10 Year Old Son Has Hives

My Mom, myself, my son and granddaughter have all suffered with hives. The only thing that ever worked was Benedryl. Give them a dose, get them comfortable on the couch or in bed put in a movie and they will sleep. It's better to keep them a little cool than a little warm. For some reason being too warm makes the itching worse.

The biggest thing to worry about is -- if they start in his throat that is also known as anaphylactic shock, the throat can close up and hinder or stop breathing.

Please I am not trying to scare you, but this was something I never knew and wish I had.

Relax, give him Benedryl, let him sleep but watch his breathing. It can take a week or more for them to go away.

Steroids should help most and you need to to tell them in the future not to give him this medication as he could be allergic to this medication which is the Penicillin family.

what was he on antibiotics for? is he feeling better? did they test for mono?

Have you tried Benadryl? I used to get hives chronically, with occasional visits to the ER when regular treatment wasn't working. The ER would give me a shot of Benadryl (much higher does than I took via the drugstore package) and it always calmed down within a few hours, then the red patches went away completely, within a few days. A regular dose of regular Benadryl is what I would recommend. So many times, that was all I needed to get rid of them.

PS- it could easily have been the medication he was on, or even whatever he being medicated for (ie virus)

Good luck!

One of my kids will randomly get hives right after an illness. Not always but sometimes. The doctor said sometimes our bodies will react this way from viruses - especially kids. If so it will disappear in a few days. We do benadryl every 4-6 hours and it always helps them go away. You can go to askdrsears.com for proper dosing based on his weight or call your doctor and ask. Also baths seem to help. Good luck!

Benadryl taken regularly and aveeno baths to soothe the itching.

Steroids have some serious side effects. They are a godsend when nothing else works. But talk to your dr. because they can affect his health for a year or more and his growth if taken too many times.

why not steroids?
my daughter had to take them at 1 for bad hives and she was fine.

that's what will help. why not give it to him?

also did you use a new detergent? new food? new cleaning supply?

So my daughter (5) literally has the SAME thing going on. Monday Nov. 5 we went to the dr. because of a really bad cold she was not getting over. She was on Amoxicilin for this. She broke out this past Monday Nov. 12 early in the morning. I gave her Benadryl and used some anti itch lotion. By noon it 11am it was getting worse so I called the Dr. questioning if it was the antibiotics or not. We took her in and he said he could not determine what the cause was. Gave us the steriods to clear it up and also Hydroxyz Hcl we could use up to 4 times per day for the itching. We were told that heat will worsen the condition. No hot soup or cocoa, no high heater, even sitting in a warm car or if she gets upset the hives seem to flare up again. Thankfully she is showing improvement. Same thing for us no real changes. The only thing our doc said was since we had some cooler weather this passed weekend we pulled out some blankets that had not been used since last winter and while clean may have had dust or something that triggered it. So we did go through and wash the entire linen closet. Best of luck to your son. Remember this in case he needs amoxicilin in the future so they can test to make sure.

Hives can also come from a virus. Once you have hives they tend to come and go for a few days. My doc never offered my kids steroids, just benedryl!