My three year old daughter ...

...has had this problem for the last 5 or 6 months, whenever she gets sick and then they stay for a week after. We've gone through it about 4 times now with her. It's absolutely awful. I took pictures for the doctor because I never know if the hives are going to be there by the time it takes for them to flare up, get an appointment, drive across los angeles to our favorite pediatrician and have her looked at. It always starts with a cold or fever. She gets them after naps when she's been sweating. She gets them when she's angry - but always after some virus has come and gone. Sometimes they are there for minutes sometimes hours - sometimes it takes a whole day for them to travel through her body. This last bout has been here over a week, but the hives have been minor and short lived - I almost hopin for a big bunch so I can get her in to the doc and see what he thinks. The couple times I've called he just says - "Well - if she doesn't have them NOW, there's no reason to bring her in - just give her a little benedryl and dress her comfortably ."

I'm stuck on a reason. Here's the thing - i don't think they are a food allergy . My daughter is picky. She eats like 10 things. Oatmeal. Juice (champion fresh of course - the only way I can get spinach or carrot in her). Odwalla superfood. Soy milk. Yogurt. Raw cashews. Dried Papaya. Raisins. Applesause. Grilled cheese. PB and J and oh yeah - corn chips. We're careful about not too much dairy and buying organic and buying whole foods, no refined sugars - things like that. But at one point while she was battling the flu, she ate practically nothing for so long and still had hives! - Since it only seems to happen when she's sick - I'm thinkin it might be a compromised immune system. Does she become allergic to say soy only when she's sick? I don't know - because we switched to rice milk and she still had hives. - She was so sick with a fever she only drank OJ for 2 days - her hives her bad the entire time. She's not allergic to OJ - she has it all the time when she' s not sick - no hives. It may a vitamin deficiency - but not an allergy. I doubt it anyway. Is it Candida? Maybe. My husband and I are still working on our candida (getting our ears coned!) - though our situation is MUCH better. We don't get hives though. Why my baby? Here's the other part that gets us. We have twin daughters. The other little girl eats the same stuff - gets sick at the same time, gets the same exercise and sleep and viruses and such. She's never had a hive. She eats fish and eggs and lots of fruit though - which gets me thinkin it's a defeciency - not an allergy.

We've made a couple of realizations that might help. Adding flax oil to my daughters milk has not only improved her mood and behavior - her hive break out - this last time she was sick, was not near the condition of the last three. She seemed far less miserable and itchy. I realized that before the flax oil routine - she was not getting ANY omega 3's which are good for the brain (mood, behavior, attention span), good for the immune system, and .... for the skin. Aha! I wasn't even thinking about the hives when I started her on it. But it was a happy benefit!

Fresh air and a little sun. I turned to my baby as we were driving to the beach one day to see she had a rash of hives starting on her ankle and by the time we reached the beach they were up to her thy. One dip in the ocean and they were gone in 5 minutes. And we're talking mess o' hives in dirty Santa Monica ocean water. Salt? Seaweed? Sun? Something worked. But I can't take her to the ocean every time she has a breakout. And there isn't an ocean every where there's hives right?

Mood and comfort. She gets hives when she's sick, sweaty, or cranky (maybe she's cranky cuz of the hives?) Anyway. I'm always trying to dress her warm and she's alway telling me "no" to sweats and jackets. Now I'm starting to listen. The Flax oil has made such a difference in her mood - I hardly see her full on cranky anymore. But I've noticed if she wakes up happy - no hives. If she wakes up cranky - she has them or they're on their way.

Canduella lotion has helped with the itch and flare. We use California baby brand on her. It makes her comfortable at least. She calls it her "medicine".

Good luck to everyone. Hives are frustrating and no one seems to have an answer. Tweet