Isaiah gets mystery bumps. Isaiah is allergic to peanuts, all tree nuts, shellfish, fish, eggs and sesame. He’s anaphylactic to almost all of those. He is also allergic to every environmental allergen they can test you for. All pollens, tree, grass, flower. All the various dust and mold components, cats, dogs, you name it. He’ll test positive for it. He might test positive for it just by you naming it! Each of these photos were taken on different days, sometimes weeks apart.
So, Isaiah get’s what I call mystery bumps. I bet you can guess why I call them that. The ones above happened one night while he was sitting and watching a short video. He was eating some very unhealthy Pillsbury ghost cookies I made. But this reaction was localized, not systemic, so most likely not related to food. (systemic means it happens all over the body, food allergy reactions are almost always systemic even if you don’t realize it) This is just one more part of life with an allergy kid.
We always document them. You should too, if this happens to your child. It may be a mystery, but if you have a good doctor, it’s a mystery he or she wants to solve. There are blood tests, to see if your child has a natural tendency to see everything as an allergen. We ran all of those, he was clear. There are a lot of anti-histamines we could add to his regiment, but one is enough, and he’s a wiggy kid, I don’t need anything making him more wiggy.
Really these don’t even bother him. At least not like you would think. It seems to be worse during the summer, but so is pollen. These weren’t detected until bath time. I wondered if he was allergic to his own sweat. Once again, that would be systemic, not localized. And the top picture was on a 40 degree day. The thing is, Isaiah is an itchy kid. The most common phrase uttered in this house is “Stop Scratching!” Yet, don’t be fooled, this isn’t true eczema. One Benadryl is all it takes and it’s gone in about 30 minutes, that’s not eczema. It feels kind of cruel to tell him to stop scratching all the time, I know he can’t help it. But I really don’t want to medicate him into oblivion, so some verbal reminders are necessary. Needless to say, him scratching is not always an “alert” to me. If I checked his skin every time he was scratching, we wouldn’t get out of the door! Shoot, he still sleeps with us because there are nights he scratches so much he wakes up looking like he was in a cat fight in the back alley. So here’s our current act of complacency, Isaiah is an allergic kid. As the Doc says, if there’s something to be allergic to, Isaiah will be allergic to it. He’s going to react to things that we can’t imagine. Maybe his poppy sat on the sofa before him wearing fresh deodorant that rubbed off on the sofa and then Isaiah put his head on the sofa? Maybe it was a particularly polleny day, and his sweat made more pollen stick to his skin? What if? Maybe this? You know what? I’m a diligent mom. I know that my precocious, hilarious, way to verbally skilled entertainer has been dealt a hand that makes regular every day things a little more difficult for him. But who am I? I am his advocate. I watch, I document, I deduce, I report. If there is an answer to his mystery bumps we will find it. Scaring him isn’t going to help. Worrying calls to the doctor in his presence, really don’t help. I learned that the day he said, “Your not going to call the doctor about these bumps are you?” I said no, and waited until he was otherwise occupied. If you are having a similar experience, I say follow the eczema rules, I always bathe him, put a little steroid cream on and aquaphor when he has an outbreak like this. I also give him a Benadryl, it can’t hurt and it always seems to help. Document for your doctor, but if you can, I would beg you to avoid too many anti-histamines. I always say, I’m no doctor but….did you know that Allegra is currently the only anti-histamine that doesn’t cross the blood brain barrier? So it’s the one med that won’t make your wackadoodle even more of a wacka-wackadoodle. If you have already noticed issues with anti-histamines affecting behavior consider looking into Allegra. My son’s reaction was so bad to years of Zyrtec that he developed a movement disorder. I’d love to hear from you, does your child get mystery bumps? What do you do?
The End.
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Jen Kehl 
I just sent you an email that I was going to bed. but….. Just one post. And this was the one (;
My youngest daughter is prone to hayfevery kind of allergies and also, apparently, ragweed to touch (hives). I’ve been giving her Claritin when it gets bad. But you are saying Allegra. Is that a once a day thing like Claritin? The Claritin doesn’t seem to impact her in any way other than relief from allergies — but if there is something that physiologically does not impact her brain, I’m all for that! Thanks for your knowledge.
Yes, my child gets mystery bumps, but not as severe as the ones you posted above. His are usually on his tummy and sides of this trunk area. Sometimes on his face. He’s allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, dairy and has a soy intolerance and gluten intolerance. He has not tested positive for any environmental allergies though. Our doctor asked us to take pictures as well, it does help them “rule out” things. We don’t have an answer, but he has “ruled” out some things!
We have ruled things out too. We have discovered something too, I plan to do a post about it, it’s called Cold Urticaria. It’s basically an allergy to cold, if you can believe it. So when he get’s the mystery bumps, and it’s colder than 50 degrees outside, that’s usually the cause. But for now, we’re detectives! Happy hunting!
Very interesting. My son has a few bumps on his tummy that are slowly spreading. I plan to call his doctor tomorrow because they’re just not going away. He’s not allergic to anything we know of so we’ll see what the doc says. Glad to know we’re not the only ones! Thanks for sharing.
Yeah…those bumps sometimes stay a mystery, but don’t give up. I usually won’t take “I don’t know” as a first answer. Make sure the Doc checks into something 🙂
My son has sensitive skin, grass mostly. He gets bumps and or blotches. We give him a generic anti-histamine. Also band aids and eye patches bother his skin… not unusual for Down syndrome. (Looks like your little guy is taking it in stride!)
It absolutely bothers me more than it bothers him!