Aquatic Uticaria???

[BurghMom]

My daughter is 14, she has always had a reaction to water, only on her hands and feet. She once decribed it like falling off a bike and "skinning your hands".  After about an hour the pain would stop, but she had a hard time touching pourous things like a towel or wash cloth.  This happened after every shower of bath. We were told when she was 9 that she had Raynauds, but because she was so young they couldn't give her anything.  The Dr. told us just to keep her hands and feet warm and not to go out in the winter without gloves.  At 12 they put her on a high blood pressure medicine that made her tired and lite headed and didn't really help her hands and feet. They have given her creams, lotions and nothing works.  Last year her dermotologist said it wasn't Raynauds it was Aquatic Uticaria.  Put her on allegra, then zertec, now a foam called clobetasol propionate.  I'm worried that there is an underlying problem they don't see. Any ideas on what might be going on, something more I should have them look for?

[Bluebird107]

From my early teens until the time I was around 50 years old, I had relatively severe Aquagenic Urticaria … a “water allergy”.  It’s much better now.  Wish I had thought of using it as a reason not to do dishes or  housework or things I didn’t feel like doing when I was a young teenager.  If it is a true allergy to water, then there is no way people with Aquagenic Urticaria could drink or eat anything containing water. It’s not like a painful condition; it’s feels like sore itchy sunburn, and is more an aggravation and inconvenience for a short time after water touches the skin.

I learnt to manage the problem after a few years and hopefully this will help others.  Apparently it is not as rare a condition as one thinks.  I shower (can stay in longer now), swim, get caught in the rain, perspire, wash dishes and do housework. This is what I found helped.

1. Take one minute showers, to keep the itching to a minimum and having welts and hives develop.  The longer the shower (i.e. when I washed my hair) the more intense the itching, blotchiness and bigger the hives. When I was a teenager, I didn’t go out until the itching and hives went…sometimes up to an hour and a half if I washed my hair…..pure vanity and not wanting people staring at me.  
2. DO NOT give in to the urge to scratch…………it only makes the itching worse and the blotches and redness last longer. Get out of the water (or wet clothing touching the skin) and dry off as fast as possible.
3. I’d stay in the swimming pool, ocean or water until the itching was unbearable, then take off wet swim suit immediately and dry off. The longer wet clothing is in contact with the skin, the more intense the itching and the larger the welts and/or or hives.  This is also true if getting caught in the rain.
4. At the hairdressers, ask them not to leave a wet towel wrapped around the hair. I still have to control the urge to scratch my scalp after washing my hair but worse is a wet towel left on the head…it will leave welts and hives on the neck and shoulders where it touches.
5. There is nothing I came up with to stop the itching from perspiration other than drying off as soon as possible.

I remember a friend (a nurse) giving me a histamine tablet (hay fever tablets should work the same) for the hives and welts one time.  I think it stopped the itching sooner than usual.  As I was 21 years old, it never dawned on me to perhaps try taking a histamine tablet each day like hay fever suffers do. It may be something you want to try if you haven’t already.

It looks worse than it is really and as a teenager, I thought it was painful ….and it was because I’d stay in the shower or water too long and keep scratching, sometimes breaking skin!

Any way, hope this helps.

[star queen]

Aqua Uticaria is indicated when the redness, hives, or nerve "tingles" occur after exposure of the skin to water and not anything else.  It would indicate an allergy to something in the water.  There is a simple test for this.  Have your daughter put her hands into DISTILLED water and see if anything occurs.  Distilled water is supposed to be "pure" water free from all contaminates, both solid and chemical.  If she is allergic to something in your water then the use of distilled water should not affect her at all. No redness, nothing. If she still has a reaction, then she is probably having a reaction related to the temperature of the water as with Reynaulds.  This test is not a "proof positive" test, but an indicator test. Hope this helps.

[CINDY4]

Sounds like it could be Raynauds to me. Meds for nerve pain may help. You could see a rheumatologist, since raynauds is autoimmune in nature, and have an autoimmune workup to put your mind at ease.

Cindy