spontaneous large red itchy welts

[jamie935]

I am a 24 year old female.  About 6 months ago I started getting small red bite-like bumps that would itch like crazy.  They seemed to appear in the morning after sleeping.  My first thought was bed bugs or some other creepy crawlie and we did a sweep of our home and found nothing.  I share a bed with my fiance and our son sleeps in his own room.  Neither of them have been getting the spots.  The itchies would last about a week and when they're gone the skin pigment is slightly darker.  We spent 2 weeks away from home in another state and I still received them there.  Shortly after they seemed to stop.  There was about a 1-2 month period where I did not receive any.  I became pregnant in early April and have since started getting these itchy red bumps on a much greater scale.  They started again showing only in the morning and growing to be slightly larger than the end of a pencil eraser.  Now, they start all throughout the day, i get small red blotchy spots that do not itch at all.  They turn into nickel size swollen intensely itchy bumps that last weeks.  They started on my right upper arm, then my left upper arm was attached.  My right forearm was hit bad and now my left is covered in them.  Sometimes they seem to form a line with a fairly equal distance between them.  I also have been getting them on the tops of both feet and on my fingers/hands.  They last about 2 weeks now.  When they go away, they still have a raised bump that itches but the redness and harsh look is gone.  I've been to an allergist who said it was not hives and referred me to a dermatologist.  I had a biopsy done on a fresh one and am still waiting to hear the results.  I have not been able to find anything online similar to what I have.  I've also switched to a gluten free diet recently because my symptoms matched very closely to those of dermatitis herpetiformis, which comes from gluten intolerance/sensitivity.  The pictures of rashes people suffer with this problem however, don't match mine.  The picture shows the large bumps that developed overnight.  There are two small ones that are starting on the inside of my forearm also.  Tomorrow, they'll be the same size.  Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Gottascratch]

I have them too.  I got my first "bite" on the back of my right arm on Aug 26 this year!  I could feel a bump and it felt like it was under my skin and on my skin.  The bumps on skin that is in a fattier area like my thighs, butt and upper arms usually are the large, hard, pink, hot welts.  They have been the size of a dime to swollen larger than a quarter. They itch like crazy and I usually scratch until I bleed.  There are no holes like an insect bite, just a bump that seems to start under the skin.  I have watched several pop up since I sometimes can feel them starting.

On areas of tighter skin like my hands, forearms, feet and ankles, I get tiny little hard extremely itchy clusters of 1 to over 20.  Sometimes they are in a row and sometimes just in a small area the size of a quarter to about a 5 inch line on my inside forearm.  Every one of the small ones have ended up with scabs since I scratch until I bleed. These never grow into the larger ones but stay tiny and hard.

I have had 2 under my chin and 2 on front of my neck near where my Adams apple would be.  The ones under my chin were itchy, large, red welts that swelled up and joined to make one hot welt larger than a quarter.  The ones on my throat came at different times but both were a light pink but were as itchy as the rest and a welt.

Mine don't have a time when they itch more than others.  If they're there, they itch!  I never get them while I'm asleep.  I have never woken up with new ones but can get new ones within a few minutes of getting up. Other than in bed, I have gotten them home, outside, inside buildings without carpets, in my car, pretty much anywhere.

I finally got an appt with a dermatologist a few days ago.  He isn't sure what they are but we are starting with treating them as scabies so I am off all steroid creams since I saw him. If it is scabies, the steroids make it worse.  I have taken prednisone and two different prescriptions of steroid creams.  I was prescribed a cream for killing scabies to put all over my skin but my face and was told that it should kill them and drive them out!!! Ick!  He said that for a few days, I will probably itch more as they escape and die.  I broke out with 7 new ones last night around 24 hours after applying it.  A few hours later I broke out with around 20 on the back of my neck (the first ones I got back there) these are little ones but itching like crazy.  I should know in 7-14 days if it is scabies because all bumps should stop popping up and the ones I have should stop itching.  If it is, the other 3 members of the family living here will need to be treated even if they still haven't started getting bumps.  So far it's just me.

[Nayjac13]

It's your gut..you have leaky gut symptoms.. heal your gut and you will not experience those symptoms.. no gluten, no dairy, no acidic food, no eggs, no chemicals at all, no processed anything... keep track of everything you eat...hope it helps...

[Nayjac13]

It's your gut.. heal your gut and you will not experience those symptoms.. no gluten, no dairy, no acidic food, no eggs, no chemicals at all, no processed anything... hope it helps

[itchyinmd]

I have the same thing - and have ruled out bedbugs, allergies. Not sure if I can completely rule out some kind of insect bite, maybe the insect is  something so, so small not visible to the eye?

My welts always seem to be around the waist, front and back. So far not on the arms, face or anywhere else. For a while I was thinking maybe it's related to the elastic (maybe something's living in there) on a skirt I wore last week or the sleep shorts I wear, although that would seem a little odd and unusual.  But like everyone else, it seems to appear overnight and then is visible in the morning.

What I find the most unusual is: why is this happening to me recently (maybe in the past 2 months) and not earlier? Not last year, not 10 years ago.  Nothing has changed - I did the same some of you have, washed my bedding, put it to dry on the highest temperature, etc.

And no one else in my family has this.

[pammoe]

Your problem sounds just like mine!  Do your irritations have a white fluid spot in the middle of the nikle size irritation ?  I am going to a dermatologist tomorrow, hoping to get help!!  

[CCassie45]

my arms started to itch a little last night so i scratched them a few minutes later my right arm started swelling and when i touched it it felt really hot. a few minutes later my left arm did the exact same thing. it is still the same this morning. i didn't go outside at all yesterday and really never left the couch all day.I wasn't bitten by anything and hadn't eaten or drank anything new to me.what could this be?

[Cassanovabrown83]

I've got that now. They start out like small mosquito bites and if I scratch them just once they swell into something bout the size of a dime and itch like CRAZY! I have them on my back, under my neck, the lower back of my neckline, and my arms. Some times they will appear on my forehead and when they finally heal on my forehead they leave dark spots. The ones on my body will eventually go down in size and stop itching but always return.