Unknown Allergy
 

The past three mornings, my 1 year old son has woken up with hives all over his body. My wife and I are working with our doctor to narrow down a cause but there are some things that don't make any sense.

Shortly before this began, we discontinued formula and started him on whole milk. Our first thought was that the milk is the cause but...

1. Why does he only have a reaction during the night? He gets 8 oz of milk 3 times a day including some right before bed but only reacts to something overnight.

2. We have been feeding him cheese, cottage cheese and other dairy products for a while. Why an allergy now?

The doctor asked about laundry detergent & stuff like that but we have used the same stuff since he was 6 months old with no change.

We went over his new toys and the only new thing are some bubbles. But, we didn't use them at all yesterday and he still work up with a rash.

Anyone else have any suggestions? We are lost on a cause. :confused:

A colleagues now 3 year old son went thru the first year and a half of his life as the medical profession tried to figure out what this poor child was allergic to. His symptoms were a lot more severe than hives, but eventually they got to the bottom of his problems. It was a very frightening time for the parents, because their first child had no problems with anything.

This kid has an allergy to wheat products, nut products, some preservatives found in foods, milk, and a host of other things. Basically, this child can't have any processed foods of any sort. Mom has become quite the home cook because of it.

Since he's having the problems at night only, is it anything to do with being in a diaper for an extended period of time, during the day his diaper would be changed frequently, so he's not sitting in his waste.

Is there anything in the bedding that could be causing it? ie bed bugs or dust mites that he's allergic to.(i've gotten bed bug bites from an upscale hotel) Has his mattress been thoroughly cleaned (professional steam cleaning might be an option)

You haven't changed laundry detergents, but allergies could also develop over time, what about washing his clothes in something really gentle like ivory snow or something, that has no perfumes, dyes or anything additional added.

Allergies can develop over time, and people can outgrow allergies as well, hopefully the doctor will come up with an answer soon.

My 20-year-old brother developed an allergy to laundry detergent we had been using for YEARS. So it's possible to develop such an allergy.

But that doesn't explain why he's getting it at night...this is a real head scratcher. I'd say try cleaning the bedding and switching laundry detergents. You've got to try everything when it comes to allergies.

Allergies can be difficult to identify, and often they are never identified. Though if you see an allergist/immunologist he or she will find at least 3 allergies on virtually anyone tested. In a situation like this you look to identify any new "allergens", but just because they aren't any new allergens doesnt mean you cant develop a reaction to something you have been exposed to daily. To run the list of possible allergens: (1) Everything but oxygen has been implicated in causes allergic reactions. You have obviously considered the most common problems, but dont forget to check for things that change with the season: Dust or molds that become active when you first turn your air-conditioning on. So check your filters. The usual molds or pollens in the air as spring arrives. Most children grow out of allergies or need only simple treatments such as antihistamines for enviromental allergies. Food allergies are a totally different beast, and probably not your problem.

Good luck, its never good when its your own child. Been there, done it, it went away...without changing anything.

Maybe he is overheating? Has your home gotten warmer with the changing seasons?

Thanks for all of the input. Well, this morning he woke up without any rash at all. The only thing we changed was to turn off his humidifier. Even though we clean it, I thought that it may have grown some bacteria that didn't get washed out. While we can't be sure that was the cause yet, we are glad that is most likely isn't milk or any other dairy. We plan on going a few days without the humidifier and see what happens. If there are no further outbreaks, we will turn the humidifier back on and try again. If that is the cause, we should know in a couple days after that.

This last post is good to hear, f6twister. Keep us posted, I know we'd like to know how it's going!

Update
 

Well, things were fine until yesterday. He got hives again for and this time we are at a loss for a cause.

We thought the hives were due to the humidifier but we haven't used it since it became suspect. We haven't changed his diet or given him anything he hasn't had before. No change in soaps, no new clothes, no new toys....nothing.

I've heard two things in last few month that may be a cause and want to see if anyone else has heard of this also.

#1 Hives can be the bodies reaction to teething. He is going through a major teething phase right now and I think he was last time also.

#2 Hives can be a reaction to fighting off a virus such as a cold.

