Penicillin Allergy

I would stop giving the medicine myself and ask for a different one if you need to. I do have a suggestion for the rashes. Put a drop or two of Tea Tree oil in a handful of your favorite baby lotion and spread it anywhere he has a rash. I would do it right after a short bath. I've done this for all my boys whenever they have any sort of rash and it works for them. My sons have eczemas, but not very bad as some and this helps them. The tea tree oil also has a numbing quality so it doesn't itch. I have found it at some Walmarts. Hope this helps.

1 mom found this helpful

Poor boy and Mom! I have a similar reaction to penicillin. The rash is intense. Ask what the maximum dosage for benedryl is based on his weight. Don't go by what the bottle says. Insist on the hospital dose. It will make a huge difference. It does get worse before getting better. Symptoms can last up to 10 days. However, they will get better sooner than that. Make sure that he never gets a related antibiotic and that the pharmacy you use is aware of his allergy. I feel for both of you! Hope he gets better quickly!

The rash will go away but might leave a light marking for a little longer but that too will go away, also if he is having trouble with it itching give him a bath in water with baking soda in the water, that will help cool and soothe the rash.

Good Grief! I cannot believe the doctor is keeping him on that antibiotic! Believe me, it is not good. My son ended up in the hospital at the Burn center because of a reaction to an antibiotic. His whole skin was like a second degree burn. It could turn bad. Look up Stevens-Johnson disease and you'll see. You should not continue with that, there are many kinds of antibiotics out there that could help him without giving him a rash. That is not good, it's not normal, if that's what's showing, imagine what's going on inside!
When my son was in the hospital, they told me it would continue, his whole skin would fall off and he could die. Thankfully it didn't, 'cause he took the antibiotic three weeks before. I am not saying this is your case, but DO NOT CONTINUE it. Fight for your son, doctors don't know it all. I can tell you this, even though my dad is a doctor and I love him to death, but he's the first one to admit that when something goes wrong, it should stop, there is another way to deal with it. So far my son is allergic to three different antibiotics. I know what not to give him, and I also know there are other ones that he can take and have them serve their purpose without him ending up worse.
Good luck, and stay on your son's side.

E.,

I am so sorry you son is havig such a terrible reaction to the medicine. It will take awhile for the rash to go away. You didn't say why he was presribed the antibiotic. If he is still sick that may explain his being clingy and whiny. I would suggest that you get him a medical ID bracelet that says he is allergic to penicillin so he is not given that medication in the future. My son has one for that reason. Fiddledee IDs online has a great selection for little kids. My daughter has one for a peanut allergy and it is so cute, everyone notices it. I hope your boy feels better very soon!

J.

my son had a similar reaction- I just soothed him in a warm bath off and on till it was gone- hope it helps(:.

The same thing happened to my son at the same age. It's frustrating for both you and your son but it will go away. Try massaging him with a sensitive skin unsented lotion, try it on a small spot first you dont want to make it worse. It's what worked for us.

E.,

Sorry you little one is experiencing this. My daughter at almost 2 had a reaction to Amoxicillin. Not as severe, she just got the rash/welts all over. Make sure you give him the correct amount of benadryl - ask the provider since they'll sometimes approve higher or more frequent than the bottle. Before we took her to the doctor, we were being conservative/careful and it wasn't enough. We were also given the option of adding a steroid for a few days to beef her up - we chose it. It cleared with 2 days. But we were told it could be A LOT longer.

Good luck, it is awful when they hurt and we can make it go away.

Let him soak in the tub with colloidal oatmeal and stay naked as long as he's warm enough. Cetaphil cream may also help if he's itchy.

I'm so sorry you're son, and you, are going through this. I haven't experienced a penicillin allergy, but it has been confirmed that my 2 yr. old daughter has a peanut/tree nut allergy. If you are in need of a pediatric allergist, I hight recommend Dr. Uwe Manthei. Hope your little guy gets better quickly!

Not to alarm you, but penicillin allergy is not "normal" and can be very dangerous. It can be fatal! Having a life-long penicillin allergy myself, caused by taking ampicillin & tetracycline together, (idiot doctor!), I recommend getting a second opinion right away. And, your son needs one of those penicillin allergy bracelets they sell at the pharmacy, so that no other doctor EVER gives it to him by mistake again.

E.-
My daughter has the same allergy. If the rash is really bothering him, you can get benedryl creamm to rub on the rash. I think having an allergic reaction on a baby is the healing part, because they can't tell us what is really wrong. If the rash is in his diaper area you can get this stuff called Bag Balm. You can buy it at Wal-Mart or a natural store. It comes in a green square tin. At Wal-Mart it would be found in the animal section, but it really works the best for diaper rash. I have used it for years.
S. C

HI E.,
I know the rash can look awful. Antibiotics can be so rough on the system. Your Dr. can perscribe a steroid such as orapred to help him. Actually most pediatricians do when the allergic reaction is that bad. Good luck. It is hard.

It looks like you are doing what you need to do. Just be patient. In general avoid antibiotics as much as possible. Use dye-free Benadryl as some children are allergic/sensitive to the red food coloring, and it's just bad to add extra potential problems when they are already having an allergic reaction.

