Hives but only in the morning??

[Autumn101]

My 10 year old has suddenly started having some bad reactions over the last week.

Every morning within 20 minutes of being awake, nothing eaten or drunk, the hives just appear and he can go from totally clear skin to absolutely covered within 10 minutes. They are extremely itchy and calm down over the next few hours.

We’ve been to a paedeatrician and dermotologist who have prescribed antihistamines and a short course of steroids to try and calm it down. He had a blood test which tested positive for allergies to birch and oak however we have none of them here (not UK) or any furniture made of them. Dermatologist doesn’t think blood tests are reliable and he should have a prick test but wait list for that is 3 months.......

He’s never had any hint of allergies before, no family history of allergies, is generally fit and healthy.

Any ideas or experience of this kind of sudden onset of an allergy and any advice on how to deal with it?

Attached a photo to show how it looks

No idea on that one sorry. The poor lad. The only thing I can think of is the washing powder you’re using. Have you changed it recently?

What's his routine in the morning? Does it still happen if he's away/ on holiday etc?

Wowee, poor lad that looks awful.

Go step by step through his morning routine. Has he showered, brushed his teeth, applied antiperspirant, changed into clothes, made contact with any animals or plants, brushed against or sat on anything in the house - furniture, soft furnishings, anything other than his bedding basically. Does he get this reaction at any other time? In any other house? What if he sleeps somewhere else?

Thanks for the responses.

It’s only been the last week and a half so only been at home so far. I haven’t changed washing powder and he hasn’t eaten anything new. A couple of days ago I told him when he woke up to come straight to me without touching a thing which he did and while he was standing there the hives started. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to work it out!

However I do have a suspicion it’s actually the medication they’ve given him. It’s not an antihistamine I’d heard of before or that he’s ever had but looking through the side effects a severe rash is listed as one of the very rare (1 in 10000) side effects. I rang the doctor yesterday to ask and they were very dismissive....... I took a bit of a risk and didn’t give it to him last night as my instinct is telling me it’s something he’s ingesting not contact. Even though the blood test showed no allergies to any food. I’ve checked him loads overnight and he was fine when asleep, waiting for him to wake up now to see what happens....... The rash when they originally prescribed this was nowhere near as bad as the photos so I’m wondering if that was a random one off and actually separate to the ones that have followed?

I hope he's better by now, but if he's still suffering it might be worth looking up the International Chronic Urticaria Society (they're on Facebook) - lots of helpful information on there, even if your son's hives aren't actually chronic. I can especially recommend the cromolyn cream recipe as it really helps my hives to go down (and it also worked on a bee sting over the summer).

Cortisol levels drop overnight so that might be why the hives are coming up in the morning as opposed to another time of day. Out of interest, what's the antihistamine he's been given?

Has he been ill (e.g. a cold) recently? Some people get hives after viral infections. In my experience, unless you're really lucky with who you see, most GPs and even some specialists aren't that great with hives - guess it's because there are a lot of different causes (not all are true allergy reactions).

So we’ve had 5 days clear of hives now thank goodness! He had a flare up last weekend but it was after a day outside playing football and getting sweaty, had sunscreen on, went in pool etc so I think his skin was still a bit sensitive.

I haven’t given him the antihistamines again, they were called Zadifen, and we’ve tapered down the steroids so fingers crossed that’s it and back to normal.

Check for gut digestive issues. Or candida