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Children's health

Sudden urticaria - in bathwater

11 replies

Polyethyl · 19/10/2017 22:57

Just had such a scare.
My 4yo DD and I got into a freshly run bath together. Within 2 mins she said "my skin itches!" And hives started to break out all over her skin, wherever it was under the bathwater line.
I have never seen anything like it! The bumps grew so fast! As I watched they grew and spread all over. We whipped her out the water and within 30mins the rash mostly faded.
I just can't understand it. The bathwater was just run, no chemicals, soaps, bubbles etc in it at all. It was a normal hot temperature, just how I always like it everynight. I was fine and as we were bathing together I am convinced there was nothing wrong with the water - or I would have reacted too.
She has had a cold the last 2 days and has a mild cough, but otherwise is entirely healthy. No history of allergies at all.
How can she have had an allergic reaction to water?!?!
She's asleep now, after an hour of us staring at her skin!
Go to the GP in the morning, I suppose, but I expect the rash will be entirely gone by then.
I'm very shocked. It was so sudden.

OP posts:
EnidNextDoor · 19/10/2017 22:59

Cleaning fluid? Left over shampoo or baby oil someone else used?

TheNotSoGoodWife · 19/10/2017 23:00

I get hives in ‘extremes’ of temperatures - could be a combination of the hot bath and the cold/virus that’s just caused her immune system to go a bit haywire temporarily?

VivienneWestwoodsKnickers · 19/10/2017 23:00

Residue in the bath from the last time it was used? Did anyone spray it with cleaning fluid and forget to rinse it or not rinse it at all?

And no, you may not have reacted to anything she has reacted to - could be very specific to her!

Polyethyl · 19/10/2017 23:03

No. Really no.
Call me a slummy mummy but i didn't scrub the bath yesterday. Cleaners due tomorrow, so there's been no cleaning chemicals in it since yesterday's bath.
And I don't like oils, bubbles, bath salts or anything like that in my bath. So we never have them.
And the bar of soap we have is the same as yesterday's. And anyway we had only just got into the water when it started, so we hadn't started soaping.
It truly was just run bath water.

OP posts:
Gileswithachainsaw · 19/10/2017 23:04

It's probably just residue from cleaning products on the bath.

Maybe start giving the bath a good rinse before you put her in it.

Gileswithachainsaw · 19/10/2017 23:05

X posts ignore me

QueenJane · 19/10/2017 23:07

It’s likely that she may have a sensitivity to something else, and the heat of the bath has just aggravated it. Heat alone can be a trigger for some, its not just an allergic reaction. Hives can come and go rapidly. I remember having several bad episodes lasting days. They would fade when I slept, then appear again when I moved around. They were always worse round the waistband of my trousers or areas that rubbed against anything. Nobody ever really gave me an explanation for it, but I grew out of it quickly.

Polyethyl · 20/10/2017 09:55

By this morning's doctor appointment the rash had entirely faded. So the doctor says it was not an allergic reaction.
Apparently, when recovering from a cold virus, a child's body will react to a sudden change in heat (such as getting into a bath) by mimicking allergic rash.
Well I know that now. Tepid baths for her from now on.
What a needless scare!

OP posts:
Hulder · 20/10/2017 09:59

Sounds like cholinergic urticaria - reaction to heat.

Some people get it from hot water or when they are sweaty. Or just the once and never again.

No need to have an allergic for urticaria - I had it appear for a few months and then disappear as mysteriously as it arrived. Hot baths would always make it worse.

Ollivander84 · 20/10/2017 10:01

I have cholinergic urticaria, mine started 20 years ago. Could be a one off

EsmesRedPetticoat · 20/10/2017 10:29

As soon as I read this I thought “yep, sounds like urticaria”. Mine is triggered by cold so I spend much of winter swathed in layers to stop my skin getting chilled. Hopefully it’s a one off and won’t stick around for long. I’ve had it for 12 years now and it can be fairly miserable!

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