Allergy to basketball !!! What is it? The ball? The floor?

[gordonpym]

Yes it sounds like a joke, but it's not. DS2 started basketball a month ago. He loves it. Last week, he said his feet were itchy, but after a bath, he was fine. Yesterday, as we came home, I noticed his legs were red and full of hives. He told me his hands were itchy as well, and his palms were bright red. I'll try to put pictures on profile.
On his legs, you can see the line where his shorts ended. I managed to see a doctor yesterday evening, and she confirmed an allergy reaction and gave us Zyrtec.
So anybody else has something similar? Is the ball? the floor?
He is 6. He has a severe allergy to penicillin, mild to peach skin and Red40. Also others not yet identified.

[eragon]

was he bare foot on the floor, if so its the floor polish, or.........if he has a bad dustmite allergy and rolled around skin could flare up.
it does seem environmental....

its not latex, as his hands/arms would be irritated.

[eragon]

oh sorry just noticed the hand thing, sorry. does he have any probs re latex?

[gordonpym]

Thanks Eragon ,
Hum latex, never noticed any problem with latex before but not sure he's had contact with latex. We have balls in the house, not really sure what they are made of... I will investigate latex, thanks for the tip.
Yesterday, he had socks and shoes on. But sometimes they ask the children to sit on the floor during explanation. I'll ask if they recently changed the floor polish.
What shall I do now? Was thinking giving it another try with long trousers and evaluate reaction. Is it a bad idea? I know reactions always worsen.

[eragon]

agree skin when further sensitized may take longer for you to gain control, yes, 6months or so. but as in allergic reaction thats slightly different, and have other factors that come in to play.


and as for latex, he has had contact, its in a lot of things, in his shoes and socks for one thing!

so, it may be something like the polish or dust or something like that.

personally i have only got over my own eczema flare up, from using the moisterising cloths for my leather furniture in the summer. direct skin contact on sofa caused rampant rash up back of legs! not at all glam for the middle aged woman that i am.

looking at your list peach skin? not OAS /oral allergy syndrome?

does he have asthma? is he a mouth breather (rhinitus)does he snore at night(he shouldnt btw)
does he have ezcema?
has he been tested for environmental allergies? normally a blood/RAST test. but can be confirmed via skin prick tests.

[neolara]

There was a man on "embarrassing bodies" yesterday who had an allergic reaction to getting hot. Every time he played sport he reacted exactly as you describe your ds reaction. I didn't watch all of it, but I think they put him on two different kinds of antihistermines.

[eragon]

yeah, sweat would do that. have seen that when my son was little. not so much now!

[gordonpym]

Yes, of course you're right, latex is everywhere.
He has never had breathing problems. Only diarrhea, vomiting, hives, or spectacular angioedema. But always due to food. Yes , in spring, he has a runny nose and itchy eyes; if bitten by a mosquitoes, he'll get vey swollen especially face or ears.
Lately, he was fine, I thought we had more or less identified the causes.
It's strange, as a baby, they did blood tests and he was declared allergic to dairy, eggs and wheat. However, his symptoms, severe vomiting, diarrhea, tummy pains, didn't really disappear. When he turned 3 more or less, he occasionally had a piece of bread or drank his brother's milk and nothing happened, so I reintroduced them and he is fine. So maybe he wasn't allergic in the first place.
Penicillin was confirmed by several stays in Day-Hospital, so that's the only one I am 100% sure about. A lot of testing have been done, and they were all negative. But I know that if he eats cheetos, he'll get hives, the same with red sweets.
Thanks for your answers.