Can anxiety cause reaction of MAJOR hives in children?

[halobeam]

My nine year old is noticeably anxious (bully from school, sick Dad, many things). In the past six weeks he's not gone 48 hours without a MASSIVE breakout of severe hives needing prednisone at times when the anti histamines aren't effective enough.

Am of course looking into food, environmental allergies with specialists at this time, but am limited in his testing because they need him 3 days clear of anti histamines to specify/eliminate the cause, if in food or environment, and he hasn't been able to get through 2 nights without it.

Any advice, suggestions, ANYTHING would be GREATLY appreciated. He's so tired from the anti-histamines, exhausted, missed much of the end of school and now, the beginning of camp. I need to help this poor kid.

Thanks in advance,

[Texasgal]

1. Stress is the number one

causes of pediatric hives. Alot of times this passes, kinda like loosing your pedi-teeth.

There are alot of oral meds out there to help, has your doctor suggested any thing like that?

[Not_Giving_Up]

2. Yes, stress can cause hives

It sounds like that might be the problem, since he is continuously broken out. (Unless there's something that he's eating or drinking EVERY day!) My brother broke out in hives regularly as a kid, but it stopped eventually.

[1monster]

3. Ever since he was about three or four years old, my son has had

periodic bouts of hives. His doctor told me that we will probably never know what causes them.

I just got used to carrying around benadryl spray and oral liquid. And making sure that his school also had a supply if he had an outbreak in school.

He's thirteen now and still has episodes of hives, but they are not as bad as when he was small.

On edit: Use the topical spray or cream and cut the oral dosage in half or less. He will be less tired and the topical give immediate relief.

[dajoki]

4. yes!

stress and anxiety can cause severe physical illness.

[halobeam]

5. thanks everyone...

On my way to allergist now... I'll let you know the update....

[halobeam]

6. First things first....

the allergist was better than the last one my son saw. I knew this immediately, when he said he would blood test him for "main" allergies...ie.. peanuts, eggs, milk, wheat, etc. The last allergist said he can't be tested until off anti histamines. WRONG...blood test can be done on these meds. Skin pricks can't be. So why didn't he do what he could test for? Good question to ask him, right? Boy am I mad. This seems negligent of the allergist to increase meds on this kid without even testing him when he could have. Oh my God!

Next, he lightly scratched a tic tac toe board on his forearm with the end of a wooden stick. LIGHTLY... it was red for two hours. Seriously "ticky"/sensitive skin. May even be breaking out because of changes in temp. hot to cold/cold to hot... yes.. even SEVERE hives... they've seen it many times before.. surprised me.

He changed doses of meds.. my son has been put on so much, he's been groggy for a month and a half. No need for this, he's a little kid...all 62 pounds of him at 4'3". He also noticed a new change in medication at the onset of this problem, although rare to break out from Advair inhaler as other docs told me, it is worth taking him off it, and putting him back on the pulmicort inhaler he was on for two years prior. Why didn't ANY of these docs do this?


He took and re-took his air flow test and found 85% airway movement in large bronchials and less at 68% movement in small ones, which he felt with tweaked meds, may help that. Plus .... keeping him on the meds regularly that have NO anti histamine everyday would benefit his airflow when the other docs, said to keep him off meds until the test can be taken... They never said that ONLY the anti histamine asthma meds shouldn't be taken..

btw.. this doc felt he should be on all meds, including anti histamine until the blood work comes back. Makes sense to me.. since this oppressive heat in NY is dangerous for asthmatics... (He had his FIRST asthma attack four weeks ago, because of the heat and being off the meds, as instructed, and it was the first one he had in five years).

Any comments on all of this would be a gift to us at this point... thanks to all!

[cally]

7. I'm glad you have a better allergist

My daughter broke out in major hives one time in her life. It was the day we moved. It must have been stress.

I don't know if you've tried this, but many in my family are allergic to laundry detergents. We break out in hives. I double rinse the clothes and use a soap that's designed to minimize allergic reactions.

Good luck.

