[wanderinggypsy]

Anyone here have experience with hives? My oldest son, who's almost 7 and smaller than most his age, has broken out in crazy hives all over his buttocks, thighs, and lower back!!!

I have no idea what this is a reaction to as we haven't done anything different that I can think of !!!

A nurse on our street recommended I give him Benadryl, which I guess I will to soothe the itch (he's scratching himself raw!), but I hate to give chemical drugs to little kids... it just freaks me out!

Advice/ experience? Thanks everyone!

 

[Zaxmama]

My son woke up with hives the yesterday too.. but we think it might be from a stuffed frog DH brought home from work for our DS... anyhow we took a cool bath and I put some hydrocortizon cream on his itchies... so far so good.. for some reason topical seems better then ingestion when it comes to chemicals.. imho..

 

[chel]

dd had them when she was 15m and 5yrs (from some all natural potato chips and from her birthday cake).
she never itched, mostly just slept. Finding the cause would be really helpful to decrease the duration.

 

[wanderinggypsy]

It's been about 3 days for the hives now and while they don't seem to be spreading, they are still itching like crazy. I gave him Benadryl at night, but I am avoiding it during the day.... I do hope the hives go away soon.

 

[tnrsmom]

I am going to move this to Health and Healing for you.

 

[ceilydhmama]

A good percent of hives are idiopathic - having no clear reason. What seems to happen is that some event triggers the immune system and then you begin hiving.

Most hives burn out within a week or so. If there is no swelling around the mouth, throat, or joints I would just use comfort measures - aveano makes a good bath product and cream that helps.

If it lasts more than a week I would contact your Dr. I have chronic hives - which is a fairly common but little reported illness. I'll get a cold or something and begin to hive as a result. It takes months to get under control. I end up eating a low histamine diet and taking quite a bit of medication because my hiving is internal as well.

PM me if things don't improve and you want more info.
Cheers,
Diane

 

[3_opihi]

My son has chronic hives too. Like the previous poster said, sometimes there is no clear cut reason as to why they come on -- it could be from a virus, stress, anything really....

Benadryl might help- it usually doesn't do anything for my son, but we do keep him on an everyday antihistamine just to keep him in check, we take Alavert, but there are lots of others. The hives usually take about 2 weeks to calm down and have fully subsided by a month. We do lots of Aveeno baths, cold wet washcloths, keep him cool because heat will exacerbate, as well as keep him out of the sun. Poor thing.

If he starts to get a fever, or swelling make sure you have a doctor see him.

 

[MMMOM]

just a couple of days ago, my cousin was visiting us and she got hives, she said she wished she had her neem oil with her, because she hated the benedryl and neem oil works instantly. She said I can buy it at an indian grocery store at a good price, ie cheaper than the health food store. I plan on trying on my dd next she gets hives, it seems to run in my family.

 

[MMMOM]

I forgot to mention that you would apply the oil on the hives, not drink it.

 

[AlbertaJes]

I was diagnosed with chronic hives when I was 13. I ended up taking half a benadryl to treat them when they'd crop up. When I was 18, I saw a naturopath who put me on an elimination diet and we found nothing there either. Since then I've come to realize that the hives are a result of acid building in my stomach and by making sure I eat properly and frequently, I haven't had hives in over a year. When they last came up, I was treating them with an antacid, and they would go away much faster than with even a full dose of benadryl.

 

[ceilydhmama]

Alberta Jes - Your hives might go away with the antacid because they are a type of atihistamine too. Most people with chronic hives need the antacid type antihistime as well as the allergy type. The most common combo is rinatidine/reactine in Canada called zantac/zyrtec in the US.

 

[3_opihi]

Yep, this is so true. Ds has taken cimetidine for his hives, which is a stomach antacid. The only downfall with the cimetidine was that it gave him terrible anxiety, so I wouldn't recommend it.

If the benadryl doesn't work, there are stronger antihistamines. Atarax is one that I can think of, off the top off my head.

We've actually started giving my son corticostreroids when he flares up really bad, and this helps with the stomach pain, hives AND swelling, whereas the zantac and antihistamines did nothing. I know prednisone is evil, but he gets to the point where he starts to swell up very bad in his face and have like an arthritic type reaction in his legs. Sucks. Really bad.