Allergies & Hives

[janette]

My 14yo DD developed Hives Saturday, she took benadryl and that worked for a little while but they came back and started spreading covering her torso. Benadryl didn't work so we went to the ER. They gave her some IV medications and said it was an allergic reaction, the medication worked great and although they didn't completely go away they were much improved. Gave her predisone & said to keep using the Benadryl.

Today they've kept coming back and we've managed to keep it controlled with Benadryl every 4hrs but they start spreading at the end of the dosage period. I'm going to take her in to our regular Dr tomorrow and see if there is more we can do, she's got tests this week and the combination of itchy and drugged won't help her much.

Wondering if anyone has some experience with treatments that worked, most things I've found and the Drs said they usually can't find the cause but how do they stop them? Will we need to get to an allergist and hope they can find it?

TIA.

 

[agnes!]

Wow, this sounds very scary, sorry that your DD & the entire family are going through this.

I'm not sure what I would do in your situation...seems like it isn't an allergy to something she ate, wouldn't the hives have stopped when the allergens passed through her system? I would make an appointment with an allergist as well as you regular doctor.

You might want to consider doing a complete allergen "wipe" of anything she has contact with which would consist of any/some of the following...
Strip her bed, wash the sheets with Ivory Soap or something similar, put a zippered anti-allergy mattress cover on, dry in a hot dryer or line dry.
Wash all her clothes in a similar fashion...it could be a change in detergent/fabric softener...
Have her discontinue all her usual body lotions, including roll-on anti-perspirant/deodorants. She should only use perfume-free, known allergen-free lotions like Cetaphil (don't know about the anti-perspirant brands, but maybe powder would work?)
You might want to consider her foods. One year one of my nieces developed an allergy to chocolate and certain food dyes after Halloween and before Thanksgiving. Could she have eaten too much Easter candy(full of chocolate and lots of food dyes...)? Her diet might need to get fairly bland before you can rule out a food allergy.
Over the counter Claritin or a generic equivalent wouldn't make her sleepy like Benadryl.

Good luck. Please update us with any news.
agnes!

 

[Fan2CSkr]

Where are the majority of her hives? Do they go away and reappear or stay there but just feel better due to the meds? What kind of steroids? Was it a medrol pak or prednisone the later are available in 5 diff. strengths thats the call right there is the dosage right and has it started working in her sysyem right. If she is uncomfortable and they keep popping out there are better antihistamines that work better than benadryl. Atarax for certain reaction types and maybe zyrtec (less side affects)

Allergies and hives are hard to treat sometimes and each individual responds differently. Best would be to get her back to the Dr so he can have a look and maybe change a few things if shes not responding. Cool bath soothes the hives and relexers the uptight patient. Oatmeal and cornstarch in the bath can help.

Avoid the substance that caused your hives.
Was she recently on any medications?

 

[MomofKatie]

My mom has had a problem with hives for many years. She has come to find out that many cold medicines have an ingredient in them that triggers them. Some sort of decongestant, I believe. She can't take antihistimines for relief- most of them contain the ingredients that she is intolerent of.

She started getting bad hives episodes after she broke a bone in her foot. After years of tests and suffering, it was discovered that she was allergic to the pin inserted into her foot to help the bone heal. She has a severe allergy to nickel, and it is used in surgical steel. She had the pin removed surgically, and when the doctors took it out, they discovered that the pin had actually corroded in her body, and there were several infected abcesses in the area of the pin. Ick!

Your DD may need to get allergy testing to determine what is causing the hives. Unfortunately, I've heard that sometimes, once the body's immune system "turns on" the hives, they are hard to stop permanently. My mom still gets them whenever she has a break from her normal routine, has stress, or gets ill with a cold. She hates them, but just has to suffer through them.

 

[beachbunny]

Most hives sufferers never find the source of their outbreak. I was lucky in that my allergist was able to pinpoint my source - and that was only because I was a long-time patient.

At most, all the allergist will be able to do is cure the hives - for me, that entailed a healthy dose of steroids, followed by a strong allergy medicine like Zyrtec or Allegra for about a month. It takes a while to work its way out of your system and unless you zap it good, it'll keep coming back.

 

[janette]

They said it was probably a food allergy since the reaction isn't localized but systemic and spreading so something internal. No new foods but I know that doesn't really rule anything out. Not really sure about why they are coming back, I've had hives due to allergic reactions to insect bites but they didn't recur after I got shots etc at the ER.

I'll discuss diet with the Dr and see if we should just go to a small number of foods and see if that helps.

Benadryl seems to be still the treatment of choice for hives, she does take allergy medications for seasonal allergies but they haven't really helped at all with this.

 

[janette]

Where are the majority of her hives? Do they go away and reappear or stay there but just feel better due to the meds? What kind of steroids? Was it a medrol pak or prednisone the later are available in 5 diff. strengths thats the call right there is the dosage right and has it started working in her sysyem right. If she is uncomfortable and they keep popping out there are better antihistamines that work better than benadryl. Atarax for certain reaction types and maybe zyrtec (less side affects)

Allergies and hives are hard to treat sometimes and each individual responds differently. Best would be to get her back to the Dr so he can have a look and maybe change a few things if shes not responding. Cool bath soothes the hives and relexers the uptight patient. Oatmeal and cornstarch in the bath can help.