I'm starting to believe that one or both of these are possible in this case as he doesn't have any other signs that this is an allergic reaction. He doesn't have any trouble breathing and they don't appear to both him in the least (no itching). I also read that nearly all allergic reactions in toddlers appear withing one hour of exposure to the allergen. His developed overnight in every case, and again with no exposure to anything new.

This has happened to me as well, with both of my kids on separate occasions.
They developed huge weals (large hives) all over. The doctor prescribed benadryl & lots of liquids. For both, the hives subsided in a couple of days & left as mysteriously as they came. We never found out why it happened.
The nice thing about benadryl is that it is a sedative, so the kids were able to avoid a lot of the itching & uncomforableness by being unconscious most of the time.
It made me recall that both my kids also developed newborn rash soon after birth. They developed hives then as well, although the newborn rash doesn't seem to make the infant uncomfortable.

Good luck with this, I hope this gets sorted out soon. How awful it is when we cannot do anything for our children.

Out of curiousity I peeked around a bit and found this...
• Cold. Sometimes cold temperatures can cause hives. The same goes for a sudden change in temperature — when your toddler's skin is quickly warmed up after being cold, for example.

here...

Thanks for the great info. The hives lasted for two days then went away. We did give him Benadryl but the hives would come back a few hours after the Benadryl wore off. The funny thing is that he never seemed to notice them. At least he isn't alone.

you're lucky, my child is one of those few that it makes hyper, not sleepy, and we are talking WAY hyper

[QUOTE=f6twister]

I've heard two things in last few month that may be a cause and want to see if anyone else has heard of this also.

#1 Hives can be the bodies reaction to teething. He is going through a major teething phase right now and I think he was last time also.

#2 Hives can be a reaction to fighting off a virus such as a cold.
[QUOTE]

Absolutely hives can be caused by either of these things.

Another thought, did you leave the humidifier in the room? If you did, and there is some unknown growing in it, then it could spread without being turned on once it grew enough. Maybe clean it well with vinegar or bleach. And I'd definitely wash all the bedding -- just in case.

Good luck!

Yeah, I've heard of that happening to some people. I'm glad my kids don't react like that to it.
Benadryl has the same ingredient in it that Nytol does. Nytol costs more though. It knocks me on my ass too.

/not meaning to threadjack

yes demeter, it knocks me on my ass too....its also in tylenol pm and goody's pm which is usually what I take to sleep every nite.....I dont know how she ended up that way, we learned very early on....if we want to knock her out we give her nyquil lol

/end of not meaning to threadjack

Have him sleep with you a couple of nights.

Eliminate the variables here. It may be a mold alergy to something in the room vent. It could be something on his bed etc.

If he gets it back at all you could check a few other things including

Does he use a pacifier? My MIL is extremely allergic to latex and was here while I had a day care kid here with a bottle that had a latex nipple. She had a reaction just to that even though she never touched it.

Also the Mold allergy that was mentioned could very well be possible. As well as overheating as was mentioned. My MIL is very sensitive to heat and if she becomes overheated she gets a rash all over. Humidity exacerbates the situation a great deal. Humidity also encourages mold growth so there's a number of possibilities.

Glad that things seem to be calm for now. Good Luck.

Heat can cause hives. I know I have a rare allergic reaction to specific insects. And when I get bit, my body temperature rises. Through the night and with lying down, I tend to feel even hotter.

Curious to know if he gets them if he sleeps in your room. If it is mold, you might want to vacuum the rug or damp mop the wood floor.

We did leave the humidifier in the room but we cleaned after the last bout and haven't used it since. I took a look at it and it was still clean. As for the bedding, we change that on a regular basis.

We are saving the sleeping with us thing as a last resort only because we think he will not want to go back into his crib. If it was something in the vent or bed, I think the hives would show up more often

He has been off pacifiers for quite a while now and they have all be put away. We also threw out all of the latex ones as they were becoming worn.

We vacuum twice a week out of necessity as it is. We have a yellow lab who is shedding right now. Before anyone suggests that it is the dog, we already looked into that. He is in constant contact with something dog related so the frequency of the hives doesn't corrolate.

We really think it has something to do with the temperature changes or being warm. He has always been a warm kid. He almost never wants to use a blanket and will kick it off within an hour. The last bout of hives occurred during a couple of nights were the temperature changed rapidly over an hour or two so it is very possible he got too warm.