Child Allergies

[slamjet]

My 10 year old daughter has broken out with hives for the umpteenth time. We've taken her to the doctors and us are totally clueless. We went through the whole gamut of stuff:

• Air conditioner (been running for two weeks with no issues)
• Linens (washed weekly, no issues)
• Foods (All the same, they have a very boring palette)
• Dairy (None, she won't drink any)
• Eggs (None, she doesn't like them and won't eat it)
• Nuts of all type (none in the house)
• Mold (they eradicated it all last week)
• Carpet (there are none, all hardwood floors)
• Outdoors (haven't been out in a while, too hot)
• Anti-biotics (she's allergic to penicillin, but she's not taking anything except for the Daytrana patch)
• And so forth.

Anyone having any issues with their child getting allergy rashes and/or any suggestions? We're giving her Benadryl to counteract the hives and it's still working but her Dr. said that they can do allergy testing, but it misses 90% of what's out there.

Any suggestions?

[marshac]

Get the Allergy testing done, and do an elimination diet- it won't be fun, but it should ID the culprit if it's food. If it's mold or something, get an electrostatic air cleaner- they can be installed into a central air system fairly inexpensively, or you can get a standalone filer such as BlueAir from Costco. You can't rule something out like mold unless it has been tested for- it's not something that's visible (like dust mites), but it's easily tested for.

Also, you kinda glossed over the patch, but i'm curious if you've read the adverse effects sheet-

Seek medical attention right away if any of these SEVERE side effects occur when using Daytrana System:

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); behavior changes (eg, aggression, hostility, restlessness); blurred vision or other vision problems; chest pain or discomfort; confusion; dark urine; fainting; fast or irregular heartbeat; fever, chills, or sore throat; hallucinations; mental or mood changes (eg, abnormal thought, agitation, anxiety, depression, irritability, panic attacks, persistent crying, unresponsiveness, unusual sadness); one-sided weakness; purple or brownish red spots on the skin; seizures; severe or persistent dizziness or headache; shortness of breath; slurred speech; suicidal thoughts or attempts; swelling or blisters at the application site; tremor; uncontrolled muscle movements; yellowing of the skin or eyes.

I would pull the patch and see if the hives return... it might be even less fun (for you) than the restriction diet, but you need to find out if it's the drug causing the rxn.

Edited August 2, 2011 by marshac

[Guest]

My daughter was having some pretty serious allergy issues. The patch test picked up that she's allergic to a lot of things. Rx meds help a lot.

[Guest Sachi001]

100% got rid of the mold? I live in a climate notorious for causing mold. Make sure it's not up in the attic or inside the dry wall between insulation as well.

[applepansy]

Medication allergies are very common. I agree with pulling the patch and seeing if the hives go away. Allergies to medications can build over time.

Meds also play havoc with our system in other ways. Have you tried adding enzymes and probiotics to her diet. I know...Its a patch....Still.... Its not unheard of that probiotics can be helpful anyway.

Diet is one of the leading contributors to ADHD. Try going sugar and gluten free for a couple of weeks.

[Gwen]

If one of my kids have problems while on meds I always assume meds and rule that out first. My son's dr doesn't like it but he'll get over it. lol

[slamjet]

We thought of the mold and meds. The basement was totally gutted out, bleached and cleaned. Doing that helped the kids feel better in quick order. But that was done over a week ago so the timing is off. As for the medication, she's been taking it for over four years and has never had an issue with it. There were no dosage changes and no batch change either.

We're going to start looking more closely at her food intake, but we're still stymied.

[Gwen]

Just a thought. I'm not sure if it will help your situation or not but there is a test called the ALCAT My chiropractor highly recommends it and has done it himself. I am wanting to do it but have to save up due to the cost etc. They test for allergies, food sensitivities, common food preservitives, etc. If you are at a total loss it may be worth the cost for you to have something like this run.

[Iggy]

My little brother gets hives from chocolate. Never had before, then on his 14th birthday he ended up with welts that were HUGE.

I got them after eating Dungeness Crab:(. Antihistamines work for me- but I also don't deliberately eat crab. Some restaurants put crab in seafood chowder.

Husband gets hives from dust mites and bed bugs. SO I washed the bed frame with TSP and Pine Sol, and covered the mattress with a mattress bag that is made to keep bed bugs from coming through to you. NOTE: NEVER, EVER vacuum your mattress. That will bring the bed bugs up to the surface of the mattress- use the cover instead.

I also use pillow protectors.

You said there are hard wood floors- I would suggest vacuuming the edges of the floors- when they meet the walls.

My older sister gets hives when she is under a lot of stress, and from excessive heat/humidity. Cool showers using a liquid baby wash and then applying a very light coat of moisturizer containing aloe vera helps with the discomfort.

