Martin D Rudloff, MD.

Hives are whelps or raised spots that itch. Hives look like little mosquito bites. Hives come one place, disappear and crop up elsewhere. Scratching hives seems to make them worse.

Hives are a form of urticaria. Urticaria also comes as flat circles of various sizes that come and go. Often there will be half circles or target like lesions. Sometimes as urticaria leaves the skin is temporarily discolored.

Hives and urticaria generally are reactions that come from within rather than something on the skin. Hives and urticaria have many causes:

Allergic reactions to medicines. If your child is on a medicine that can be safely stopped such as an antibiotic stop the medicine and call the doctor during regular office hours.

Allergic reactions to foods. Think if a new food has been introduced--particularly nuts, shell fish, etc.

Allergic reaction to bee stings. If your child develops hives after a bee sting be sure to discuss this with your doctor.

Reactions to infections. The body can react to infections with urticarial rashes. Common infections that do this are viruses such as the cold sore virus and mycoplasma bugs that cause bronchitis.

Idiopathic. This means the cause is unknown but some people suspect that the word idiopathic is a combination of the words pathetic and idiot that might suggest the doctors are pathetic idiots and since they can't figure it out they have to give it an unusual code name.

Most of the time hives and urticaria require no treatment unless the child is uncomfortable from itching.

Generally they last a few days and then resolve.

It is important to stop medicines that may be causing hives.

Rarely do they progress, however, if your child has hives and difficulty breathing or new onset cough and wheeze you need to call 911.

If your child develops hives after a bee sting be sure to discuss this with your doctor.

Since hives and urticaria come from within, if you are going to treat them you can give an oral histamine such as benadryl, Claritin or Zyrtec.