Chronic hives and blistering toddler

Hi, my daughter is 18 months old now and has been suffering with chronic urticaria from approx the age of 3 months. The hives can appear anywhere on her body although her face is largely un affected. The worst areas are her scalp neck and trunk.

The causes seem to be mainly physical, for example a slight bump on the head brings out clusters of fluid filled blisters on her scalp. She also has an outbreak if she becomes too warm, her clothes are too tight or if she scratches herself. Stress also seems to be a factor, if she gets upset her whole boody including face flushes bright red although this usually calms down much quicker than the physical causes.

She is being treated at the moment with anti histamines which do seem to help but the scalp blisters still appear frequently and are quite concerning for us. Is this kind of thing normal with urticaria or could there be another cause?
She hasn't had any allergy or other tests done do you think that would be worthwhile?

Many thanks in advance.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

Hives can present as blisters on the scalp.But other possibilities of pemphigus and other viral infections also need to be ruled out.I would suggest a dermatologist’s evaluation for this.Also get skin tests and blood tests for identifying the allergen to which your daughter may be allergic. Usually hives are idiopathic i.e. the cause if unknown, but sometimes it can be triggered by allergens also.So it is important to identify if there is any allergen causing the appearance of hives.

Hope it helps.Take care and pls do keep me posted.

[mypoorbaby2007]

Hi, it's over a year now since my post and your reply. I was just browsing and thought I would give an update on my daughter. It took a long while but my daughter has now been diagnosed with mastocytosis. Which type is still unclear at the moment but at least we now know what was causing her symptoms and can treat her appropriately for it.

Thankyou for the reply and sorry for my long delay in updating.