Maddie’s Hives
May 8th, 2009This week has been a difficult one. Gabe has been working long hours, and Maddie has been battling an allergy and illness. Monday morning, we woke up to Maddie covered in hives. At first, I just saw a few spots on her arm and thought, “hrm, that’s strange.” My first thoughts were that maybe she was having a reaction to the immunizations that she had received on Friday. Then I lifted her shirt and saw a wider rash which covered much of her torso. I then noticed that they were more like welts than just a rash.
It was difficult to get photos that showed how awful they really looked in person. This was taken first thing in the morning. By the time we got her to Urgent Care, they had gotten worse.
You can see how raised that they were in places in the following photo.
We took her to Urgent Care, since we couldn’t get an appointment with the pediatrician until later in the afternoon. We kinda felt like immediate care was important here! I racked my brain on all the things that she had eaten this weekend, thinking we could be dealing with a food allergy. She had had strawberries for dinner the previous night as well as her first bits of chocolate a few times over the weekend. We believe that she has been well exposed to strawberries previously, so that didn’t seem likely. Chocolate isn’t one of the big allergens. After talking to my mom, she pointed out that it could be a reaction to the antibiotic she had been taking during the past week. I wasn’t sure as I thought she had had the same antibiotic previously. It turns out that it doesn’t really matter if they have had it in the past. You can apparently have a reaction next time, even if you were fine the first time. The antibiotic she had this time was augmentin (which I thought she had taken in the past, but I was wrong). Augmentin contains amoxicillin, one of the penicillin drugs.
Mom was right – the doctor diagnosed her with having a penicillin allergy that should be noted on her charts in the future. They gave her some prednisolone and a prescription for the same as well as a recommendation for a daily dose of Zyrtec. She was able to return to daycare that day (though they seemed rightfully concerned about her when we brought her into school!!).
By the end of the day, the hives seemed to be fading. They looked better in most places, though new ones had popped up in other places. We thought that they would continue to improve. The next morning, we were somewhat surprised and alarmed to find that they looked worse than they had on the first day. Now she had more on her face and arms with quite a bit still on her torso. Having the hives on her face made her look especially awful!
Despite the face you see here (“Mom, stop taking photos of me! I’m not your personal freak show!”), she seemed to be in a pretty good mood. She looked bad, but she didn’t seem to feel particularly bad.
She was still in a pretty good mood most of the evening.
The hives continued to get worse and pop up in different spots. At some point in the evening, she developed a mild fever. Since the hives seemed to be getting worse (at very least, they weren’t getting much better) and she had a slight fever, we put in a call to the afterhours advice nurse. She advised us to see the doctor in the morning but did not seem overly concerned. She felt that her ear infection could have possibly returned.
The next morning (Wednesday), we went to the walk-in clinic where we discovered that her ear infection had returned. The doctor gave her a prescription for a non-penicillin antibiotic (cefdinar). She had taken this one in February when they warned of reddish, clay diaper output. Lovely – looking forward to encountering that again! The pediatrician did not seem to think that the prednisolone and Zyrtec were necessary, unless we felt that they were helping. We could give her Zyrtec or benedryl if she seemed uncomfortable. The prednisolone was messing with her sleep, so we gladly abandoned that treatment! We did need to continue with the Zyrtec as she seemed to be itchy in the coming days.
That evening, we discovered just after the pediatrician’s office closed that Maddie had a fever of 103, and she was shivering. From our previous battles with high fevers, we knew that shivering is a sign that the fever is rising. We were concerned and not sure whether to rush her to the Urgent Care or whether we could wait. We decided to call the after hours nurse line, again, who instructed us to give her Motrin (which we had already done) and to give her a lukewarm bath. If we didn’t get her fever down by one degree in an hour, we should call her back. If the fever got above 105, we should head into the ER.
Fortunately, the bath did the trick and we were able to reduce her fever below 102. During the night, it spiked again around 3am to 104.1. Yikes! She was due for her Motrin. We drifted in and out of sleep together and she felt cooler after a little while.
