Cold Urticaria: Girl, 9, could die if she eats ice cream and gets the slightest chill

This nine-year-old girl can’t play in the snow or enjoy an ice cream in the summer - because the slightest cold could kill her.

Nine-year-old Priscilla Pomerantz suffers from Cold Urticaria, which means she becomes sick, develops itchy hives and could even stop breathing if she gets too cold.

This means she must stay wrapped up warm indoors during winter and can never go swimming or enjoy cold drinks in summer.

Priscilla is also not allowed to catch the school bus and is forced to sit next to a special heater at school as she can’t withstand temperatures lower than 20C.

She can’t even join in school gym classes in case she breaks out in a sweat, because even her body’s attempts to cool itself down can bring on an allergic reaction.

Priscilla’s parents Colleen and Craig now regularly monitor the temperature of their home in New York, since their daughter was diagnosed with the rare condition when she was seven.

She takes antihistamines twice a day and carries an EPI pen at all times, because there is a risk her allergy could cause her to go into anaphylactic shock. ...

But Colleen said despite it all Priscilla is a happy little girl and takes it all in her stride.


She said: 'There are times she gets upset, especially when she can’t go out and play with her friends or go swimming in the pool in the summer.


'But she knows what will happen if she does any of these things and she just accepts it, she’s a bubbly little girl and tries to look on the bright side all the time.


'Doctor’s can’t give us a prognosis they say there’s only around an 11 per cent chance she will outgrow it. ...


via Cold Urticaria: Girl, 9, could die if she eats ice cream and gets the slightest chill | Mail Online.