About 10 percent of people report being allergic to penicillin. But that percentage may be high. If your child develops hives , which are raised, itchy, white or red bumps on the skin that appear after one or two doses of the medicine, they may be allergic to penicillin.
If you notice your child has hives after taking amoxicillin, you should call your doctor right away, as the allergic reaction could get worse. You should call or go to the emergency room if your child is having difficulty breathing or shows signs of swelling. This is another type of rash that looks different. It often appears later than hives. It looks like flat, red patches on the skin. Smaller, paler patches usually accompany the red patches on the skin.
This type of rash often develops between 3 and 10 days after starting amoxicillin. Any medication in the penicillin family, including the amoxicillin antibiotic, can lead to pretty serious rashes, including hives. They can spread to the entire body. They may simply be reacting slightly to the amoxicillin without having a true allergy.
More girls than boys develop a rash in reaction to taking amoxicillin. Children who have mononucleosis more commonly known as mono and then take antibiotics may be more likely to get the rash. In fact, the amoxicillin rash was first noticed in the s in children who were being treated with ampicillin for mono, according to the Journal of Pediatrics.
The rash was reported to have developed in almost every child, between 80 and percent of cases. Still, about 30 percent of children with confirmed acute mono who are given amoxicillin will develop a rash. If your child develops hives, you can treat the reaction with over-the-counter Benadryl , following age-appropriate dosing instructions.
You should check with your doctor before giving any more of the antibiotic, just to rule out the chance of an allergic reaction. Unfortunately, rashes are one of those symptoms that can be very confusing. A rash could mean nothing. Or, a rash could mean that your child is allergic to amoxicillin. Any allergy can be very serious quickly, and even put your child at risk for death. In most cases, the rash will disappear all on its own once the medication has been stopped and it has cleared from the body.
In case of this type of rash, stop the amoxicillin until you get further advice from your doctor. The majority of these reactions are non-allergic, and most are caused by viruses. So, how can you tell the difference? Warning signs it is a true allergic reaction would be sudden onset of the rash within two hours of the first dose, any breathing or swallowing difficulty or very itchy hives.
There are several reasons why it is better to continue using amoxicillin than stopping or changing to a different antibiotic:. If your child is on amoxicillin or Augmentin and develops a rash, always consult your pediatrician. If considered appropriate by your pediatrician, you can be evaluated by an allergist to assess if future avoidance is needed. Latest Blog Posts Our daughter's heart journey leads to advancements in subaortic stenosis research. What parents need to know about multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children MIS-C.
If laboratory testing for antibiotic allergy is being considered, it is strongly recommended to discuss an appropriate approach to testing with the local laboratory or relevant specialist. If the patient has a history of an acute IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reaction after taking an antibiotic, it can be assumed that this reaction is likely to occur again on re-exposure.
In most cases alternative classes of antibiotics will be available and can be used instead. Desensitisation protocols can be carried out under specialist supervision in a hospital setting to induce temporary tolerance to an antibiotic if it is required for treating a serious infection, e.
People with an allergy to one antibiotic may react to structurally similar antibiotics. It is sometimes possible to predict cross-reactivity on the basis of the structure of the drug and, if known, what the person is specifically allergic to, e. Cross-reactivity to cephalosporins in patients allergic to penicillin does occur, but it is thought that this risk is very low.
If the patient has a history of a delayed hypersensitivity reaction after taking an antibiotic, re-challenge may be possible, depending on the nature of the reaction. Patients with an IgE-mediated drug allergy or a serious non-IgE-mediated reaction should be encouraged to wear a medic alert emblem.
If the patient has a history of intolerance or adverse effects after taking an antibiotic, it depends on the nature of the symptoms or signs as to whether this is a contraindication for taking the medicine in the future. Patients who have experienced a serious adverse effect after taking an antibiotic, e. Conversely, the benefits of treatment with a particular antibiotic and lack of availability of other suitable options may outweigh the risk of recurrence of adverse effects in patients who have experienced less severe adverse effects, e.
Patients commonly report, or are labelled with, an allergy to sulfa drugs, which can cause difficulty for clinicians making prescribing decisions, and unnecessary anxiety for patients. Uncertainty about how this relates to the risks of other medicines or foods that contain sulfur may lead to a patient being unnecessarily deprived of some treatment options for other conditions, e. However, people who have experienced an allergic reaction to any antibiotic are at higher risk of reacting to a sulfonamide antibiotic.
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When is an allergy to an antibiotic really an allergy? Can you test for an antibiotic allergy? Can antibiotics be safely administered after an adverse reaction? If the history of allergy is not definitive, the starting point is to consider whether the details of the reported allergic event give any clues as to the true nature of the reaction: Was it an allergy, an adverse effect or an intolerance see below? Could the symptoms have been caused by the illness, another medicine including medicine interaction or other factor rather than the antibiotic?
Has the patient subsequently tolerated the same or a similar antibiotic? This is most commonly seen in patients taking cephalosporins, particularly cefaclor, and sulfonamides. Stevens-Johnson syndrome — a form of toxic epidermal necrolysis, characterised by a red-purple rash and blistering of skin and mucous membranes.
This is most commonly associated with the use of sulfonamides. Aseptic meningitis — can be induced with use of antibiotics such as trimethoprim or co-trimoxazole. The exact mechanism for this reaction is unknown. Who is most susceptible to antibiotic allergy?
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