Question for the parents of children who get very hivey after an illness/virus...

[WhiteTrash]

Hi, my son is getting this at the moment. He had a terrible virus a few weeks back (about 4 weeks ago) and hes been getting hives ever since, yesterday at dinner time his wrist was covered in them. He seems particularly allergic to the cold right now, his face, eyes, ears, hands swell up, hives round his mouth on his hands etc. I can only hope that passes other whys how the heck do we cope with winter. (rherorical question).

Ds is 12 months and had no food allergies until his 3rd set of baby immunisations, they sent his immune system crazy much like it is doing now after the virus.

The thing is, hes due his MMR. How was your child after vaccinations? What if his allergy list grew even more after the MMR? (I couldnt cope with that)? But itd be worse if he actually got M, M or R because he'd be very ill AND have a crazy immune system!

Help please? Bit worried. Thank you.

*other WISE. doh

No one?

My DS gets very rashy when he's ill and is allergy-prone - has mild Eczema, and asthma although hasn't shown any full-blown allergic reactions as yet (he is 18 months). Anyway, he was absolutely fine after mmr. I'm not advising you on what to do but I didn't want to ignore your post as I had similar concerns at the time of his mmr and he was fine.

Thank you for your reply. My son is very allergic, I so wish it was just exzema and asthma (he has those too), then Id not think twice about the MMR.

Im torn.

Hello.
It's a tricky one.

I honestly don't think Dd has her allergies due to any vaccinations. We also debated the whole MMR thing. in the end we decided she and ds should have them as things are making a comeback and according to what we researched it seemed that getting one or all of the measles, mumps or rubella would be worse.

DD has a bad egg allergy as well as a long list of other foods but has so far (touch wood) not reacted to any of the immunisations. I always 'hang around' in the surgery for about 20 mins or so 'just in case'

If you're worried, could you have them done separately?

it's a difficult one i think but good luck whichever way you decide to go.

Thanks so much mumto39. Was it your DD who had hives after a virus once? If it was, did/does she have hives after other viruses?

I think we'll go private and get them done seperately.

So she didnt develop more allergies after the MMR?

In January my DS had a very nasty virus and for about two weeks afterwards he was getting more hives than usual, to the extent that I began to suspect his allergy list had grown (it hadn't). He was already 19 months so had had the MMR quite a while before that. I had never thought that the MMR vaccine could have triggered any more allergies, but I don't think even the most well-informed docs know in detail how allergies are caused, so IMO it's best to get the vaccinations, for the reasons mumat39 said.

I think it's called a viral rash. My dd1 got it badly a couple of years ago - so much so that it seemed like she was having an allergic reaction to eating/drinking anything - it was very scary at the time and we had to call the doctors at st Thomas's (our allergists) as the local GP told us it was probably anaphylaxis and we should go to a and e after giving an epipen!

It turns out it's called a viral rash and it's like the remains of the virus going to the extremes of the body before it leaves, so can result in hives on the skin, rashes or even puffyness (does that make sense?) We were told that it isn't connected to an allergic reaction at all (just allergic kids may be more prone to it), but regular anti-histamine until it settles down can help. She's never had it as bad since, but will generally get unexpected hives at random occasions after a bad illness.

Could it be similar to that? I'm not a medical professional so can't vouch for my info, but out Dr seemed very certain....

Thats exactly it, both of you described it exactly.

Thank you for replying, and thank you loads for reasurring me.

young children having a hive response to viral infections is quite common, they out grow it as immune system grows with them . in that way the infections are doing their job triggering a good protection system.
i think it might be worth getting more of a medical eye on the cold stuff, and rule out any other cause or confirm a diagnosis to cold. which is possible, but rare. esp if you think this is a result of being cold, rather than having a virus.

my kids have had all vaccinations, and allergic kid is a classic allergic baby, and showed signs of being a food allergic person when he was under three months and breast fed.

My DS is severely allergic to egg (among other things) and did come out in hives on his face after 2nd MMR (not 1st) but didn't need epi-pens, just some Piriton and they settled down after 20 mins. Our consultant says that it was highly unlikely that his reaction was due to the vaccine being cultivated in egg and that he probably reacted to something else in the vaccine. No idea what though so not very helpful! He had his seasonal flu jabs in the hospital after that just to be safe but didn't react at all thankfully. There is no real evidence that having 3 separate vaccines is any 'safer' than the MMR and certainly no less likely to cause allergic reactions.

As eragon says, hive reactions to viral infections are in fact very common, especially in children and there's no link between other allergies and this type of reaction as most children who get this response don't in fact have any other allergies at all.

My DS does randomly come up in hives but I generally assume that he's come into contact with something he's allergic to. Your description of your DS's reaction to the cold sounds like cold urticaria: allergies.about.com/od/urticariahives/a/coldurticaria.htm. Has he been diagnosed with this?

Whitetrash, Hello. How is your DS now? Hope he's better.

It was me and my DD who has the viral urticaria.

She seems to be having another odd rashy episode at the moment but it's not uncomfortable so I'm trying to not worry about it too much.

It started a couple of weeks ago and was itchy. Then settled for a few days and then came back yesterday. It seems different to the previous episode in that it isn't really 'hivey' so I took her to the GP as I wondered if it could be eczema. The GP said nope it was an allergic reaction type rash. DD also had an allergy appt with the allergy nurse a week or so later and she it looked viral.

I think there is definitely a lack of understanding/knowledge about this. We have been told the same thing by A&E and our allergist was also peeved that I'd had such a stressful time believing that DD was reacting to yet more foods when it turned out to be a viral thing. So that's an A&E dept and our GP who didn't recognise this.

The allergy nurse said that they get alot of referrals to their clinic from GP's who diagnose allergies and it turns out to be this instead and it is something that affects people whether they have a history of allergies or not.

I know it's a shame that so many children and adults been through this, but it is reassuring to hear your experiences as it makes me feel that we're not alone in this.

Thank you.

We're going to do seperate vaccines privately. It may be no difference at all but its my compramise, I dont want to give it to him at all. And at the same time I want to protect him from those virusus which are on the rise.

Im not sure when exactly but sooner rather than later.