HIVES

My posts are usually happy and upbeat because that is pretty much the story of our life, as cheesy as that sounds we are truly blessed every day. This post is not rainbows and smiles this post is about a terrible event.

I wasn't going to post this because I hate the pictures, I hate reading people blogs that are always complaining and negative, but I thought I would so I can be grateful for the fact that he no longer has them. (cross our fingers it stays that way)

Tanner had an ear infection a while back. We went to the doctors and they gave him a 10 day antibiotic. We noticed him feeling better after being on the antibiotic for only a few days! I was so happy to have my happy baby back. At day 9 he started getting hives. This is the whole story sorry it is long.

At first I did not know they were hives because it started off slowly. One morning I got him out of bed and changed his diaper, I notice what I thought looked like 3 spider bites on his back right above where his diaper ends (mid back). I showed Ben. Ben thought that was weird but said lets just wash his sheets and it should be fine. I threw his sheets in the washer and called it good. After a few hours it was time for Tanners nap. When he woke up from that nap he had again what I thought looked like spider bites, two of them on his face. I was pissed, I was going to find this spider and kill the SOB for bitting my baby. I thought it must be on the bumper because I had washed his sheets. I vacuumed the bumper thinking that I must have got him.

I took Tanner down stairs and started playing with him. I noticed that he had a few more on the back on his neck. I then begin to realized it was definitely not a spider bite. My dad was in the area so he came over to give it a look. We then facetimed with my mom who said she thought it looked like an allergic reaction to some sort. I called my pediatrician and left a message to have the nurse call me back. ( I have never had an allergy to anything so I had no idea what it was, also the hives had not gotten bad enough to think they were anything but some type of bite at the time) I racked my brain trying to figure out what it could have been. I had not given him any new foods nor had he worn any new clothing that had not been washed. I had not changed detergent nor soap or lotion. I could not figure it out. At this point the hives were getting worse and fast. They now started to look like hives. I was very frustrated that my nurse had not called me back because normally they are super fast about that.


Of course this was a Tuesday and Ben had to go straight to school from work. I was alone and felt helpless on what to do to help my poor baby. I had called Ben and told him how his hives where extremely bad and I didn't know what to do, or what was causing them. Ben reminded me how he is allergic to penicillin and that maybe Tanner was allergic to the antibiotic he was on for the ear infection (amoxicillin). I thought that must be it now if only the nurse would call me back.

I decided to put him in a bath because he loves tubby time and I thought it would be nice to not have his clothes rubbing the hives. Apparently this was the worst thing to do because warm just makes them worse. Luckly I had called my mom while I was giving Tanner a tub and she told me that was a bad idea. He had only been in the tub for like 2 minutes so they had not gotten worse. Tanner was sad to get out, confused at why it was such a short tubby. While all this was happening I was sobbing and yet my baby was still such a cute smily baby. He was not his 100% happy but he was pretty close.

 Finally 3 hours later the nurse calls me back and I tell her what is going on. She agreed with us that it was probably because of the antibiotic and to stop giving it to him. She said because it is such a small dose of medication over a 10 day period that it took 9 days for it to get enough into his system to cause this type of reaction.

The nurse told me to give him benadryl and that if there was any that were really bad to try a cold compress to calm them down. I did both. She also said it might take a few days to get out of his system. It did take a few days of him on benadryl to get him better. I had to give it to him every 4 hours. If I waited 5 he was covered. I felt so bad for the poor little guy. Luckily this was not as big of a deal as I am sure I made it... I was home alone with him and felt helpless with the nurse not calling me back for so long, and Ben not being there. I now look back and realize these things are normal as hard as it is to see Tanner in any sort of pain he is a tough little guy and will be alright!

Man an I grateful for medication that can help Tanner. My heart goes out to some of the people I know who suffer from hives on a day to day basis.

Sorry for the novel, and the pictures that may be hard to look at. Also on a side note, I sound like a crazy person in this post talking about feeling alone. I thought as long as I was going to show the pictures I needed to tell how it was. I know I was not alone and now he is better and that makes me so happy.

At first they were like bites and then they were like welts which is when I knew they were hives. They were in all the warm places like the crease of his neck. 

Then they took over. This one on his forehead was one giant hive :( seriously breaks my heart to look at these

All over his checks ear and temple

Sad panda

His ear was like on fire so I put a cold cloth on it ( only for a bit because Tanner didnt like that at all)

Even on his ribs, his shoulders, his arms even his poor little hands