Babies are resilient! :-)

When my daughter was 2 she had a bad allergic reaction of hives. It was awful. Benadryl didn't work at all. We finally were prescribed the zyrtec liquid which was amazing. I can't recommend it enough. Even now, if she gets a rash starting (she has very sensitive skin) we give her zyrtec and it's gone in no time. I know they sell some zyrtec pills over-the-counter now but I don't know about the liquid. You might want to check with a pharmacist or your pediatrician. You could also bathe him in water with the oatmeal aveeno powder. That is very soothing. Good Luck!

Bearing in mind that though situations are somewhat similar...they always differ in one way or another...my daughter went through something like this with Erythromycin at three years of age...after a few days she could no longer walk and could barely talk to me...her hives were like sandpaper patches and spread like wild fire...it was quite scary...my pediatrician told us to give her oatmeal baths to soothe the itching...I have had hives myself and know it works but is short lived so repeat as often as needed and then simply rinse but don't use saop.
There is no proper consistency...so just pour in to your liking and do so generously...it would work best in a sink so you can use less...but whatever works for you.
Though quite messy it may be a remedy to get your little guy through until his next dose of meds. In my case with my daughter I also used the Benedryl cream on her rather than having her ingest the pills and had her drink lots of water to excrete the toxins more quickly through urine rather than her poor little skin.Her hives were gone in three days using these methods. If you do try the cream...try it on a small area first. See what happens before putting it all over him. My daughter loved it and we still get hives at times when we unknowingly come across something we are allergic to.
What an awful time you must be having.
May any remedy you chose prove fruitful. Take care.

Sincerely,
Becky

I have and I know exactly how you feel. We gave her baths with aveeno oatmeal? Anything that would distract her. The rash actually in our case took a good month to go away. The red bumps eventually dry up and the skin took a very dry appearance. In a day or two he will feel better. You will too. I am really sorry hang in there. Hopefully, they can find another antibiotic for him. (I am sure they had you stop the antibiotic?) We went through a couple and had differenct reactions we ended up using eardrops for the ear infection. It gave her body a break. Now I just pray and cringe whenever we are prescribed anything.

My three year old son also developed a rash all over his body and I used a thin coat of the creamy desitin and rubbed it on his body. It brought immediate relief and the rash went away within a couple of days.

Okay first of all is your child still on Augmentin? This medication is known for the rash but if the benydryl in not helping your child maybe experiencing a true penicillin allergy. My suggestion would be to stop giving him the augmentin and within a couple doses of benydryl it don't start to clear up you know it's just a augmentin rash if it does start to clear it is most likely a true allergic reaction to the penicillin. I would then return to your doctor with these new findings and ask him to prescribe something else. My child experienced the same symptoms and had a true penicillin allergy. If it had not been for my persistence with the doctor it could have been much worse.

what is he taking penicillin for? what is he sick with?

My youngest is allergic to penicillin and had almost boil-looking welts on his body. His doctor said to combine equal parts benedryl and milk of magnesium. It only took two or three doses and he as back to his normal self...

Yes I recently went through this an it was absolutely horrible. It defintely looked worse than it was for my son, who hardly even noticed. A couple of things that I learned were as follows:

- after a month of agony (b/c he was very ill) and scared to give more antibiotics, we learned that he had mono, and if you take certain antibiotics with mono, that can actually cause a rash outbreak, so now we think it's possible he many not be allergic afterall.
- he was tested for mono when the outbreak first occurred in the hospital but they only did a mono spot which showed up negative.
- it wasn't until a month later when he got phenonia that they did full series of tests and discovered the mono
- we saw an allergist and were just about to get blood work to have him tested to determine what antibiotics he was allergic too when we learned about the mono(in order to have this done, first you have to make a list of everything he may have ever received - in may case this was a challenge cuz he was born premature and in the NICU for a while so I had to get those hospital records). The allergy test available is not FDA approved and not fool proof but can provide some helpful information.
- a child can only have an allergic reaction to something if he's received it before. You can not have an allergic reaction the first time.
- it's uncommon for a child to be allergic to more than one type of antibiotic (I don't recall on the names), however if allergic to penecillian than stay away from that group.
- get an E pen at home in case of urgent allergic reaction
- we ended up using Clindamycin (sp?), and it's really strong so have you child take probiotics for the stomach and we were having trouble getting him to eat so we got good advice on the pedisure milkshakes (which he loved!).

Hope that helps - good luck - it was a very nerve racking time for me. Did he get steorids to take? They also assured me that after he took the steroids for 5 days that I didn't have to keep waking up every hour to check is breathing (like I was doing out of total nervousness during the night). The rash also didn't bother my son at all, except for baths at first which they recommended something with oatmeal in it (not baking soda which can dry out the skin).

This happened to my son at two and it was awful. He had swollen feet and arms and the decided to give him Pediapred. It help almost immediately. I don't know if they would give it to a 1 yo or not but you might call the doctor if he is really miserable and see if they can give him a prescription to help. Benadry did nothing for my son when it happened.

That was 15 years ago so I don't know exactly what they do now.

T. C.
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I don't know about your specific situation, but I do know that a "classical homeopath" can help with rashes, allergies and more. AZ is the mecca of homeopaths as we have the best school in the country in Phx. I just moved here a year ago and have not found a homeopath yet (we haven't had any major issues, thankfully). Just look for one that takes calls or emails during off hours and can respond to your concerns fairly quickly. I find in dealing with my kid, I want them to be available, just in case.
Good luck and hang in there.
B.