By the morning, she was fever free and her hives looked much better. She still has them today, which is the 5th day, but they aren’t nearly as noticeable. I’m sure that most people wouldn’t even know that they were there if they weren’t aware of them. She was out of daycare on Wednesday and Thursday due to the fever but was able to return today…just in time for the Mother’s Day Tea, yay!
February 21st, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Kerry-
This is the ONLY site that speaks to me. I am a mother of a son who is covered like Maddie was. I have been crying for 3 days. He looks like the elephant man. Spots started on day 8 of te Augmentin and we are on day 3 and he looks horrible.
How long did yours last? We are doing nothing but Benedryl since Max is eating, drinking, playing…etc.
I need reassurance, please.
310-498-9594
Jaime
February 22nd, 2010 at 11:41 pm
Very descriptive of our scary experience. Wish I would have read it when it was happening… Top notch docs were puzzled..
April 9th, 2010 at 5:53 am
My daughter breaks out in these–even worse, actually–every 6-8 weeks and it lasts for about a week when it happens. She doesn’t get a fever, thought, thank God. The doctors don’t know why and I hate it! It’s so scary.
May 12th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Wow it sounds like you had a hard time, my son was just diagnosed yesterday with hives, at firs i taught it was a spider bite or allergic reaction but as he started breaking out worse i knew it wasnt normal so i rushed him to urgent care and to find out it was hives. I had litle information of what it was so i googled it and foud people like you who give more of a explanation. Thanks for your day to day guidance.
May 18th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Wow.. this was the most informational site I could find on my daughter’s current condition. She just ended her 10 day dose of Amoxicillin from swollen lymphnodes… then she has had a low-grade fever betwee 99 and 101 for a few days… and today she started breaking out in hives! She has a Dr. Appt. this afternoon but she is itching all over and many are swollen. I just wonder– if these are her symptoms now– could they get worse or progress into difficulty breathing.. etc.?
May 26th, 2010 at 8:05 am
Hey!
I am so glad that I came across this today. My 18mo son is experiencing the exact same thing. He has an appt for 1:30 today. He too has been on the antibiotics.
Thanks for sharing your story. It really makes me feel a little more at ease.
September 14th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
I’m so glad I found this site! My almost 2 yr old has been covered in what looks like hives for a couple of weeks now. I have no idea what it is and she has no fever. The pictures are almost exactly what she has. It hasn’t gotten any better in fact it’s getting worse. I’ll be sure to get her into the doc soon.
October 11th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Thanks for sharing! My son had this exact reaction, starting on the 9th day of taking amoxicillin. During the hives, he had a fever and significant swelling of the legs from the hives, so we wound up in the ER. I’ve been trying to determine if it’s a food or drug allergy and came across your site. I’ve also seen similar reactions called erythema multiforme, which I’m going to meet with his doctor and discuss. It’s when the hives look less like hives and more like larger welts which then look like bruises before disappearing. They can also be the result of taking amoxicillin, sometimes in conjunction with particular virus strains.
October 17th, 2010 at 7:05 am
My 4 year old son is currently dealing with a delayed allergic reaction to Augmentin. He had finished day 6 of the 10 day treatment yesterday when he woke up with hives. Not seeing any other symptoms, I gave him Benadryl and we went about our day. Two hours later the hives where not as itchy, but he began to have swelling in all of his joints. Thankfully, a family friend who was with us for the day is a LNP and said that it was a reaction to the Augmentin. We happened to be up in the mountains for the day when this happened so she followed us as we drove to the closest hospital which was 5 miles, but 20 minutes away. (No so scenic when you’re on the way to the ER!) His airway was never swollen or constricted, but as a mom, I was still worried sick. Like your little one, he responded to the first treatments and was feeling pretty normal by the time we got home that evening. This morning however his hives had “moved” and were itching badly, and some of the swelling had returned. Just talked to his DR and they told us to use Zyrtec as well, so hoping that gives him some relief soon. Thanks for sharing your story. It’s comforting to know others have dealt with this and that things will get better soon.