Slamjet, I have never had a problem with eating Crab before- when I got the hives, I thought it might be because they were caught during a red tide. I asked the guy who gave them to me, if he had gotten hives or sick from the crab- he hadn't, nor had his dinner guests.

A week later, armed with a bottle of antihistamines, I ate a Crab omelet at my favorite restaurant. Sure enough, not half an hour later I had the largest welts of hives to date! Took the antihistamines and was fully prepared to drive the three blocks to the ER if the pills didn't work.

They worked. BTW I can't even eat Krab- artificial Crab made with Hake soaked in Crab juices/nectar. bummer- I love Crab. Oddly though I can still eat Lobster & Shrimp.

If you can remember what she ate the day she got the hives, then feed her one item a day to rule out food allergy. Also, does her mother use the same laundry detergent? Does the machine have two rinse cycles? What kind of fabric softener does she use. My daughters children are allergic to lanolin, which can be in fabric softener.

It can be an arduous task finding the culprit- perhaps if you all help her to reconstruct her days when she broke out in hives, and think outside of the box. By comparing what she ate, wore, did each time prior to the outbreaks, you just might find a commonality.

[applepansy]

We thought of the mold and meds. The basement was totally gutted out, bleached and cleaned. Doing that helped the kids feel better in quick order. But that was done over a week ago so the timing is off. As for the medication, she's been taking it for over four years and has never had an issue with it. There were no dosage changes and no batch change either.

We're going to start looking more closely at her food intake, but we're still stymied.

There doesn't need to be a dosage or batch change to have a medication suddenly cause problems. I've had problems with my meds pop up out of the blue with no clue and to why. Don't rule it out yet.

My neighbor's son is ADHD. She refused to medicate until recently. She tried everything else. She found, first, that sugar acts like a drug for him and he'll do anything including break into the neighbors house for it. (he was eating the white bread...simple carb turns to sugar in the system fast). Second, gluten. He is a different child without these in his diet. He's not in YMs and she can't control what he puts in his mouth so she has had to go with the meds.

Allergies to foods can happen suddenly when the body runs out of what it needs to deal with those foods.

[slamjet]

My little princess has ADHD and Asperger's. We can barely get her to eat anything. She just has no appetite. But I've been asking tons of questions and I've got it narrowed down to possibly some home-made soup. It's the only thing different from the norm, and it fits the timing almost perfectly. The only different ingredient was that there were leaks in it. She's never shown any issues with onions but I've been trying to get what was put in this soup.

And we were offered the ALCAT but it's extremely expensive. We may end up doing that, but we're looking into her foods and I'm trying to talk mama into getting bed wraps.

[mightynancy]

It's a frustrating task to find the culprit!

It's my understanding that an immune response to a virus can also cause hives. My daughter gets a rash if you just look at her funny, and sometimes she'll break out in pretty severe hives as she recovers from a seemingly-unrelated virus.

Best wishes - I'm sure you're very anxious for your princess to get some relief!

[JudoMinja]

The timing of allergic reactions is not always insync with the cause. This is because the reaction only happens after your body has built up a certain amount of antibodies- sometimes that happens quickly and sometimes it doesn't. You can go years without even realizing you have an allergy, then suddenly have an allergic reaction because your body finally had a high enough concentration of antibodies to cause the reaction. At least that's what my mom says- and she's a licensed nurse, so I tend to trust her take on things like that .

Now, my brother with Aspergers has a lot of allergies too. He's allergic to dairy, nuts, soy, dog saliva, cats, sulfa medications, and I'm not sure what else... He has a very limited diet for things he will actually eat, so my parents just keep a stock of the things he likes and let him help himself. He will typically eat ramen noodles, boneless skinless chicken, hotdogs, saltine crackers, coldcut meats, oatmeal cookies, and... that's actually all I know of that he regularly eats.

My son also has a lot of allergies that I am still working on identifying. So far, I know he's allergic to pollen, cats, dogs, rats, mold, arythromyacin (don't think I spelled it right), dust, dairy, carrots, tomatoes, corn, raspberries, and cherries. He still has some problems on occassion, even when I carefully moniter his diet, and I'm thinking he may have a gluten intolerance too... like his grandpa. Amazingly, he's not allergic to nuts which is typically one of the big ones for people with food allergies.

[Guest StuardMart]

You must know about the different reasons but man i want to throw a light on this fact that fast food,junk food also causes the fats and different kind of allergies in young.Usually we do not have a care for this fact but its true.

[mirkwood]

My mother had apricot allergies. It caused her to have hives. They come and go now in her life and it has been 30+ years.

Several years ago I had an allergic reaction to a medication. I got a nasty case of hives. I get them now at random, for no reason I can determine. They come and go. I use cortizone topically to take care of them.