Poor Jessica

My poor girl has hives. No real reason that I can discern, she's been getting them since she was tiny, two or three times a year, she goes for a week or so with waves of hives. It's more likely to happen in the winter, and once she starts, she'll get them off and on for the strangest of reasons. Stress, taking a bath, going outside, coming inside, and sometimes just because.

She came home from school riddled with the yesterday and by last night, she was just covered. Huge patches all over her body, her belly, back, her thighs, even some on her little face. We gave her benedryl and it helped some, but she was still itching after I put her to bed. I kept her home today, because I didn't want her to start itching like a mad woman at school, and called the doctor. She's now on a maintenance dose of childrens' zyrtec for the rest of the winter months. She's also supposed to be taking the meds during the spring and fall for the seasonal allergies that she gets, plus she's got an additional mist prescription that she takes on an as needed basis for her allergy to dust mites. I'm thrown off by daily meds - I don't like dosing my kids consistently. Anyone else have this problem? When Sam was put on the reflux meds, I really resisted it as well, because I didn't want to have to have a child who needed daily meds. Then when I finally caved, and saw what a major difference it made, I felt doubly guilty for waiting.

There's just nothing to like about this - I don't like having to give her medication every day, but I don't like her suffering needlessly because of these allergies either.