Penicillin allergy - what happens on subsequent times?

[Lexilicious]

Last Thursday my DS was poorly at nursery and had hardly eaten or drank anything, Friday morning he was diagnosed with tonsillitis and the GP prescribed Amoxicillin, which we duly followed for five days.

This morning (Friday) on waking up he had swollen lips, and bumpy rash all over his torso - called and booked to see the doc. He was perfectly chipper all day, ate and drank fine, nice long nap, etc. but the rash got worse and covered more of his body and face. We saw the GP later in the afternoon and she took about ten seconds to dx an allergy, thought drug allergy as she remembered us from last week, and of course it's a penicillin reaction (which takes a week to show up).

So now we go through another weekend of fighting to make him take the antihistamine medicine, which won't be fun.

My question is for those who have penicillin allergy or whose DC have it, obviously we'll aim to avoid it completely from now on but would a subsequent reaction to penicillin be a stronger reaction? quicker to arise? lesser/slower? any experiences at all - and anything that DS might be more sensitive to after having had this immune response?

A rash is considered a bad reaction. Any subsequent reactions would/could be worse.

Ds is allergic to penicillin and has been since he was 1. He was mostly prescribed erthrmycin as an alternative which worked fine. However he is now allergic to that too and is currently on clarithromycin which is hellish as it tastes so horrible.

DS2 has erythromycin or cefalexin. He had penicillin for the first time just prior to contracting chicken pox - we could see a weird rash under the chicken pox iyswim but didn't associate that or the diarrhoea with the penicillin. The second time he was prescribed it the rash and reaction was quicker.

I went through my childhood being fine with penicillin.

I had a dog bite and was given a very potent antibiotic and developed a rash about 3 weeks after starting the course. I was 19 years old at the time. The rash was very unpleasant (itchy, but not bleeding) and lasted the best part of a week.

When I was given penicillin a year after this, I developed a rash straight away. I stopped taking them immediately and the rash never became bad.

I haven't taken penicillin since (am now 46) and am curious as to whether I can tolerate it. I have only had antibiotics a couple of times in the past 20+ years and it has been erythromycin which makes me gag.

DD got a rash within three doses and we took her straight back to the docs. She is now 'red flagged' on hospital and GP computers. :(

i had a similar reaction when i was a child (though seem to remember it happening the same day) and i've managed to avoid it completely ever since. it's not hard to avoid penecillin... not sure why you think it might be

there are plenty other antibiotics you can be given... i've survived quite easily for 30yrs since dx.

Thanks for your experiences - interesting all. DS's is a really bad rash - almost his entire body, and very dense.

OK, so it sounds like 1. hope not to get ill, 2. alternative a/bs if required, and 3. general vigilance on reactions to all medicines?

i'm allergic to penicillin - bad rash and my skin scars and flakes if i take it (like bad ezcema)

i don't know if it would get worse if i did take it again - it's a been a few years since i was last given it (mistakenly).

my skin has become more sensitive since then, and even more so since having a baby.

but there are lots of other medications i can have to replace penicillin, so it's not too hard to get around it. I just make sure anytime i meet a new HCP that I tell them about the allergy.

I'm allergic to all types of penicillin as I also came out in severe rashes as a child. So I'm now prescribed Erythromycin or celfelaxin (sp) which is fine

I developed an allergic reaction at 18 have been given it twice since, each time I look like I have sunburn and skin can peel. DD1 has same reaction. DD2 is fine.

I'm sure it's not difficult to avoid penicillin, I'm sure I had it once or twice as a child but then never again until I had endometritis and basically didn't stop gushing bleeding lochia for 7 weeks after DS was born, and was prescribed flucloxacillin. (And a penny drops - could he possibly have developed a sensitivity to it from that as he was BF-ing???)

lexi ... if that's true, might well be the case for my LO too. I had a haemorrhage during labour and came home from hospital rattling with all manner of pills, including a pencillin substitute (though i forget the name).

I think i'd better get the GP to put that on my DS' records just in case.

thanks for provoking the thought!

Although you'd think if there was any evidence of such a direct link, penicillin variants would be yet another thing that you "can't" have if you're breastfeeding.

I'm no doctor, well not a medical one anyway, but antibiotics are 'live' drugs so you'd think that antibody response in the patient to drugs would be passed on through the milk as we know mother's immune system dynamically defending against viruses etc are passed on to help the baby too, so in that case the point is rather why didn't DS's body either react to the Fluclox at the time or build up a tolerance.

It is too late at night for amateur pharmacology.

DH and I are both allergic to it. We are never prescribed it but have things like erythromycin instead. Why would he ever be given penicillin again if you know he's allergic?

I had a colleague who managed to even be allergic to the safe-non-allergenic-antibiotic-we-give-people-allergic-to-penicillin-because-no-one-is-ever-allergic-to-it (I assume erythromycin or cefalexin).

Tmesis - yup, see my post about ds.

My Dgran had penicillin allergy and alwsy wore an SOS locket. Even so she managed to get given it a couple of times after it had been recognised. One time in a cream that swelled her up dramatically.

Every time she reacted worse to it so really avoid it.

I was allergic to penicillin as a small child. Later, in my teens I was given it for tonsillitis. My step-dad took me to the doctors and hadn't known I was allergic. Nothing too bad happened, I came up with strange deep red marks under my eyes, looked like I had been punched. Fast forward 20yrs, I was given Amoxillyn for an infection following a D&C. I decided to try it rather than go back to the drs. seeing as the reaction in my teens wasn't drastic. Nothing happened so possibly I have grown out of the allergy.

I think it might be worth considering wearing a medic alert bracelt for a drug allergy, in case of accidents, like a car crash, or in hosptial setting.

just a thought.

u can also get drug allergies confirmed if you ask to be reffered to a allergy clinic, and they can give you a clearer picture about the allergy.

i agree with eragon. my dad wears an sos talisman as he has high blood pressure & penicillin allergy. when he went to hospital to have rods in his neck they gave him penicillin and he was very ill after that he ALWAYS Wears the talisman. it has now saved his life on more than 1 occasion

I had an allergic reaction to penecillin when I was a small child and haven't had it since, (over 40 years.) There are plenty of alternatives, no problem.

Just make sure that you always state that he is allergic when prescribed antibiotics, as even though it says in RED on the front of my notes, doctors still try to prescribe penecillin.

Thanks again everyone. I will look into those bracelets for the small possibility that he was for some reason needing treatment when neither us nor his records were there to say no to penicillin.

I have my own appt with the GP in a couple of weeks and if there's time I will ask her whether an allergy clinic is worth exploring. Perhaps it might be better to wait a few years given that some of you have grown out of it. Or indeed it could be worse by then. I don't think he would understand going through that now and he definitely wouldn't like it. I definitely don't want him to start being scared of doctors.