My 9 year old son has been recently diagnosed with cold urticaria. At first, it started after swimming he would get a rash and raised welts on his body. I spoke with a nurse at his doctors office and she told me she gets like that when she swims in cold water. She told me to give him benadryl and seeing that he had his physical scheduled in about a week, to wait til then to see him. Well, within that time we went to the beach, my son was in the water not even 10 minutes and went into anaphylactic shock. I had not known the severity of it or that it was even an allergy at this point. After seeing a Pediatric Allergist, he informed me more about this allergy. There are times he will hold a juice box and his hand gets red and itchy. If his feet are near airconditioning vents his toes get puffy, itchy and red. I am very nervous about the winter time and how he will be with this. It is a little chilly here for August and he ran outside for something and came in shivering. If there is anyone who has this would you be able to give me advice? I asked the allergist about winter and he told me to keep him bundled up. What about the fall as it starts to get colder? If anyone has had experience with this I would really like to hear from you. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Karen

My 13 year old daughter has this, I am convinced. We had her to an allergist in the fall of last year because she kept getting hives on her hands and lower arms when they'd go out into this field for gym. We thought it was something in the field, beause she didn't seem to get them anywhere else. Later they started developing in other locations though. The allergist tested her and of course she is allergic to just about everything (has asthma too) , but he did the ice test and didn't feel she had the cold allergy. None the less, he wrote a note to keep her in during gym class when it was less than 55 degrees outside (that is when it seemed to happen, when they'd go out for gym in the morning and it was cold still). This spring, we went to AZ and were on a boat. While it was a warm day, the lake was cold, and when she pulled out her legs, the hives soon developed on the part of her legs that was in the cold water.
In the winter, she is usually ok if her hands, legs and feet are kept warm. Being out with out a hat doesn't seem to cause any trouble. It seems to be the legs and arms and hands mostly that get the hives. We live in Chicago area by the way, so when I say winter, I mean Cold cold! I'm taking her back to the allergist in a week or so, since she will need a new note for the school year. Fortunately she has gym later in the day, so she won't miss as much. AS for what do for it medical wise, I dont really know since the allergist didn't officially diagnose it. He did give her zyrtec but I dont think that is helping at all..so we will see. I"ll try to post what I find out this next appointment. Let me know what you find out.