Let's Discuss...Ben's rash

At 7 months old, the twins were barely cracking 12lbs and were still little bumps on a log...

At 7 months old, Benjamin is nearing giant status (19lbs 13oz a few weeks ago...so I'm sure he's over 20lbs by now) and crawling like a maniac...

Ben has been hitting all of his milestones right on track! I get the baby email updates and they actually apply to him. Whoa. Crazy haha He is doing everything a 7 month old baby should do and doing it well! We took a little time out on eating solids but he's back and eating everything in sight! The only reason we paused was because of his little rash issue...

What rash? This one...

that covered his ENTIRE body. For many many moons and was a mystery to all who saw him.

Ok calm down, take a breather. It's NOT contagious. The first guesses for what it was were viral infection, fifths disease, and hand foot and mouth (all contagious), but after much debate we realized it was none of those! So what is it?

Erythema multiforme was the next guess. Wrong.
Milk/food allergy was next on our list. Wrong.
Eggs. Wrong.
Wheat. Wrong.

So what the heck is this mystery rash, that FYI, he's had for well over 2 months now.

So 2 ER trips, a few urgent care visits, pediatrician, a new pediatrician, dermatologist who did a skin biopsy, and an allergist later I am here to tell you his rash is....

nothing.

Or something.

It is an autoimmune disorder, so essentially his body is doing it to himself. They call it autoimmune urticaria (chronic hives). The allergist threw in some blood work as a shot in the dark and it actually came back positive. He says he's never had a patient so young with chronic hives so he's not really sure what to expect for the years to come. He might grow out of it, he might not. He might develop other autoimmune diseases, he might not.

We have figured out a good routine to control his breakouts so we're sticking with that for now. He will need frequent trips to an allergist for probably the rest of his life to keep the hives under control and to check for other autoimmune issues that may pop up. I guess thyroid issues are common with chronic hives so we'll be checking his thyroid as he gets older. And pretty much, we'll just wait and see what happens!

So really, we don't have a lot of answers other than the fact that it's not contagious, not dangerous, and right now...it's nothing. It COULD be something down the road, but we'll worry about that when it gets here, if it even does.

So if you see poor baby Ben with a lot of hives, don't stress. I just probably forgot some of his medicines ;) Hey, I'm keeping up after 3 kids ya know! But he is fine! Growing, crawling, eating, laughing constantly, and being his happy chipper little self...just with a few spots from time to time ;)