Chronic urticaria and tummy pain

[meemaemom]

My girl, 4 years old, has been suffering from chronic urticaria and tummy pain for almost a year. We did blood test and stool test but nothing came back abnormal. Doctor said this is a "post-viral reaction" and can last as long as a few years or more. My daughter's urticaria flared up especially when she has fever, and it is all over her body and face. Pretty scary. We had to send her to A&E immediately fearing the hives might go to her throat and affect the breathing. Her tummy pain usually comes and goes at different periods of the day and it is usually around the belly button area. It happens almost everyday. Anybody has similar experience to share? Honestly her condition is driving me nuts. She has to take leaves from school so often because of her sickness. Doctors we have seen doesn't seem to have any solution for it, and most of them just say she should outgrow it, hopefully.

[Distraction]

My 5 year old has recently been suffering from tummy ache and swelling.
The quickest solution is to distract her and take her mind off the pain - until we can do something about the ache, or it eases off on its own.
TV works brilliantly for this.
One time I put her on the toilet, hoping the gas would come out, but she kept crying from the pain, to the point of vomitting from the stress of it.
I held an ipod movie in front of her to calm her down, until the gas eased out of her system.
Later the pain came back, so I massaged her tummy with a bit of oil until she felt better.
Its just an ordinary body oil, but we call it itchy medicine or tummy ache oil, depending on the situation.
It makes her feel like we are administering a remedy and helps her feel better.

[mum 2-2]

I have a 5 year old with similar. Had sore throat fever and itchy body rash, blood test revealed "a virus"! She seemed to recover for a week but took her to A&E last night as she had terrible tummy pain and fever of 40. They have said gastroenteritis although no diarrhoea??

[Allergy]

OP. do you think she could be allergic to something which is causing the urticaria ie nuts or seafood, perhaps even the washing powder you use.  Also check whether the tummy pain is caused by lactose (in milk). My child had severe tummy aches for 2 years before we realized that the lactose was the culprit.   It was post gastroenteritis. The doctor hadn't picked it up at all in all that time.

[Anke]

I'd check for food allergies, dysbiosis and parasites. Her digestion seems to be messed up, and skin rashes are a sign of toxins being expelled through the skin rather than through the usual avenues which are overloaded. Most regular doctors are not trained to repair the gut and heal the digestive system, because nutrition isn't in their curriculum.
Our son had eczema for years after a course of antibiotics, and it has taken time, diet changes and supplementation with probiotics, antifungals, good oils, vitamins etc to heal it. He is now able to eat most foods again. Homeopathy has also helped tremendously.
I recommend Dr. Melanie Phuah at Nutramed.
There are different types of stool tests. The more comprehensive ones have to be sent off to Australia as they don't do them here.
Hope your litle one feels better soon!

[rash]

Two people I know developed a red itchy body rash, no other symptoms. I reckon it could be due to the heat too as it has been so hot recently.

[pearla]

tummy pain could be a build up of wind in the stomach. Some warm water may help and a little walk to expel it.

Is your daughter stressed out for any reason? tummy pain could be the result

[meemaemom]

Thanks all. Really appreciate all your feedback. I am not entirely convinced that my daughter's condition is due to food allergy, although I did bring her do a few allergy tests, including skin prick test and blood test for IgG level. Skin prick test revealed that she is highly allergic to peanuts, and since she is 1 year-old we have not let her touch any nuts or nuts-related products at all. Her chronic hives' first onset was when she was 3.5 years old.
Blood test for IgG level revealed that she is highly allergic to milk, wheat, gluten, soy, egg and garlic. But the thing is even doctors don't feel entirely convinced by IgG level, so we are not sure how we should take the results. And to us she has been eating all of the above things for 3.5 years before her first onset of hives. Could food allergy be accumulative? Could it change suddenly? I am really not sure. And, if I don't let her eat milk, wheat, gluten, soy, egg - What can I let her eat? No bread, biscuits, cake, milk, cereals, soya sauce......I am really helpless!
So we still let her eat those food, though not in large amount, and we are very selective when it comes to her diet. But still, it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to avoid the food I mentioned above on a day to day basis. And is the effort worth it? Most doctors' advice is it is not. If she could eat those things when she was a baby, why can't she continue to eat it? I am not sure.

