Benedryl for DD's rash

[isaoma]

I've posted to this board off and on about my 18 month old dd allergies. Lately, it seems no matter what we do or how careful we are to avoid her allergins, new ones pop up and each reaction seems worse.

My question is this: Should I give her benedryl to alleviate a rash if she is not showing signs of discomfort from the rash? I don't know if it would be better to help her get the histamines out of her body or let her body cope with it on its own KWIM?

I don't really use conventional meds on her unless it is absolutely needed. Is there something more 'natural' I could give her instead or should I let the rash be? Of course I'd give her benedryl if she was uncomfortable and itching - but she is not...now I'm just repeating myself, so I'll stop.

WWYD?

[Chinese Pistache]

I wouldn't give anything if it's not bothering her. From what I understand, the antihistamines don't remove histamine from the body, but block it so the person doesn't feel the effects of it.

Here's a link that explains it better than that: http://health.discovery.com/centers/..._55&center=p01

I'm sorry your dd is reacting to so many things. Does she have environmental allergies, too? It seems like a lot of people are having flare ups now that spring is coming.

[kjbrown92]

I guess I can't give you advice. For my DD, who has skin reaction to corn, she gets a rash on her inner thighs that look like chafing, and a really bad spot behind her left knee. I only put the topical benadryl on the knee patch if she complains that it's itchy, otherwise I do nothing to them. But for her stomach symptoms from food, I give her gripe water and calcium carbonate (mostly because her screaming keeps everybody up all night).

Is it an eczema rash or another kind of rash? And have you had her allergy tested? If it gets worse each time, it sounds like a regular allergy, as opposed to an intolerance....

K

[isaoma]

Chinese Pistache - Thanks for the link. I never knew exactly what the process was for antihistamine meds to work...now I feel better about not giving them to her. Why do doctors so readily suggest taking it if it doesn't really help a body once the histamines are released .

I'm not sure if she has environmental allergies, she hasn't shown signs of hayfever or anything.

kjbrown92 - Her reaction depends on the offending food. But, are mostly skin related.

- Milk: she gets eczema on her checks and sometimes behind the ears. Also, as an infant she would also get muscousy and bloody poops, and gas.

- There is something else thats causing a eczema reaction but havent pinned that down yet (it comes and goes).

- Blueberries: At first it caused a rashy ring around her mouth, but DH accidently fed her blueberry pancake about 2 weeks ago she reacted that very day with raised tiny pimples on her left wrist and more raised pimples under her right armpit and surrounding area.

- This morning DH fed egg yolks and she got red round splotches (just barely raised and about as wide as a smiley icon) all over her trunk front and back.

Come to think of it, perhaps she wasn't reacting to blueberries a few weeks ago, but the eggs. We don't feed them to her very often at all (she actually doesn't like eggs), but asked for them this morning when DH was fixing our breakfast.

I haven't seen an allergist yet, wasn't sure if this should be the next step or NAET? We (since she is still nursing) might do TED, but DD is such a picky eater anyway and I am so afraid to take away her staple foods. She will experiment with foods, but only consistantly eats three or four things really.

[isaoma]

Oh forgot to add, DD did get muscle tested in January. The doctor warned us that using a surrogate (me) the results aren't as accurate. He said that she had allergies to: milk (goat and cow), barley, and nightshades.

[kjbrown92]

The Benadryl sounds like it could help the skin reactions. At least it helps my DD when she has the eczema type rash she gets from corn. But she stole a pear yesterday and got a rash all over a diaper area, and she's on Zyrtec all the time now, and that didn't help this rash. So the benadryl may or may not help.

Start keeping a food diary at the least. But it sounds like it could be the egg, but the blueberry pancakes would have had both the egg and the blueberry in it. [DS gets the rash around the mouth from corn and soy, and benadryl doesn't do anything for that one either. It just goes away on it's own.]

Because it's almost hivey in nature, I'd almost go for traditional allergy testing, just because you don't want it escalating. Though the things that cause DS's ring around the mouth don't show up on skin testing, and neither do my DD's corn-induced eczema. But the eggs sound more hivey to me with splotches all over them.

A TED of course would show you all the foods, whether IgE or IgG response.

K