Can hives really be caused by a virus? DD used to be allergic to about six things but is reacting to EVERYTHING now! Help!

[fustilarian]

Whenever I have spotted hives on DD (14 months) before I have stopped giving her the food, and have therefore concluded she is allergic to milk, wheat, cherry tomatoes and more have been diagnosed with skin prick tests.

But she had a bad cough and a temperature for a few days which she is getting over now but still poorly. Since then she started getting tiny hives on her hands and weird patches of flushed skin on her face which lasted about 2 minutes. They have been mainly after eating but also at other times. I thought it might be something new in the house from Christmas like the tree so I spent Boxing Day purging the house of everything new and cleaning it top to bottom, but it hasn't made any difference.

Some people say hives can be caused by a virus, but they seem to be getting a bit worse as she gets better, although they are still mild.

I am totally at my wits' end and don't know what to do. can't figure out any pattern at all and she is on such a carefully controlled diet of well tested foods, I just can't believe it could be one of her foods.....

What should I do? Take her to doctor? Start eliminating foods? Or stop panicking and do nothing???

I don't really know much about reactions to things tbh, but ds had a reaction to a virus when he was 3 and was covered in hives.

I took him to the gp who diagnosed it and he said it could last for weeks and come and go which it did.

Ds had them long after the cold or whatever he had had gone.

Thanks, illegally, was it coming and going in any pattern/place? Is he otherwise allergic? Has he had it again?

Sorry for the hundreds of questions as am v stressed out now. for the last 3 suppers she has had bright red patches around her eyes and ears, and tonight on her arms as well, but it just can't be linked to what she is eating, as last night was just plain rice pasta with olive oil, for example, and it has been different things every time...

Hives can certainly be caused by a virus. Ds is not allergic to any food (He has had hospital allergy tests for other symptoms)but he has twice had such bad hives that he has had to be given steroids.

My DS1 is very allergic and was also covered in hives when he had chicken pox.

Dr said that allergies are to proteins and viruses are proteins so therefore it is perfectly possible to have an allergic reaction to a virus. This means poor DS is allergic to chicken pox as well as all his food allergies. I will be interested to see what happens when DS2 inevitably gets chicken pox - whether DS1 gets hives without chicken pox when his immune system encounters the virus again.

He had the hives all over.

I would take her to the Doctor if I were you.

Could it be hand foot and mouth though?

He isn't allergic to anything else as far as I know no.

It did come and go all over his body but was worse on his face. He'd have it on face and arms one day and then legs and chest another and there didn't seem to be any pattern to it, no time of day that it was worse or anything like that.

I got alot of tuts and stares when we were out because it did look quite horrendous and I had to get my gp to write to his nursery to say he didn't have anything contagious.

I gave ds Piriton but tbh that made little difference.

Yes, definitely take her to the GP.

What is hand foot and mouth balloonslayer? It sounds like a disease for cows!

Thanks all for messages. Will make appt with GP but I never feel very hopeful as the only medical professionals who seem to take allergies seriously so far for us have been at the allergy clinic. She still had red arms and a patch underneath her eye when she went to bed- am wishing that she had a see through sleeping bag so I could check her body wasn't rashy in the night too!

I don't know whether it's helpful or not that everyone I speak to (esp my mum and MIL) says 'Babies get all kinds of rashes and it is perfectly normal'.

I can't help going into panic mode whenever I see anything that even remotely resembles a hive.

Hand foot and mouth has nothing to do with foot and mouth, don't worry. It causes blisters on the hands, feet and mouth. I have tried to find some pictures on t'internet but they are all scary - my DS had what I thought were warts on his hands and no other symptoms. Info here

Another one could be "slapped cheek disease" also called fifth disease as it was the fifth common childhood illness after CP, rubella, measles and mumps. There is a picture here but it can be less severe, the ones they show on things like this are always the worst cases.

Oh the picture coming up now is a lot less severe than the one I linked to, which was a baby with a VERY red face. Now it's a little girl with red circles put over her eyes to prevent identification presumably but which gave me the heebiejeebies. A much less severe reaction (apart from the eyes )

I'll give you a link to 'urticaria' (which is like the posh word for hives but you'll see it's caused by a lot of things!).

www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23068988/

I would ask the doc about it but both mine got this sort of reaction when they were ill (they were allergy children too). I get it sometimes when I'm too hot or if I've been suddenly exposed to the sun for a long period. It's a funny thing but it happens a lot in children (though of course it's worrying as it's not a nice thing to see). It's more annoying as an adult I think!

If it accompanies any swelling, you need to treat it asap. I assume you have piriton and the like at home (actually if there is swelling with it, you should see the GP sooner rather than later!).

actually, you have reminded me of when dd was about 7 months old and I thought she was allergic to everything as she kept getting hives. I was terrified so I'm not belittling the way you feel.

Also, I found that if they've had some sort of allergic reaction or hive reaction then it hangs around longer when they are ill....

hope she feels better soon

www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23068849/ oops meant to link to this one (acute urticaria) not the other one which is the long lasting one

allergies are always worse when a child is ill, especially if they are dehydrated with it. But children often do get rashes for other reasons so it's hard to know what is going on.

As long as there is no sign of breathing problems, swelling or floppiness I'd be inclined to try a dose of piriton, lots of drinks, a cool bath, some carrot (for the vitamin A) and probiotics if you have any. Then if she isn't improving tomoorrow see the gp.

