Thursday, November 30, 2006
Breastfeeding and hives
I stopped breastfeeding Matthew in July (he was about 17 months old then) after we knew I was preggie. I actually planned to try tandem breastfeeding, but I was spotting, so the most logical thing to do was to stop.
Almost as soon as I stopped, Matthew started developing hives. We did not know what caused it, but we cut down his intake of soya milk, tofu, tow huay, all soy based products. He didn't seem to get any better.
Then in August, he came down with gastric flu that was accompanied by a high fever. We ended up in KKH because he had full blown hives, face all swollen after a dose of paracetamol and a dose of ibrufen 4 hrs later. The KKH doctors thought he might be allergic to ibrufen, so we were supposed to go for an allergy test that they would call me about, but never did.
The hives came on and off and got worse recently. Since we had eliminated all sorts of possible causes, we decided to change the bath gel. Matthew had been using Johnson Baby Bath for more than a year now. It seemed to be an unlikely cause, but we changed it anyway. Luckily I had earlier bought an aloe based liquid soap for the new baby, so we used it for Matthew instead. Immediately we saw an improvement in his condition. That was two weeks ago.
Last Saturday night, Matthew woke up in the middle of the night with a fever of 38.3oC. As he was not affected by it, I decided not to give him any medicine. An hour later, he woke me up saying "yang yang" (itchy in Mandarin). I felt his head and realised that he had hives. For the next 3 hours, I was massaging his body to soothe his itchiness.
He simply refused to take medicine. Other than the fever and the itchiness, he was ok. In the end, we got to force feed him to bring his temperature down. We also soaked some rolled oats in warm water for his bath. I have read somewhere on the internet that oat bath can help soothe the itchiness and it really did help. His fever and hives subsided on Sunday night.
We have heard him coughing the past few days and suspected that he caught a flu. That explained the reason for the fever. We have also checked with Dr Ong and it seems like fever was more likely a reason for the hives he developed last Saturday night and in August. Rather than second guessing his hives problem, we would be arranging for an allergy test soon.
I asked Dr Ong if Matthew's allergy or intolerance only surfaced because I stopped breastfeeding him. She said that breastfeeding could have kept his allergy at bay because breastmilk has antibodies etc, that was why it flared up as soon as breastfeeding stopped. I also asked if I should give Matthew breastmilk after our 2nd one is borned. She said no, because Matthew is already off breastmilk and is building up his immune system. Giving him breastmilk may have negative effect on building up his tolerance level.
Now thinking back, Matthew did develop hives once when he came down with fever and flu a year ago. We also didn't know what caused it. But that was one single episode then and he didn't have hives after that. So at that time, we did not look too much into it.
Here's an article from AskDrSears.com on HIVES.
Almost as soon as I stopped, Matthew started developing hives. We did not know what caused it, but we cut down his intake of soya milk, tofu, tow huay, all soy based products. He didn't seem to get any better.
Then in August, he came down with gastric flu that was accompanied by a high fever. We ended up in KKH because he had full blown hives, face all swollen after a dose of paracetamol and a dose of ibrufen 4 hrs later. The KKH doctors thought he might be allergic to ibrufen, so we were supposed to go for an allergy test that they would call me about, but never did.
The hives came on and off and got worse recently. Since we had eliminated all sorts of possible causes, we decided to change the bath gel. Matthew had been using Johnson Baby Bath for more than a year now. It seemed to be an unlikely cause, but we changed it anyway. Luckily I had earlier bought an aloe based liquid soap for the new baby, so we used it for Matthew instead. Immediately we saw an improvement in his condition. That was two weeks ago.
Last Saturday night, Matthew woke up in the middle of the night with a fever of 38.3oC. As he was not affected by it, I decided not to give him any medicine. An hour later, he woke me up saying "yang yang" (itchy in Mandarin). I felt his head and realised that he had hives. For the next 3 hours, I was massaging his body to soothe his itchiness.
He simply refused to take medicine. Other than the fever and the itchiness, he was ok. In the end, we got to force feed him to bring his temperature down. We also soaked some rolled oats in warm water for his bath. I have read somewhere on the internet that oat bath can help soothe the itchiness and it really did help. His fever and hives subsided on Sunday night.
We have heard him coughing the past few days and suspected that he caught a flu. That explained the reason for the fever. We have also checked with Dr Ong and it seems like fever was more likely a reason for the hives he developed last Saturday night and in August. Rather than second guessing his hives problem, we would be arranging for an allergy test soon.
I asked Dr Ong if Matthew's allergy or intolerance only surfaced because I stopped breastfeeding him. She said that breastfeeding could have kept his allergy at bay because breastmilk has antibodies etc, that was why it flared up as soon as breastfeeding stopped. I also asked if I should give Matthew breastmilk after our 2nd one is borned. She said no, because Matthew is already off breastmilk and is building up his immune system. Giving him breastmilk may have negative effect on building up his tolerance level.
Now thinking back, Matthew did develop hives once when he came down with fever and flu a year ago. We also didn't know what caused it. But that was one single episode then and he didn't have hives after that. So at that time, we did not look too much into it.
Here's an article from AskDrSears.com on HIVES.