November 23rd, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Hi
Thank you so much for sharing your experience about your daughter. My seven year old girl rash looks just exactly the same this is third day and her itch wont go away. She is taking prednisolone and benadryl, but her itch is bad. how did you help your daughter with the itch and how long did the rash last?
thank you
February 26th, 2011 at 5:51 am
Hi!!! This is day 3 of my little 15 months old girl… she started off with red spots and mosquito bite look a alike on her leg and I rememeber her sitting on a patch of sand and finding some ants behind her knee and inside her elbow…I thought ANT BITES!!! got “after bite” but the white donut shaped bumps kept appearing all over and that scared me.. She hasn’t been eating right because of her teething. She wasn’t complaining or anything but not 100% herself … after one night and waking up the next day the bumps were all over and some have appearedon her face and like you said it was ugly and scary to look at more then anything. She didn’t seem to mind any of it but later int he day the itching started. Rushed her to ER and saw a doc within 15 min. he said it was allergy from fever. gave her calamin lotion to sooth the bumps and fenistil syrup ( allergy syrup) fever reducer and nasal pray because she also had a cold. Poor thing. The red dots were80% gone in the evening but the next day again new ones appeared! I am glad u gave us all these info… I guess i have to wait… I just hate to see her cuteness destroyed by those hives.
May 7th, 2011 at 7:39 pm
WOW I am so happy to have come accross this site my 7 month old started with day 1 diareah too him to Pediatrician said he was fine.., day 2croupy cough again pediatrician said he will be ok, day 3 102 fever (this was his FIRST FEVER EVER) again pediatrician said it was b/c of the croup. day 4 104.5 fever day 5 again 104.5 this time went to ER said if by next day not better will do an xray of his chest Oh my that was scary. fever day 6 agian pediatrician by now I am scared nervours crying as to why this little infant is sick FInallly prescribed augmentun for begining stages of pneumonia. THat was so scary fluid in lungs had to buy a nebulizer to use with albuterol. Thank god the augmentun took the fevers away but now he has diahreah and what looks like hives….Have a follow up with doctors on Monday. Thanks again for you information..take care
May 19th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
My 2 year old daughter got the same thing today after being on 10 days of Amoxicillin then 7 days of Augmentin. Her spots look just like those in the pictures. There is also swelling of the joints. The rashes start to itch by the end of the first day. I have no idea how long this will last but after seeing your pictures and so many replies, I’ll keep a good log of the progress. Thanks moms.
May 19th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
My 4 yr old son had hives for about 5 days. Coming and going, fever and vomiting. It is very scary as a mom seeing your child go through this and nobody has a strait answer. Urgent care, ER, and multiple finally got blood work done. Our doctor said urgent care or er could have done blood work instead they gave predizone and an epi-pen. She called them the big guns. We had to wait 2 days for the predizone to wear off, it effects the blood work. There is a possiblity of a more serious condition. All blood work was normal, except for inflamation of an unknown source. Our next step is to do allergy testing. Though during my research I discovered that the cause in some cases are never discovered. Thank you for your stories, it is good to hear another mom’s experience!
August 29th, 2011 at 1:43 pm
OMG my son looks exactly like this right now after 7 days of amoxicillin (his second time using it). I am VERY concerned and even though the doctor is saying he doesn’t think it is an amoxicillin reaction i am going to take him to an allergist for a blood draw to see. This is scary and heartbreaking.
October 29th, 2011 at 5:04 am
Thank you so much for posting this! My 3 year old daughter was on amoxicillin for 8 days when she broke out in a rash and hives that look just like your daughter’s. She had been on amoxicillin one time before and did not have a reaction then. So, I didn’t think she would be allergic.
The Dr. misdiagnosed her as having either bug bites or chicken pox which was very frustrating. But, when they became obvious large hives, I figured out it was an allergic reaction.
I called the Dr and they instructed me to give her zyrtec and benadryl, switching back and forth between, which she is on now and it seems to have helped with the itching. The hives are slowly disappearing, but they seem to be looking like very light bruises now. She has been battling a low fever the whole time. I hope it goes away soon.
Reading your post was so helpful and seeing the pics of the hives helped me identify. Thank you.