Sounds to me like we are the same lol I have cold urticaria. Everything i touch that is fridge cold leaves me with welts, itching and burning. It started as mostly my hands reacting then my mouth and the rest of my body started to have the same. I take reactine daily and it keeps it at bay. Good luck :)
I started searching the web because I noticed this just a few months aback. I bought a cup of strawberry lemonade on a very hot summer day and my hands just started itching as I'd switched the drink between both hands. My palms literally turned red and started itching first, then they began to burn and felt slightly painful when I tried to make a fist. I noticed my lips and tongue itching and swelling when I ate an icy pop and then I also noticed it with just plain ice cubes. I had some ice cream last night and the hand I was holding the bowl in, started itching and swelling to the point where I became concerned that my fingers were going to continue to swell and burst. I ate some ice cream just now but used a towel to hold the container, my fingers were fine tonight but sure enough my lips and tongue started itching and now my lips are swollen. I'm a bit concerned because it happened so suddenly, I didn't know there was such an allergy.
I've had the same problem, but have wondered if it's the plastic spoon because of the rough edge -- and because only the top lip swells. I get the same thing from the many little cuts that potato chips can leave. Next time I'll only lick the ice cream and find out!
If the swelling is on the outside lip, it might be a case of a mosquito bite. This has incidentally happened to my son after he woke up at night. At first it was hard to judge what actually it was. My wife and myself thought it was due to an allergy caused due to a lolly ice-cream. However, later on my wife realized that there was a really small red spot somewhere on the swelling - which most probably was of a mosquito bite. Our quick remedy was to clean the area with a clean cloth soaked in table salt water. Then after a couple of hours his lip returned to normal.
Both of those answers make sense to me. I wondered about food dye also. I am going to the doctor to have some allergy testing and see what i am potentially reacting to. I hate the idea of giving up ice cream!!!
I am going to try the ice test and see. I hope I dont have urticaria.
Thanks to both of you for your clear ideas and descriptions.
Hello,
These symptoms can be due to cold urticaria. Cold urticaria is a disorder characterized by the rapid onset of itchiness, redness and swelling of the skin within minutes after exposure to a cold stimulus.
Diagnosis can be made by an ice-cube test. Place an ice cube on your forearm for 4 minutes and observe the area for 10 minutes afterwards. If you have cold urticaria, the area will become itchy and then swell approximately 2 minutes after removing the ice cube.
Treatment is avoiding exposure to cold stimuli, including swimming or bathing in cold water. You can take antihistaminics like zyrtec or tegamet. You should enroll with Medic Alert and always carry Epi pen (injectable adrenaline) along with you.
It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.
Also, many people who are allergic to dairy products are unsuspectantly allergic to annatto. I did some research on annatto when I was researching information about a recipe. It turns out that a lot of people are allergic to annatto. Annatto is a natural seed used as a food dye. Annatto is what makes the butter you buy in the store the shade of yellow that it is. It is also what makes cheddar cheese the orange color it is. Although, who knows what else is in that fake orange coloring in the unnatural color of cheddar cheeses. The white cheddar cheese is the true and natural color. I'm not sure why there was some kind of ruling generations ago that insisted that this coloration was required for butters and cheeses and other dairy products. I only know that there was some kind of out-dated and vague dairy law or code two or three generations back about adding this coloration to commercial dairy products. It has been in commercial products for so long now that most people have no idea that the natural color of butter is a white color, because, well, milk and milk fat is white. It is so ingrained that people think that butter is supposed to be this yellow color that we're all familiar with.
It may not even be an actual dairy allergy, but there are just too many ingredients in ice cream to be sure exactly what the allergy is. But, this does sound like an allergy to me.
As far as the cold water, I'm not sure what that's about. It could very well be a temperature issue. But, the ice cream thing sounds like it's an allergy.