Anke, thanks for your insightful comment. Can you give me a bit more information on
1) dysbiosis - what is that?
2) Dr. Melanie Phuah - has your son seen her before? Is she a homeopathic doctor? If not, what is her approach like? What is the consultation fees?
3) Where can I go for a comprehensive stool test?

Thanks all for your helpful comments...

[vanyasli]

My daughter started suffering chronic uticaria when she was 4.  There was no treatment that helped at all, until I started her on allergy shots. 

Officially, allergy shots have not been proven to treat allergies that manifest in the skin.  In our case, though, the allergy shots completely cleared her up.  Then we stopped shots when we moved out of the area we were living in, and the uticaria came back.  So we started the shots again, and it's gone. 

On the allergy skin tests, she tests positive for several different allergens, from molds to grasses to roaches.  I don't know what in the list she actually is reacting to in real life, but it doesn't matter -- the doctor just puts all of the stuff she tests positive to in the serum, and her symptoms go away.  The other stuff that goes in the shots doesn't seem to matter, so I don't worry about it.

We wasted a year after falling into the food-allergy trap -- little kids will test positive for tons of food allergies from the blood-test.  It's pretty normal for them to test positive, even if they don't actually react to these foods when they eat them.  If your kid doesn't really seem to be reacting to foods, then she probably doesn't really have a food allergy. 

[Emimsy]

I know this is old, but because I have a son with the same condition, I wanted to post anyway. My son has had chronic urticaria for six months. We've had allergy testing etc. and his diagnosis now is "symptomatic dermographitis". You can google it to find out more, but basically it is a benign condition in which the skin reacts to *anything* and causes hives. You can check for it by drawing your fingernails down her back (without hurting) in lines. If they come up as hives in the same pattern within 5-10 minutes, this is what she probably has. I was told it will self-resolve in 2-3 years... in the meantime, we dose him twice a day with antihistamines to control the itching.

[hives survivor]

Hi - I have been debating whether to answer your post or not because so few people seem able to accept what I have found to be true with hives. I have also suffered severe chronic hives with gastric ulcer-like cramp and facial swellings which got me in A and E with huge doses of anti-histamines and ulcer controlling drugs. Doctors here, having eliminated anything very serious like crones disease, will tell you its down to an allergen or something you may never discover. What few doctors, like their patients, are able to accept is that hives is produced by the sub-concious mind as a response to suppressed stress like emotional pain and anger. This discovery has pretty much broken the hives cycle for me. Even if your child is young, it would probably be worthwhile you learning about this as it will totally change the way you cope with the condition. For instance the panic and alarm hives produces plays into the pain and itching cycle will make your daughter's condition escalate. It is interesting to note that since discovering this I have stopped all meds, eat whatever and do all the things that I used to believe caused the hives....yet the hives have massively diminished! I can still get them but my calmness means I feel about 70% less itch than I used to so I laugh them off and slowly they are going. Interestingly my son has had hives since age 5 but has never had sensations of pain or itch with them, so although they look bad we just ignore them.
Of course you can think what I am saying is irrelevant in your daughter's cause - go the route of more tests, avoiding everything and getting more and more suspicious of every possible allergen. There are plenty of doctors out their who will feed into this merry-go-round. But if medically she does appear to be normal and the hives are unexplained you will find some answers in the work of Dr. John E Sarno - The Divided Mind. Although the book is principally about back pain, hives is just one of many mind-generated conditions that feed off panic and emotional shutdown. Many people have used his methods to overcome these sort of conditions. Even if your daughter is too young to work out how to get over them you can prepare the way and she will be able to use the methods described when she's older. I do hope she gets through it quickly though - I know its a very frightening experience when you don't know who can help you. All the very best.

[Zenmed]

Try cleaning up her diet and remove all dairy, gluten, soy, egg and garlic for a couple of years.  We did it with a similar list of aggravating foods. It is tough, but there are plenty of options once you start looking into it.  Essentially you will have to cut out all processed foods and bring her back to a very simple diet. The earlier you start, the better. You can get rice bread at Jason's, rice milk or almond milk. Go to Brown Rice Paradise, they have a big range of stuff suited to allergy sufferers. Once you know what to buy you will be fine.