Baby has hives - dont know what causes it!

[Faybells]

Hi there..

I'm wondering if anyone else can shed some light or share their experiences with me regarding my baby's hives....this is a long message im afraid! But if you've had experiences with allergies and hives, I'd be grateful for your input.

My son is 7 months old. He developed eczema at around 3 months old. We tried homeopathy and natural creams first before trying steroids or petroleum based products and, thankfully, his has been eczema free for a while now. He is exclusively breastfed, and I didnt change my diet.

However, around the same time I noticed he would break out in isolated patches of hives - small mosquito bite-type white bumps over red areas of skin, that clearly irritated him. They would come up and go down within about 20 minutes & only seem to come up due to contact irritation, e.g. perfume or baby wipes.

But over the last month or so they have become quite severe. We started weaning and noticed larger patches coming up on his arm...but there was absolutely no pattern with the food we'd given him, so we started to wonder if it was the disenfectant wipes we'd used to clean the high chair.

then while we were on holiday in centre parcs, he had a very severe reaction after our second day of swimming. about 20 minutes after coming out of the pool (I had rinsed him immediately after) he started to come out in hives. We took him to the changing rooms to get him ready to go home, and by this point his whole torso and under arms were COVERED in hives, almost joining up. The rest of his body was pale, he went limp and became unresponsive, barely able to open his eyes. I was nearly hysterical and tried to get out of the changing rooms to take him to the medical centre but could not find the exit!! there was just rows and rows of changing rooms doors and lockers. It was my worst nightmare. My partner put some olive oil on him as a last attempt at trying to help him where we were, and thankfully he started to come round, and within 5 minutes he was awake and alert again, atlhough was still covered in hives for an hour.

we have been taking him swimming once a week since he was 9 weeks old and he had never had a reaction like this before. The only thing that we could see was different was the fact we had taken him two days in a row, and he had also been wearing a body suit that we used the day before - perhaps this was saturated in chorine? He also had used a rubber ring.

a couple of weeks later we gave him his first bit of dairy, cheese, for the first time, and he came out in hives again, not as bad as the centre parcs occasion but still quite severe, covering his chin, neck and chest.

We have seen a paediatric allergy nurse specialist and our GP who have both seen pictures of the cheese reaction and agreed that it was a very severe reaction. They prescribed antihistamine drops and told me not to go anywhere without them. The allergy nurse thinks that it is a dairy allergy and told us to keep him off dairy until a year old. But I am still eating dairy in my diet, and see no pattern to his reactions and my diet. The eczema has gone without my need to stop eating dairy.

But, although I agree he had a severe reaction to dairy, I am not convinced that his other reactions can be due to dairy. She argued that he must have eaten something that day to cause it. I just dont agree. Even from the early age he had reactions to baby wipes and perfumes, and the swimming pool incident was so severe I just cant imagine that he had 'eaten' something early that morning (breakfast was a few hours prior to the flare-up) to cause such a massive reaction hours later.

Although there is no easy answer, I am now petrified that I still am in the dark as to what is causing these massive reactions. Thankfully we have hd no more for a few weeks now, but I'm on tenterhooks wondering when the next one will be. The nurse would not test him as he is too young.

I guess what I'm really wondering is if anyone else has gone through anything similar, how they coped with it, and whether anyone has any similar experiences that would help me figure out other possible causes for my baby's hives. I do wonder if I should push for further tests or referrrals to really get to the bottom of it, as I just dont feel dairy is the main culprit.

Thanks for reading - know its a long one!! lol.

Hi, my son was allergic to dairy & eggs, has grown out of dairy now. He was exclusively breastfed & had eczema & came out in hives on chin neck & chest after 1st bottle of sma. My health visitor referred us to allergy clinic in local hospital & he was 8 mths at time of appointment. He was given skin prick test & blood test both of which confirmed dairy allergy & showed up an egg allergy. You definitely need to push for tests as if they have 1 allergy they often gave another. Ds would have come out in hives if I kissed him after drinking a cup of tea. There is a separate allergy board on here which has great advice & let's you know there are others in the same boat

Sounds to me like he probably has allergies to ingredients on the wipes. When ds2 was allergy tested (positive for eggs dairy sesame, hive reaction) he was blood tested for penicillin at the same time and reacted very badly to the anaesthetic cream they used to numb over his vein.

I know his eczema is triggered by sodium lauryl sulphate as well as my diet (bfed). I wonder if there are any similar ingredients in the rubber suit? Or possibly it may have rubbed his skin although that wouldn't account for such a severe reaction.

you mention a pead allergy nurse, have you been reffered to an allergy clinic and see a immunologist?

might be worth trying to see one, and failing that you need to start getting some of your concerns aknowledged and investigated.

allergies dont come in ones, and certainly skin prick tests for envirnmental allergies and some more suspect foods might be in order.

what advice have you been given for a severe reaction in the future?

Thanks a lot for your messages - new to mumsnet and didn't realise there was a specific allergy board!

Anyway - eragon, I would be happier actually going to a clinic and seeing an immunologist as you suggest, I think I shall request this. I'm just not convinced that 'dairy allergy' covers all his reactions. And it's interesting that you mention the sulphate, puffylovett, as a trigger as I noticed a possible link with his eczema when I drank red wine and ate dried fruit (l

It's such a conundrum, I feel I'm constantly suspicious of everything I eat and drink, or wear and anxious in new environments. Just felt the nurse didn't really understand this.

I have been given antihistamine drops and she told me not to go anywhere without them. And to call 999 if his breathing affected. I'm just on tenterhooks not knowing what cld trigger a reaction, and constantly checking that I have the drops and running through how to use them shd I need them. Bleurgh!!!

I think I shall head back to the GP and see if I can be referred to an immunologist!

Thanks for your advice :) x

One quick question; how old we're your kids when they were tested for allergies? The nurse said DS too young at 7 months....?

Hi - I agree, you need to push for more tests. My friend's son is dairy intolerant, and has terrible hives. He is still tested annually and I know he was first tested very young.

My ds2 had hives on and off over the course of 6 months when he was around 3 years. We never actually found the cause - my GP said it was most likely a reaction to a tummy bug he had, as they first developed the following day.

I think ds2 was 9 months. But by then we'd had clear reactions to dairy egg and penicillin and my gp had no hesitation in sending us off to immunologist, she waslovely.

Ds1 however was another story, he was clearly intolerant to soooo many foods with bad eczema, but I really had to fight for a pae referral and coeliac testing. He was never properly checked for allergies. Different hospitals though - totally different experiences.