[schrodingers_cat]

8. I've also had detergent problems

which were extreme - in addtion to changing the detergent, look into changing all soaps and shampoos. It's actually a pretty simple fix.
Anyway, I had hives all over too becuase I slept in sheets and wore clothes that had the soap residue in them.

[halobeam]

10. I didn't change his shampoo yet, but I did change his soap

to a natural oatmeal soap. I'm afraid if I change everything, I won't find out what it is, but then, I'm finding I'm changing it anyway, because it's healthier, and it's like you said, a simple fix.

[Der Blaue Engel]

14. It's probably better to eliminate all possible allergens

and then try adding things back in rather than the reverse anyway. That way he doesn't have to suffer while you struggle to find the allergen if it takes a while.

Speaking as someone who's deathly allergic to something as inocuous as ibuprofen, my bet's on the inhaler.

Sounds like the new allergist will help you get to the bottom of this eventually. Good luck.

[halobeam]

16. Thanks... funny you mention ibuprofen...

He mentioned it too. My son gets migraines and I gave him Advil, he said to stop Advil and give Tylenol. He said many people that have reactions as such...severe hives... get them from Advil. hmmmmmmm...

thanks for the info... I guess I'll remain going in the direction of removing the allergens. Then add back in. Seems easy to see as a good course of action, but I've been lacking sleep for a very long time. Not seeing things easily lately.

[halobeam]

9. Thanks.. I've switched to Woolite for now

I was using Tide. His clothes, bedding and anything he uses, our towels, etc.. are now all washed in Woolite. I don't know if that's the best thing to use, I plan to look into other alternatives, natural detergents. Don't know if Woolite is, but it's free of the dyes, fragrances, etc. I'm trying anything at this point.

We also bought a new air conditioner for his room. The other was so old, it was impossible to clean it thoroughly.

[cally]

11. I use All, Free and Clear

I think that's what it's called. I sometimes use Dreft but that's hard to find. An alergist recomended Dreft to my Dad who has horible reactions to detergents and soaps. Good luck.

[halobeam]

12. thanks cally.. I'll look into Free and Clear

it sounds familiar to me. I looked at the ingredient labels for Dreft and Tide. There is NO difference in the label. I know it's a case that they don't HAVE to list everything in there, but I was surprised. Both say "Ingredients included are: ...... " but NOT... "Ingredients:....."...

Having the "same" ingredients are not possible, because Dreft claims to preserve the flame retardent in children's clothing while Tide doesn't, therefore they have to have ingredients in there that aren't listed. Dreft also has fragrance and that is not listed. I believe it's dye free, but it doesn't say it is, ANYWHERE, while Woolite does.

Another thing I'm sure these companies found their way around, putting things in that we don't "need" to know.. yea right, until you actually "need" to know, and then not listing the complete ingredients.

[Lars39]

13. There's a Kroger brand that's like Free and Clear,

it's a whole lot cheaper, but works just as well.

[wovenpaint]

17. I have a recipe for "homemade" laundry detergent

You use 1 large box of baking soda (equaling 4 small ones), one box of boraxo (the mule teem one), 1/2 pound of un-dyed/unscented glycerin soap-that you need to grate up(craft stores have this-for soap making).

The recipe also calls for a few drops of essential oil for fragrance (like Lemongrass, etc)but if allergies are suspected, you can skip this-or try drops of olive oil.

Mix this all up in an airtight container and use less than you usually do. Bonus is that it should last you a long time!
I've made this in the past and it has performed satisfactorily.

Most detergents have optic whiteners added to give you the illusion that your clothes are clean, clean , clean. Irony is that over time, the brighteners dull the fibers. Woolite isn't as mild as you'd think. I'm a textile designer/fiber freak and won't touch it when cleaning my wools. Ivory liquid is still milder. I sure wish we could still get Ivory Flakes!
Good luck with your little guy, I hope this helps:hi:

[halobeam]

21. Wow!

I'm impressed! A little bit in awe of you too! The next thing I know, after I make this, I'll be washing his clothes in the nearest fresh water stream, beating the clothes on the rocks. LMAO! I've used that expression in my life as though I'd NEVER make it in the olden days, I'm so glad I live in modern times. Holy crap, I'm actually going to be making homemade laundry detergent. My old friends will need video verification for this. Believe you, me.

