Urticaria - horrible and prolongued rash. Anyone have experience?

[Spidermama]

DS4 has a horrendous rash all over his body now. He's had it for at least two weeks. We've been twice to the GP who says it's urticaria.
They don't know anything about what causes it but it's an allergic reaction and can take weeks to clear up.

They've given him antihistamine medicine but the rash has now spread to his face.

It's particularly distressing as this has been his first week at school.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

[Spidermama]

Bump.

[DesperateHousewifeToo]

Ds gets this after eating something he is allergic to. Luckily, the worst of it goes quite quickley (once he has had piriton). He is then left with a very fine, bumpy rash for a few weeks which seems to work it's way down his body. He can also be quite tired and grumpy as the allergen works it's way out of his body.

Have you tried putting porridge oats (uncooked!) in a sock and running them under the tap when he has a bath?

Keep him cool. Don't put him in restrictive/tight clothing as this could irritate the skin.

[cocolepew]

My DD is covered in this tonight! I thnk it's because she's been in the trees/hawthorne opposite the house. DD1 gets this but never for this long. Can you pinpoint what is causing the reaction? Maybe it's lasted because he is still around it, have you changed your washing powder or soap?

[Spidermama]

I've been googling like there's no tomorrow. It could be washing powder, nuts, heat, tight pants, thrush ... any number of things.

Both DH and I have autoimmune issues in our families.

I wish I hadn't googled. It seems his is chronic rather than acute.

I'm going to the homeopath tomorrow. I don't think the antihistamines are doing anything and if they are they're simply supressing what should be coming out.

[PacificDogwood]

Spidermama, urticaria can not be allergic; there are several different possible causes. In young children it happens v often as a post-viral reaction. My DS3 aged 17 months gets it in reaction to scratching himself (he has very short fingernails now ). There is also so called "physical" urticaria which happens as a response to temperature change ie getting out of warm bath into coolish bathroom or cooling down after sweaty exercise. Antihistamine are only likely to work if the cause is allergic in the first place in which case your DS would be v itchy (which my DS is not so I do not treat with anything - apart from v regular declawing fingernail trimming).
You might find
this
this
or this
useful.
HTH a bit .

[Spidermama]

OMG I wish I hadn't read this link:

• Symptoms may go away completely after a few months, but the condition lasts several years in some cases.
  
• In about half of cases, symptoms go within 3-5 years after it first starts.
  
• In about 1 in 5 cases the symptoms persist 'on and off' for more than 10 years.

[PacificDogwood]

How itchy/uncomfortable is he? It tends to come and go in decreasing spikes IYKWIM. It is really not usually a very debilitating problem.
Sorry if I've worried you more now, was not my intention.
How old is your DS? Kids most commonly get it post-virally like I said and it settles really quickly.

[Katz]

my DD2 suffers from a type of urticaria is due to her having mastocytosis, she has too many mast cells in her body, these are the cells which contain histamine. Her whole body is pretty much covered in browny/red blemishes, the only part that is spared is her face. She is on long term medcation to help with the side effects of too much histamine. Our GP has no idea what it was and referred us the dermatologist at the children's hospital.

I'd say if i might eb worth asking for a referal, the dermatologists were fab and it was so good to get advice and help.

DD2 may grow out of her mastocystosis but may not, were waiting to see, she is currently 4 and she first started going blotchy at around 6 months old.

[NervousNutty]

Ds had this about 2 years ago. Our gp said it was an allergic reaction to a virys.

Ds's lasted for about 3/4 weeks, coming and going all over his body. One minute his face would be clear and then suddenly it was covered, then it would go and reappear again.

I got some very odd looks when we were out as it looked like he'd been scaled or something.

It took alot to convince nursery that he had not got something contagious.

I did give ds piriton but tbh it didn't really seem to do anything.

[alypaly]

Urticaria is caused by the release of histamine and other mediators of inflammation (cytokines) from cells in the skin. This process can be the result of an allergic or non-allergic reaction.
has he been bitten by anything,done alot of excercise, got really emotinal or been out in sunlight?
All these things can trigger off urticara.

[Spidermama]

Thanks all.
Aly he's been out in sunlight but no more than usual.

Katz that must be hard for you and your dd. I hope she does grow out of it. DSs rash IS on his face now too as well as his hands. I feel sorry for him having to start school with such an alarming and obvious condition.

We've been to the homeopath today and he has taken a remedy. The anti histamine isn't doing anything so I've stopped it. The homeopath says if he's given the right remedy it will go pretty quickly and if it's not gone by Thursday give him a bell. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.

[alypaly]

MrsMagnolia is right, but I would not worry about the serious things unless thay have been diagnosed. Better to get checked though rather than self medicating.

[MrsWeasley]

Oh my DD used to come out in a horrid rash that got worse and worse the longer we were outside. It vanished 20 minutes after being inside. The GP said it was probably something in the air!
It cleared up, by itself withing weeks.

Good luck

[Spidermama]

I'm not relying on homeopath. I'm trying homeopathy having been failed twice by orthodox medicine.

I have had really great experience with homeopathy when all other things have failed in the past and I've had countless really poor experiences from the GP (as well as some successes) so I am open minded enough to try other means.

Anyway this morning he woke up with a croupy cough which may well have been to do with the remedy. The rash doesn't appear to have changed as yet but am hoping.

[sixfoldwaitingtime]

Spidermama - I had this myself last year, and, like you, got completely freaked out by the number of websites talking about it going on for months or years. Mine was vile, I had the ambulance round twice as I had swelling in my throat, and the out-of-hours dr round to give me steroid shots.

I also went to the homeopath, and that definitely helped (the proof of that being that it hasn't come back since).

But what I did discover (rather too late on) is that the main antihistamine that they were prescribing didn't work for me, so it might be worth seeing if they can try other ones - once I found the right one it kept it down quite easily. The steroids also helped, although that's quite an extreme thing to take, even for a few days - but again, might be worth asking.

And, just a word of warning about the post-viral thing. The doctors said that this is a bit of a myth - I'd had two outbreaks after colds, and in fact now they think it was a reaction to the codeine cough medicine I'd been taking at the end of each cold. So it is worth trying to think of anything that might have triggered it - and possibly looking at allergy tests once it's been sorted.

[Spidermama]

Thanks sixfold.

[Spidermama]

Well the rash is looking much better since the remedy. The day after the remedy he woke up with a croupy cough. That's gone and the rash has died down.

It may flair up again, but I'm thinking positive.

[sixfoldwaitingtime]

glad to hear it!