I Spy....Hives!

I had just given Lewis the rice cereal yesterday and we were in high spirits. Taking any food by mouth is always great. But, as I was changing his dirty diaper later in the day, I noticed splotches of red bumps appearing all over his body! What?! My first thought was, "Okay, it was probably the rice cereal I gave him this morning." At first I wasn't too worried- just backed off the rice cereal. But by evening, the welts went from small to large, raised hives to swelling up in large masses (with his legs and arms being the worst, even in the creases of his thighs). Poor guy. Okay, now I was really freaking out! Maybe it was the Enfamil Lipil we were using to fortify his milk? Or an article of clothing that wasn't washed in the proper hypo-allergenic detergent? Could we just have a week of good mojo already?

It's very hard to pinpoint, since you don't want to try all the things that could've caused hives, and plunge us back into a new round of hives. We spoke to a nurse last night and she advised us that he might have built up antibodies to the Erythramycin that he's been taking. She suggested we stop giving that to him - not a great option since he needs it for the retching syndrome. I'm praying that it was just a fluke. We saw the doctor today who told me that it takes time for the body to recover from hives, time for the immune system to shut down whatever's causing the hives. For some it could be days, weeks, or even months. And for some chronic cases, years!Terrible, huh?

So for today I was told to keep giving him Benadryl every six hours. Stop the rice cereal, continue the Erythramycin. If the hives don't get better after this course, we go back to our pediatrician tomorrow. There is a possibility that Noodles may need a round of steroids. I really hate to give him steroids because his little body has just had so much in these short four months!