Engorgement and allergic reaction / hives

[Awils]

hi Just wondering if anyone has experienced this / heard of this happening . Currently breastfeeding however I’ve been away from my baby for the day twice in which his dad has gave him expressed milk via bottles . I didn’t pump both times so was obviously engorged at the end of the day and both times my whole body has come out in hives /rash as if I’m having an allergic reaction. My throat started to get sore so was quite concerned but took an antihistamine and pumped and it went within a few hours . The first time it happened I wasn’t sure what caused it but now as it’s happened again when engorged I think it’s related to this ?!

You should see a doctor but in the meantime, think carefully about what you ate and drank on those days… could you have had a bad reaction to something dietary? Could be purely coincidental that it’s happened when you’ve not breastfed. I’ve had hives in the past which I later discovered were being triggered by aspartame … I cut it out and was cured. But I’d see a doctor or your midwife to find out what’s going on.

Not exactly your experience as no engorgement, but I'm breastfeeding and developed hives, had allergy screening test and I have developed an allergy to egg white. Never had any problems with eggs before but apparently it is due to the hormones upsetting my immune system.

You can get hives from stress. It’s not a huge leap to think that your body would consider engorgement a stressful situation.

if you don’t want to bring an electric pump and store milk, you could get a small hand pump and just express enough during the day to prevent engorgement