Anyone with SERIOUS ALLERGIES have this happen....

[drosophila]

DS has several serious allergies to different foods. The first stage of his reaction is usually hives and if not contained there it will evolved to lip swelling etc. he has epi pens for this.

Anyway a few times I have noticed the odd hive when no food was consumed and it usually happened in his Gran's house. I thought it must be the cat the only other thing we noticed is that he was often hyper at Gran's place.

Anyway he plays tennis and after one session a while ago he got a couple of hives and I give him the Piriton which has desired effect. Last night after tennis he has two big hives and I gave him the Piriton but on the way home he starts acting very strange saying he couldn't talk and wanting to sit down. He perked up a bit but worried I did a Google and there is such a things as exercised induced anaphylaxis. Funnily enough I get exercise induced asthma so I am beginning to think he has this condition. I find it so difficult avoiding all the foods if I now have to start worrying about him when he exercises I think I will go mad.

could it be something the tennis balls are made of?

where does he get the hives (after tennis)?

my ds(with nut allergy) often gets one or two hives on his face for no apparent reason.He seems fine otherwise and I leave it untreated.

My DD would often get hives where someone had eaten one of her trigger foods and a couple of hours later kiss her on the cheek or wherever.

Could it be that?

Ds has had two reactions at school (badly swollen eye) before we found out about his allergies. Never had a reaction like this away from school and still don't know what set it off.

It's such a worry isn't it? The clinic we attend doesn't seem that concerned about finding out about 'new' allergies. Told that we have epipens in case of emergency

Yes there is exercise induced anaphylaxis!!!! You must get your son to specialists who can advise you correctly on this. Telling you that that's what you have the epipens for is simply irresponsible of them. You want to prevent the attack before it happens....having an attack is really brutal on the body (and heart) and is really something you should avoid whenever possible.
Here is a link to a site that has some information. Also do searches on the internet....there is tons of information on it. I have a severe food allergy and asthma and have had it since I was a child. However, what I was allergic to and how my body reacted to it has waxed and waned over the years. I used to get hives regularly as a child, but no asthma. Then outgrew the hives, but grew into asthma. Now (in my 40's) I have not only the asthma and the hives, but anaphylactic reactions to certain foods. I am now back in the usa, but when i was in the uk and went to see a food allergy specialist, she was amazed that I had been referred to her after my first complaint to my gp. She said her experience has been that she usually gets patients long after they should have been referred.
Good luck. It can be managed, but you need to be well informed about your options to do so.

Hi,
My son has severe allergies/carries epipen.
If my son gets hot/flushed/in a warm place(like a leisure centre)or if he is running about a lot he can get some hives(just maybe 3 or 4)like a heat related thing.
Is it indoor tennis or outside?
Is it just a couple of hives or quite a large crop?
My son gets the odd hive now & again if he touches/comes into contact with a different fabric/liquid/surface he hasn't encountered before.I n the beginning it was really worrying but I have to say as he has grown older(almost 6),he doesn;t have nearly as many 'lumps' appearing for no easily explained reason as he used to have!If hives itching ,bothering him we give him piriton,if just the odd one & he's ok we tend to just leave him & keep an eye on things(see if it progresses to more or disappears)
The other thing is(again this was when my son was younger & not so much now)re.Gran's-when my son got hives at relatives houses ,sounds crazy,but what it turned out to be was when gran/aunty/uncle etc.gave him a cuddle it was whatever soap powder/laundery detergent they washed their clothes in.ie he would get hives from relatives that didn;t use a non-bio powder.
(Because of my sons allergies I know I could never wash his clothes in biological powder,as he would come up in itchy rash/hives straight away.)
Obviously there was nothing we could co about what relatives washed clothes in,& over time we came to realise that these lumps that appeared after cuddle with family were not going to progress to severe reaction.
Anyway just wanted to let you know this,it's maybe not the reason,but just in case...
P.S-perfumes/aftershaves on other's skin has the same effect as soap powder on my ds1 if he touches/cuddles them!
Sorry if none of this much help
regards,R.

The tennis is outdoors. The hives weren't the biggest worry as he often gets couple for no obvious reason. It was the additional things of not being able to talk and sitting down at the side of the road. I really thought he was going to collapse. Had I not given him the Piriton I think it could have gotten worse. He is under the care of a consultant but as someone said here whenever we identify a new allergy they just shrug. For example he was licked by a dog in the park and exactly where the dog's tongue had been was covered in huge hives. Apparently there is a protein in Dog's saliva that causes a reaction. I just get concerned with each new discovery and wonder where will it stop.

Like a poster here I used to get millions of hives in the summer months when I was a kid as did my sister but grew out of that in my teens. The hives never evolved into anything worse so I know hives in themselves are not a problem but with DS it can be a precursor to something more serious but not always.

It really gets me down some days. Thanks for sharing.

