question about hives in a child - Allergies Message Board

briesmom · 12-30-2007, 01:15 PM

My daughter is 8 and has had problems with getting hives (unknown cause) in the past but usually go away with Benedryl and occasionally had to use prescription medications).

However this time, she has had them for almost 2 weeks. After a week of Benydryl with no success, we went to her pediatrian who started her on a steroid and prescription antihistamine. They went away for a couple of days and now are coming back. have one day left of steroids. What we are noticing now is that they are appearing first over joint areas. My question is...does this mean anything or has anyone else had them appear this way?

We have tracked what she eats and comes in contact with and cannot come up with anything new or that stands out. I know hives are not suppose to be anything to worry about and we are going for allergy testing as soon as the doctor gets back from the holidays, but just concerned about why we can't seem to break the cycle this time.

Thanks for any input.

Sannah · 12-30-2007, 04:51 PM

Hi, if she is eating something that is giving her hives the reaction gets worse with time and maybe this is why the hives won't go away this time?

kdel · 12-31-2007, 08:38 AM

This may sound strange but I know from experience that it happens. We went through a period with my son who was 2 at the time. He kept getting hives, we kept giving benadryl. My son had no sore throat, no fever, just hives and a bit of crankiness. I kept taking him to the doctor because he also became a bit weak when excurting himself. This went on for 3 weeks before a nurse finally suggested we test him for strep. His pediatrician wasn't willing to do the test because he didn't have the classic symptoms. Finally I took him in and refused to leave the office without the test. It was positive! Now everytime he gets strep he gets hives- he had strep so many times after that and never the soar throat. He's 5 now and just for the first time did he present with the classic, sore throat, fever symptoms first-followed by hives.
Also just so you know everytime he had strep (which was alot) the rapid test done in the office was always negative but the 24-48 hour culture was positive and once it even went into his bloodstream and this was the fault of doctors because they refused to test sooner. I knew my son and he just wasn't acting "right" to me-unfortunatley this is not usually enough for the doctors. It's worth a try. Good luck to you.