What's a Normal amount of swelling after a sting?

[pcooley]

My son, who is five, swatted a bee on his forehead, causing it to sting him, and his eye swelled shut for a couple of days. I dismissed it as a normal amount of swelling for such a sting, but today, I was looking through the Encyclopedia of Beekeeping, and there was a picture of a child with a similar swollen shut eye, and it was described as an allergic reaction. Should I be concerned that my son is developing an allergy. He tends to get stung more than the rest of us because he plays with the bees, (last year he was stung once, and this year he's been stung twice, once by a bee he had rescued from the dog's water bowl and was caring for in his room).

After talking to my bee group, I know now to give him some benadryl when he gets stung, but I don't know if I really need to worry about him -- other than the fact that he seems to play with bees.

[flathead]

I get local swelling around sting sites, especially on the face.

Sounds like a normal reaction to me.

[IndianaHoney]

Did the bee sting him at the location of swelling? If there is swelling that seems disconnected from the site of the sting, it is not a normal reaction. If he was stung at the site of swelling, or just really close to the eye, its normal.

[Ravenseye]

It varies with me. I've been stung on my hand causing enough swelling to stop me from closing my hand into a fist. Other times, it's barely noticeable. A lot depends on the "dose" and the location. That said, I believe that it's a doctors call on whether it's a normal or allergic reaction. I would imagine that an allergic reaction is a systemic issue regardless of the amount of noticeable swelling and I wouldn't want to judge whether someone is truly allergic or not based on the amount of localized reaction. While it sounds like your son had a normal reaction, I would still run all of this by a doctor. Better to know now than to have an emergency later.

The benedryl is a good idea no matter what!

[Joel]

Stings on the face and hands are particularly painful and subject to swelling long after other areas develop resistance. I, and some of the beeks I've seen starting up swell up and get pretty tender in the beginning. I did also. A localized reaction is better than a systemic and you'd know pretty quick about real trouble with the latter. If stings come soon usually resistance will build and localized swelling will decrease, although for some not much until the 2nd year. My dad suffered systemic reactions when he started but benedryl and some luck and his resistance went the right way.

My experiance tells me Stings far apart (time wise) are more likely to result in problems than frequent stings.

Any sting, even a localized reaction one can be different the next time and cause anaphylactic shock and all of us, especially with kids, should be aware that the magic sting awaits. It's one case where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[prisoner#1]

The benedryl is a good idea no matter what!

when sting kits and benedryl arent easily accessible, Tobacco is an excellent
option for helping to control pain and swelling, epinephrine (primatine mist inhaler) will aid in breathing in the case of anaphylaxis, these really are meant
to buy you some time if you have a serious allergic reaction but is quite affective if you dont.

to use the tobacco, just wet it and apply it topically to the site of the sting

[Ruben]

They can all be different, I have been stung tem times in the past year and nine of them barely welped up but one in the wrist caused my whole forearm to swell up and I could not hold a glass of water.