Update: should I call an exterminator: Dd got hives 3 days apart from each other

[JustMe]

Update: I took dd to the dr on Friday, as she continued to get hives every couple of days. The dr could not make a diagnosis, said sometimes this kind of thing just happens, give her benedryl and if its still happening in 4 weeks maybe refer to an allergist, but that doesnt usually find much.

Okay, so this continues, and I start to wonder about flea bites. We have 2 indoor cats and they are not scratching a lot or showing any other symptoms. Today, I had to take one to the vet for a routine vaccination, I tell her about the situation and I decide to treat that cats anyway but sit here wondering if I should treat my whole house (which is quite a process and goes on for a long time)...then I start reading the bedbug info again and wonder if it is bedbugs..it did start in the hotel when dd lay down.

Other relevant info: some of this is included in op, but here is a summary: We went to a hotel for one night a couple of weeks ago. We go swimming, dd takes a shower with hotel shampoo, lays down in bed and immediately becomes extremely itchy/gets hives on neck and some on her upper ears....they go away quickly and she goes to sleep. Several days later at home she gets hives on another part of her body and this continues. Tonight the hives were really, really bad and on multiple parts of her torso. They kept appearing in different places and take a much longer to go away. I have been itchy (obviously) and have seen a few small isolated raised bumps on my skin...but they are not red, and are very small.

Also, she this does not seem to happen at night/when she wakes up. Oddly enough, it happens in early evening...and can be before, after, or during dinner.

WWYD?



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So, 3 nights ago, we were on an overnight trip and had just finished swimming in the hotel pool, Dd took a shower, was laying in bed and starts scratching her head uncontrollably. I start to worry about lice, but inspect her head carefully and she is fine..then minutes later she is very red on the back of her neck and behind her ears with round raised circular bumps in those areas. My sister with was us, and has some kind of sample moisturizer, which i put on dd and she is able to go to sleep. The "hives" disappear quickly. Then tonight, 3 days later at home after dinner, we are in the living room and she starts itching again..this time the front of her neck/throat area..the same reaction happens. When I get her to stop scratching the hives/rash goes away within 10 minutes...then she calls me upstairs after I put her in bed as she now had hives/rash on her lower abdomen. Today was hot here, but it was not hot on our trip when she got them 3 days ago.

So, I call the advice nurse as it is Sunday night. The nurse says its possible that its a viral infection that has no other symptoms (and dd truly has no other symptoms at all), that it is some allergy but we would know if it was life threatening by now, or that it will just always be a mystery. She tells me if it happens again to give dd benedryl and then if it continues to happen to bring her in.

Just wanted to see if there were any thoughts on this, as it is so bizarre. Dd is 7 btw, and has never had anything like this happen before.

[Tondi G]

a friend of mine had this happen a couple of times (as an adult). she never could pin point what could be causing an allergic reaction. She took Benedryl and it got better... then would come back when the meds wore off so she would take another dose (sometimes it would be one or 2 days... sometimes over one weeks time). One time she got the hives... took one dose and it was fine... then 2 days later the hives returned... benedryl again one or 2 doses this time and it didn't return. It was strange and all her dermatologist told her was to take the benedryl. It has been a few years and she hasn't had another episode. weird.

Hope your DD doesn't get the hives again. Hives are AWFUL.... so so itchy and uncomfortable.

[MommyAllison]

I get big red itchy spots if I get too cold - it is a genetic thing that a few family members on my mom's side have. For me, it usually shows up when I go swimming in cold water, or am outside in cold weather too long, and the spots appear on my stomach and thighs typically. As long as I don't scratch them, they go away after I get warmed up. If I scratch, they get bigger and itchier. The first time it happened, I was right around your DD's age.

It doesn't sound like what your DD has, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway - maybe it'll help you think outside the box a bit? I hope you figure it out!

[Gracemom]

My DD is 7 and gets hives occasionally too. I'm going to get her allergy tested to see if there is anything she is allergic to. She often gets them when we travel. I have to use detergent with no dye or perfume, so maybe she reacts to bedding with chemicals on it. My DD sometimes reacts after the pool too, so I have to make her shower and put lotion on. I have to carry benadryl and hydrocortisone with me. Poor thing! I'll be watching this thread too.

[JustMe]

Thanks, hmmn, very interesting. What's hard to figure out is that the 2 situations were so different from each other...one, we were in a hotel,had just eaten in a restaurant, gone swimming, taken a shower with the hotel shampoo..and the other we were at home doing what we always do.

[MamaKath]

Viral maybe? Ds gets them before any kind of illness.

Dh gets them from pools and lakes as well as any changes in soaps/lotions/etc. So he gets them switching to a new product and back to a safe product if that makes sense.

Hugs to you! Hope you figure out the mystery.

