Allergic Reaction to Penicillin

Do You Know the Signs of an Allergic Reaction?

Being a mother to a set of boy/girl twins, I learn a lot as I go. I have three other children who are older, so experience has taught me a lot.

When one of my twins had a cold that was starting to show signs of infection, I took him to the doctor. She wrote him a prescription for an antibiotic called Penicillin. It is a very common antibiotic used to treat many kinds of infections. My son was almost six months old and he was responding well to this antibiotic.

After taking the antibiotic for three days, I noticed a patch a little red bumps on his cheek, under his eye. It went across the nose. They were tiny red dots and some were grouped together. They were extremely dry. I thought at first that it was just a simple patch of dry skin. But before I put anything on it, I called the doctor to make sure it wasn't a reaction. I had read in the insert that came with his prescription to watch out for signs of an allergic reaction such as a rash.

The doctor told me to immediately stop using the antibiotic and she phoned in another prescription for another one. She told me that we now had to make sure he was never given penicillin anymore and we now had to say the same for his twin sister, At least until we were able to test them to see if they were indeed allergic.

I did some research on allergic reactions to penicillin. I found out a lot of interesting information. Penicillin is the most common cause of drug allergies. Some people who are allergic to penicillin are also allergic to other related antibiotics.

As a person gets older, they may become less sensitive to penicillin and able to use it again. They may have had an adverse reaction, such as a side effect, instead of an allergic reaction. A skin test is the best way to determine whether they have an actual penicillin allergy.

Common symptoms of penicillin are rashes, hives, itchy eyes and swollen lips, tongue or face.