Skin prick tests are not 100% reliable. My child has tested positive for capiscum but can eat it raw. We only avoid foods when they have definitely reacted to them.

we also found that the skin prick tests all made it look like dd had very major reactions to food (her whole arm swelled up and turned bright red) but I knew she just had very reactive skin iyswim

(blood tests are still the gold standard test I think but it has been years since we've gone back to the clinic so I don't know if things have moved on!)

DS used to come out in hives a lot. He is allergic to cat fur and strawberry milkshake .

He also reacts to the hot and cold, as does his dad and grandad and occasionaly there was no apparant reason for it at all. He was eventually prescribed ceterizine (sp?) which he could take once a day, every day and it seemed to calm down the reactions.

I used to panic about it big style so can understand your concern.

Thanks a lot all- so I guess it seems it could be the virus and not a particular reaction to foods. I have noticed it is a bit worse when she is tired- she could eat porridge and a banana in the morning and have no reaction and then the same again in the evening and get bright red patches for a few minutes. She's been generally really tired since being ill so has been knackered most of the time- maybe this could be contributing?

Foxinsocks- do you give your DD foods that react badly with her skin to eat anyway? It seems to me that nearly all my DD's reactions have been skin contact... perhaps I should be a bit bolder in what I try.

On the skin prick tests she came up between 0.1 and 0.4 (diameter of red blotch) for about six things, and I have avoided all those things plus lots of other allergenic risks completely. She is now 14 months so maybe I should be a bit more experimental? Thanks for the urticaria link. It is reassuring to know that it is a well established fact that illness can cause it too.

I would definitely leave everything until you feel she is 100% better. I know that's difficult when they are that age and getting everything that's going round!

I'm very interested in how you describe her actually because that's how I felt about dd too (skin contact reactions). She did have v severe reactions to egg and milk but a lot of her other ones, I felt weren't really that severe.

However, I still think you need to be careful. It's not worth being bold yet I don't think. Has she ever had blood tests? They can be a trauma for a child (especially that age) so it might be worth waiting.

2/3 is quite a crucial age as a lot of children start outgrowing allergies then (not all of them do, but some do).

Which ones came up positive on the skin prick tests?

Sorry for delayed response, I have been at grandparents' over the New Year. Happy New Year all.

DD is now hive-free and feeling much better, although still getting the occasional odd red patch, but it definitely was the virus and not a food, thank goodness. I was also extra- stressed out about it all, and have just found out I am pregnant (though only about 7 weeks) so that was probably why I was in a hormonal allergy meltdown!

Fox in Socks- she has never had a severe reaction, only localised hives, no swelling, vomiting etc., but then again, she has never had egg, fish, nut etc as clinic's advice was to introduce foods in hospital after a year, and she is only just 14 months.

On the skin prick test she came up positive very mildly to milk, wheat, peanut, and a little more to cod, sesame and soya. But out of these she has only ever had milk and wheat. On the other hand, I eat all of these except peanuts and have been breastfeeding her with no problem- her skin is fine, so is digestion. We also keep all these foods in the house, and she has never, as far as I know, had any problems from accidental contact. So I suppose it looks like her allergies could potentially be mild and short lived, but it is hard to say. No blood tests planned yet, but I suppose she will do them in a year or so if there are still problems. I do worry about the limitations of her diet, but she eats so much veg, fruit, meat, rice etc. and still breastfeeds a lot, so I am not really concerned about nutrition, more about limiting her experimentation with food!

Has your DD started to outgrow her allergies then? They do sound quite similar.

Hi fust! Congratulations, what lovely new year news about your pregnancy!

Yes, dd outgrew milk at I think age 2-3 (shamefully, I can't remember the exact age but I remember we went in for a food challenge and she failed it at 18 months but passed it around 6-12 months later). I think soya happened at the same time.

Egg remained a problem and at around 6/7 years, I rubbed some raw egg on her and she seemed not to react. It's egg white she is allergic to. She will eat eggs now but only eats the yolk (despite me never telling her it was only the white she was allergic to) so I'm not 100% sure it is outgrown. Strangely, her father is allergic to egg and chicken too!

We still get random hive outbreaks too but we normally have piriton on hand. Whenever she's ill, she almost always comes up in some sort of rash.

I too worried about the limitations of their diet. But if it gives you any reassurance, the most wonderful thing about dd is that she will eat almost any fruit and vegetable. In fact, she almost prefers them. And she is very good at eating meals that are like roast dinners (so meat and 2 veg) as she had a lot of that as a baby.

Annoyingly though, because of the milk allergy, she won't eat any creamy sauces or have butter on her toast or eat cheese which can be quite limiting and I'm going to try and introduce those things slowly into her diet bit by bit.

You sound like you are doing just the right things and have the back up of the clinic which must be v reassuring. I so hope she does outgrow them!

(I mean she's outgrown the milk allergy but because she never got used to milk products, it's been quite difficult reintroducing them. Though as the doctor pointed out, didn't take her long to introduce chocolate or ice cream into her diet!)

Thanks foxinsocks, your tale sounds quite reassuring! You must be glad to be out of the allergy woods now.

After reading what you said, I made DD 'macaroni cheese' which was basically 99% rice products (flour/milk/pasta) and 5% olive oil. She was disgusted and wouldn't eat a mouthful, not surprisingly! Oh well, perhaps it is not a bad thing if our DDs don't like creamy sauces!

My Son is 3 and has just had Hand Foot and Mouth, it started on one foot spread to the other one and then to the hand, he lost the skin on his palms and Souls of his feet now he has what I think is Hives, could there be a link, he seems to have one thing after another.
They appear as welts then they get bigger and look like an O shape with a red edge to them and then they dissapear just to turn up somewhere else on his body.
He has had a blood test and I will have wait and see, I was told it's a Virus.