Advice on allergies please

[sunshineandbooks]

Hi, I'm after some advice please. My DD, just turned 5, had what I think was an allergic reaction last night. She had her tonsils and adenoids out at 2.5 due to sleep apnoea and constant colds, but otherwise she had no symptoms. She was diagnosed with asthma, but TBH never needs her inhaler (I think she's used it twice since getting it 18 months ago). Very, very occasionally she might get a patch of eczema on her inner elbow and she's had white, milia-like spots on her cheeks since she was a baby, which googling has taught me can be a sign of allergies, but she's otherwise fine. I've never had to restrict her diet or anything and she's generally a very healthy, very active five-year-old with constant energy.

However, last night as I got her out of the bath, she had a few hive-like spots down the line of her back bone. I thought these might have been due to friction (she likes to pretend she's swimming and slides up and down the bath), but four hours later she woke up, came downstairs and literally her whole body was covered in hives. To begin with I thought she was coming down with chicken pox, so I smothered her in calamine lotion, gave her some piriton and settled her back to sleep. She coughed a lot in her sleep for the first couple of hours, but then slept soundly until this morning. This morning, however, there isn't a mark on her. Everything has completely gone.

I've decided this must be an allergic reaction, but I don't know what to do next. There's no point in asking for a doctor's appointment since she's now fine and there's nothing to see, but I'm a bit worried that a reaction that severe might mean that the next one is even more severe and could possibly be dangerous (I know anaphylaxis is worst case scenario and unlikely but it's there at the back of my mind). Should I get her tested through my local surgery? Or would I better keeping a food diary, etc. I've racked my brains to think of anything she's eaten/drunk/come into contact with that might have set this off, but there's nothing out of the ordinary.

Any advice/experience gratefully received. TIA.

My son had a similar reaction when he was about three. We never found out what it was and he's never had anything similar and he's 16 now. I did see the GP whilst he was in the middle of the reaction and was given piriton which I've always kept to hand since.
I had a similar thing when I was a teenager, again never happened again.
Perhaps keep a food diary for a while but be prepared for a pattern not to appear.

Thanks for the reply. I think that's what I'm edging towards. Earlier in the day we went for a walk in our local woods, as we do every day, so I wonder if it has anything to do with that, especially as she picked up some sort of dead vine that had been hanging from a tree. Strangely, though, her hands were the one place she didn't have the rash.

I think I'll just put it down to experience and watch her like a hawk.

has she been prescribed preventor inhalers for her asthma? rather than just ventolin?

has she always snored at night?

she could be allergic to mold, kicked up by walking in the woods, which would cause a reaction like this, and as allergies dont come in ones, more than one enviromental allergy could be a problem.

the all over body hives is quite a moderate sign of a reactions progession, and coupled with the coughing is a clear sign of something going on.

I would go to gp and ask for blood tests for enviromental allergies, and go on from there.
meanwhile its VERY important that lung function is well controlled, and that you have a piriton to hand all the time.

good luck.