Avoid the substance that caused your hives.
Was she recently on any medications?

They go away and reappear, they start on the insides of her legs and arms and spread from there. When we went to the ER they covered her inside of her arms & legs, and most of the torso. The have never completely gone but some disappear and they lose the redness & itchy while the Benadryl is active. The prednisone is 20mg 2x a day for 5 days. I do plan to get her to the Dr tomorrow unless they are completely gone in the morning.

She hasn't been on any new medications.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

Another thing you might need to think of, I noticed you said she's 14. This might also be the development of a new allergy to something you've used for years. Her body chemistry may be changing. Every person's body chemistry changes every 6-8 years (depending on the person).

I've tracked my allergies to things over the years. Mine is like clock work. Every seven years I develop something new. When I was very young, I was highly allergic to strawberries. When I turned 7, I lost that allergy but gained seasonal allergies. At 14, I developed allergies to most metals. At 21, I developed skin allergies to most man-made fragrances (what a nightmare that is).

And this could be her problem. I'm in no way saying that this is it. But it may be a possiblity.
Definitely see her regular doctor and an allergist.
Of course too, if she has tests in school and other stresses, that might be the problem as well. High stress has been known to cause hives in people.

My mom spent 20 years dealing with hives. Hers was caused by a very rare blood disease. But she was on prednisone among other meds for these.

Hope that you can find the cause for the hives and be able to get rid of them.

 

[Fan2CSkr]

Are they little like dity dots? Or are the hives more like a wheal a bit larger that usually itches or burns? How many 20 mg prednisone pills has she taken akready? (I ask cause they take a bit to become systemic to the point they would be FULLY helping her) I'm guessing she hasnt attained this level yet. The benadryl while works well on many doesnt always stand the test for some of the trickier reactions. My son once had a reaction that became more agressive as time went on in the end he accuired serum sickness over the whole or deal. It was an antibiotic that we now know he is highly allergic to. After awile we were able to tell a drug allergy from a food allergy and again a topical allergy was always different too.

I dont know what your daughter weighs but 20mg of prednisone 2x a day is a std dose, for a simple problem. The thing is when she has these drugs in her system they will likely stop the reaction, its when she stops taking these drugs and the hives return that you know its time to look at another option.

In case she hasnt been on benadrly before it can make you loopy.tired. The prednisone should make her feel like wonder woman! LOL But really depending again on the person it has been known to increase appetite and cause vervousness also gives a false well feeling inappropriate happiness
extreme changes in mood . For the short 5 days shes on it dont sweat it most likely the starving will just about kick in.

Good Luck with her. If shes still covered in the AM its time for another visit.

 

[momof2inPA]

She needs more prednisone until whatever is bothering her clears her system.

Did she eat peanuts, nuts, legumes, fish, or shellfish on Saturday? Anything that she doesn't eat most everyday (e.g. she probably eats bread and milk all the time, I wouldn't look at those first)?

I agree with it maybe being connected to her age. My sis developed her shellfish allergy in her teens.

 

[janette]

Are they little like dity dots? Or are the hives more like a wheal a bit larger that usually itches or burns? How many 20 mg prednisone pills has she taken akready?

They are they wheal type, just get larger and itch. She's really only had 1 day of the prednisone.

Looks like they are better this morning so maybe it is taking effect, she doesn't have school so we can get her into the Dr if they start coming back. They have tended to not be so bad in the morning but get worse during the day so we'll see. Hopefully the meds have started to stop them.

 

[caitycaity]

Most hives sufferers never find the source of their outbreak.

this is the case with me. i had an outbreak of hives when i was younger and the doctor said it was a sensitivity to an ingredient in the sunscreen i was using. well, i stopped using anythng with that ingredient and i still get hives sometimes. no doctor has ever been able to figure out definitively what is causing them. i get hives maybe once/year. it takes a week or so for them to completely fade, even when taking benadryl. it is annoying, but i'd rather just deal with it than be a human pin cushion again with no results (i think i had every test in the world when they were originally trying to diagnose it). the most recent theory of my dermatologist is that i have a sensitivity to the sun! btw, i have had them for about 20 years.

good luck trying to find the source, but be prepared that you might never know.

i don't know how bad they are for your daughter, but personally i would rather suffer than take prednisone. there are an awful lot of bad side effects associated with it (including hives, LOL).

 

[Nevergrow'nup]

Hives can also get worse when the person is hot or active. This may be why they get worse as the day progresses.
I have had the same situation with my DS when he was 10. During a trip to FL, he would break out in hives every afternoon from head to toe. We changed everything, sunscreen, soap, etc. After we went home, they stopped until summer came. After trip to a skin doctor, we discovered he developed an allery to the SUN!! He had to take a very strong dose of allegra all summer and into the fall. But by the next year, he had no trouble.

Hope that your DD will be better soon!!