Just a thought - do you think it might be possible he was stung by something? My dd has severe food allergies and has also had an anaphylactic reaction to a sting, but the way she reacts to them is very different. In particular with the sting she went extremely pale, couldn't catch her breath at all, couldn't talk as a consequence of struggling to breathe and had to sit down otherwise I think she would have fallen over. She was eventually covered in hives everywhere but this took about 5 minutes to come up - like you, hives is usually one of the first signs we notice with a food related reaction.

It can be so disheartening sometimes can't it - you manage to get a grip on dealing with one or two triggers and then something else rears its ugly head to make their lives even more complicated! I hope you manage to find out the cause.

Coral

Don't know if this is any help but I'm asthmatic with severe allergy problems. Asthma so severe I have been in ITU recently. Have noticed my allergies have got worse along with my asthma. Had an emergency appointment with my consultant this evening and he is considering me for a new treatment.
When a person is atopic or allergic there is an Ige marker that can be measured in the blood and it is possible to have injections of anti Ige to try and settle severe allergic response.
It is done at the Brompton Hospital in London. I will have to have further blood tests etc to see if I am suitable. Don't know if it's an option available to kids.
Will do some further research and let you know.
Think that dr's laisse faire attitude to your ds situation rather worrying as he sounds very unstable. If you are not happy I suggest you try and get referred to another doctor that takes it more seriously.

hadn't heard of this but did a search on google and read about exercise induced anaphylaxis. Some sites claim its related to certain foods eaten 2-3 hours before. I'm sorry, the best thing I can say is that the websites did suggest it doesn't happen every time. Also that it's possible one of his allergens was on the tennis ball and he put his hand to his mouth.

Something for us all to watch for

I'm severly allergic to latex (and peanuts). Is there latex in tennis balls? This is probably a stupid question (for the UK) but can't you get an allergist to run some tests on him?

Sorry, bit of a hijack, but all these people with hives experience are very interesting to me right now. DS2 (5) who doesn't have any serious allergies that we know about, but has viral-induced asthma, has started breaking out in hives all the time. They're not all over the body, but last night, for example, they were all over the back of his neck with a few on the torso.

The GP said if I couldn't see any relationship between food etc and the hives, just to have Piriton handy and go back if they got worse. So did lots of you hives sufferers never find out what caused them?

Singersgirl,
This happens to my dd too, usually on and off over a period of a couple of weeks or so. Also told not to worry and given Piriton. She also has
no known allergies although she is intolerant to gluten - but it does not appear to be related to that.

I still get hives now. In fact, I have them on my fingers today! I think some people are just ultra sensitive - dh gets them aswell (but he does have eczema and asthma and I think his are connected). I've never bothered to find out what causes them.

Dros - I would ask for a latex test if you can. The not being to walk is worrying - this is what happens to dd if she's having a bad reaction and it is very frightening. Have you considered a sort of preventative dose of antihistamine before tennis?

'not being able to walk' I mean

I guess I'm just worrying that something might be causing it and he might have a really bad reaction next time.

Sorry, Drosophila - don't have any experience of the bad reactions and can only imagine how worrying it must be from DS2's bad asthma attacks.

singers - I wasn't dissing finding out what causes it (I certainly would be pushing for it if it was happening regularly to dd!) - I just think that once you're an adult, you have more understanding about what's happening so I know if I/dh is going to be hit by something big or whether it is just annoying hives (iyswim)

if it is around his collar - is it something on his shirt?

Don't worry, I didn't think you were dissing it - it's just I know it seems quite trivial next to Dros's orginal problem!

It's not always on his neck, but often seems to be on exposed skin - eg arms, on his bare chest if he's playing Captain Underpants. So I wondered about exercise/cold/heat/contact, and of course food.

I'm going to start noting down when it happens and what he's eaten/he's wearing etc to see if there's a pattern.

not walking when you can't talk is sensible. Exercise is known to make bad reactions worse and the advice is to sit still if you're having one. The consultant told us being unable to talk was one sign for when to use an epipen.

I'm glad dros raised this because it's better to be warned. I wish it didn't happen but I'll now say they have to be a lot more careful about taking their epipen to the sports pitches at school

Good idea about preventative dose. Will also check out latex. Our next allergy clinic apt is in August . I don't even have a calendar for next year yet!

Thanks everyone.

drosophila it may not necessarily have been the dog saliva. My ds was licked on the face by a dog at a friend's house and came out in hives in that area. The dog had eaten dog biscuits that contained egg (many do) and ds is allergic to egg. skin tests for dog saliva/hair were negative. I am now v careful around dogs as some foods also contain peanut butter.

I have food allergies (peanut/kiwi and something else which i haven't identified yet i think) I have an epipen
I have had aprox 3 episodes of what have seemed to be exercise induced anaphylaxis. 2 were during an cardio excercise class and one was while running.i recognise that feeling of not wanting to talk...and a sort of bunkering down sort of feeling too.

i would suspect the latex, i am allergic to latex, i would suspect the tennis racket grip. is your child affected by kiwi fruit? as apparently kiwi & latex are related. i am allergic to both along with a few other things!