I will let you know how I botch this up, ummm... I mean ... I'll let you know how well I did. LOL... fingers crossed....


and thanks.

[Elidor]

15. A couple of things that might help

I've recently become very allergic to a wide variety of foods, as in moderate to severe reactions every day for almost a month. I've gotten it somewhat under control with some simple steps I've learned.

The number one help has been the advice of an emergency room nurse, who told me to take 300 mg of Tagamet three times a day (less for a child, I'm sure). Tagamet is a histamine blocker, and it helped reduce my reactions from severe and painful to a more moderate level. I take it with benadryl and it's a one-two punch to the inflammation process - the tagamet blocks histamine release, and the benadryl mops up the little that gets released. You can buy over-the-counter generic versions very cheap. The next step is diet.

Meat and dairy products contain arachidonic acid, which contributes to allergic reactions by giving your body the raw fuels it needs to create histamines, inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes.

Further, cold-water fish have the opposite effect: fish such as mackerel, herring, sardines and salmon are good sources of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which competes with arachidonic acid, helping to lower the allergic response. These changes alone are not very dramatic, but every little bit helps.

I've found that I can only live without reactions if I stick to simple foods with NO preservatives, and avoid dairy and some rices, and a lot of other stuff like even organic peanut butter. Eggs and bacon, my favorite meal, will almost kill me. I can eat plain jasmine rice, fresh veggies, oatmeal, beef and salmon and sardines. Everything else seems to set me off again. I'm having a minor reaction as I write this to some long grain brown rice I ate last night that had no preservatives.

[halobeam]

18. Whats in the rice that does this to you?

he had preserv. free long grain brown rice last night. We were in emergency until four a.m. after that. I cut out all additives, preservatives, artif. color, peanuts, this week and he broke out last night. Prior to that, I took out eggs, he broke out anyway, I took out dairy, he broke out anyway, strawberries, same thing. I don't think I was doing it right anyway. I never experienced allergies personally, and not one member in my family ever had an allergic reaction. I may not have been doing it right, i.e... I cut out eggs, but may have given it to him if it was a hidden ingredient as such. I only learned about hidden ingredients recently. Now I know better, esp. with the peanuts. I guess my elimination of the eggs were not thorough, so I may need to discount that trial.

Anyway, his blood work will be back next week. He's staying on meds although tweaked now, until the results come in.

Thanks for all your input. I'm going to tell him that all of you have been so helpful, it'll cheer him up!!

[Elidor]

22. I have no idea what causes it

It's not just rice. It seems as though it's everything. I've had the same three meals over and over again the last week, and it's the first relief I've had. Oatmeal is god to me now. It's the absolute safest thing I can eat. Everything else is varying degrees of risky.

Good luck to you and your son. I know it's tough, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

[Floogeldy]

19. Locking

:hippie:

[friesianrider]

20. I had the same thing happen to me in high school...

I used to be very passive (unlike being obnoxious, which I am now lol) and there was some skanky girl who used to "bully" me everyday - you know, typical girl crap: talking about you, spreading rumors, publically embarassing you). Everyday without fail about an hour after school I'd break out in hives...EVERYWHERE. My face, my neck, and especially my arms and legs. They were horrible and I too missed a lot of school because of it.

I went to several doctors and they never figured out what it was, so I assume it was stress. It eventually just stopped about a year later, when I finally decided I wasn't going to take that girl's crap and stoof up for myself (she, BTW ended up knocked up just after graduation and is now an unemployed 22 year old with TWO toddlers by TWO different daddys).

Obviously, it might be best to try and find a doctor to treat his anxiety and see if that makes a difference...has he been to an allergist and gotten the tests of like, the 12 most common things people are allergic to? Sounds like exactly what I had...caused by stress in my life, and worth looking into treating that rather than the hives themselves.