[PAfirsttimemom]

Bedbugs? It occurred to me since you mentioned you were in a hotel. I think I saw a thread about them on here recently. Hope it's not the case for you, but here's a link to some info anyway.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bedbugs/DS00663

[JustMe]

Thanks for the responses. It really doesnt seem like bed bugs, although that was actually my first thought when she broke out in the hotel. The 2 incidents have been very concentrated in one area of her body, and her scratching really seemed to irriate things and make it much worse than it actually was...and as I said, once she stopped scratching, she was 100% better in about 10 minutes.



Dh gets them from pools and lakes as well as any changes in soaps/lotions/etc..


MamaKath, and I right in taking this to mean that your dh gets a reaction after trying a new soap/lotion adn then again when he goes back to the old product? If so, this could be an explanation as the 2nd incident was the same day (although many hours later) that she showered at home with our usual shampoo/conditioner.

[JustMe]

Update in op. Advice, please!

[MommyAllison]

Did the vet say if your cat has fleas? They should have done a quick comb through w/flea comb at the appt if they knew you were concerned. Are your cats strictly indoor, or indoor/outdoor? Strictly indoor would make it a lot less likely to be fleas, since there wouldn't be an obvious carrier into the house.

No advice on the bedbugs though :( so sorry that you are still dealing with this!

[JTsMom]

No advice, but I could read and not post a :hug:. Hope you figure it out.

[egoldber]

Do you have any bugs in your house? This time of year especially, I seem to get small gnat-y, mosquito-y type bugs that get inside and bite me. (I am a magnet for them.) If your cat does not have fleas (should have been easy to see with a flea comb), and you have checked your bed, I would assume that is what it is.

[Nyfeara]

When I was 10 or so, I broke out in hives one day, for no apparent reason. I hadn't eaten anything new, nothing had changed. I got them on & off for approximately the next year, nearly EVERY day. I would get them on my face, legs, butt, anywhere. They didn't show up in the same spot each time or with the same severity - sometimes they were so raised I'd have to sit in a cool tub for relief.

I went thru allergy testing, tracking what I ate & was exposed to. The doctors could never figure out the cause. Then they just stopped & that was it. To this day, we don't know why. Allergy meds didn't help to stop it from happening or help them resolve any sooner.

I hope she gets to feeling better soon :hug:

[khalloc]

My DS had similar episodes last year. He was 1 at the time. I thought he was allergic to Tide. The allergist said that he was probably viral. He had no other symptoms either. he would just be sitting and eating dinner and suddenly break out in HUGE raised hives all over his back, bum, and legs. It wasnt a food allergy because sometimes he would wake up in the morning with them. After going 12 hours without eating. They lasted on and off for a few months. He hasn't had any for probably 10 months now.

[JustMe]

Thanks for the responses and hugs everyone!

As far as the cats/fleas, they are indoor cats, we have never had a flea problem and the one cat who went to the vet did not have any fleas or flea droppings (I told the vet what was going on and she examined her). Still the vet said, its possible dd or I brought the fleas in and they just don't "like" this cat...although I dont see any on the other cat either...She asked if the hotel we stayed in allowed pets, which it did, so hard to know.

This morning, dd woke up fine as she always did and I inspected her body around where the hives where last night...I see no signs of a bite mark anywhere (and the hives are completely gone)...so I am feeling less like bug bites are the cause but dont know they can be ruled out completely.

We do have small unidentified bugs including the gnaty ones that egoodlberg describes. Dd's doctor seemed to think that if it was viral there would have been some other symptom at least early on, and she has been so healthy (not even a little cough or sniffles).

[doberbrat]

for fleas/ticks misc bugs of any sort I use food grade DE. I order from
http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/diatomaceous_earth_fleas.html

I dont know how it would do on potential bed bugs but its nontoxic so its prob worth a try. I do use it on our bed since our dogs sleep there. I apply on the mattress pad - under the sheets so we're not sleeping directly on it since its drying.

if you think its bug related, its def worth a try. a little goes a LONG way so buy the smallest amt possible.

fwiw, ONE fo my dogs gets fleas on occasion. its very odd- he once had a rampant infestation and none of my other dogs got any. my homeopath said its due to his weaker constitution but it is possible.

[DrSally]

It's so tough to pinpoint the cause. You said both you and her are itchy?
You said the hives don't look like they have a "bite" mark in the middle?

[athompson]

My daughter went through the same thing for ONE YEAR. Yes, you read correctly. They were hives and we had no idea what caused them, but they finally stopped. She was on hydroxyzine for much of this time to keep from breaking out in hives all over. She started at 2 1/2 tsp. per night and eventually decreased down to 1/4 teaspoon. Without that 1/4 tsp. though, she would break out. She said they itched like crazy. Finally, they just stopped. The pediatric dermatologist said that often they never determine the cause of hives which I always thought was very strange. I hope that you can figure things out soon so that your daughter will be more comfortable. Good luck!