantee you that if one is hyper-sensitive to allergens there is probably only a couple of places that are safe. That would be the South or North Pole and even then I wouldn't guarantee it.
Now as far as the Treasure Valley, one has to remember that this is high desert with a large amount of agriculture that produce pollen and surrounded by a excellent source of tinder capable of inundating the valley with smoke.
Now I love it here and wouldn't live anywhere else and I have lived in most of the various climates in the US. Yes I have "allergies" but I just live with them.
I have a friend that has been having issues with his already, but my allergies won't typically kick in until June and September since my allergies are more grass and sagebrush allergies. This weather website tracks the most common pollen counts that people are allergic to so it might help. You should be able to compare our area with another area of the country to guage the difference/similarities.
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Just at Steve D has stated in the weather/allergen report, it's the first hard frost that seems to nip it and my sniffles in the bud. So if sage is your nemesis, you may have to wait until fall for relief! I wish I could say I'd developed some resistance afterall these years. 
