coughing and gagging: is this a reaction?

[wtftodo]

My 15mo was diagnosed in allergy clinic at 9m with egg, nut, and peanut allergies after reactions to milk and eggs. The milk skin prick was OK (blood test positive) but I was told to reintroduce dairy.

On two occasions recently she has started coughing while eating, and kind of gagging and sticking finger in her mouth, I've panicked and thought she was having a reaction (egg reaction was coughing, then gasping and a nettle rash all over).

Both occasions were relatively short and I'm unsure if they were reactions or if she had something stuck! I gave Piriton anyway. First time she had eaten a bite of a chicken strip which had egg binding in the breadcrumb. Today she had eaten part of a supermarket bakery multi grain bagel. So neither totally safe foods... But she has also wolfed down Quorn before before we realised it contained egg, no adverse reaction..

Am I being neurotic??

[anotherdayanothersquabble]

You are right to worry. This does sound like a reaction. I think the sticking fingers in the throat can be due to throat swelling and in your situation I would have given something. The gagging is also a possible reaction. The skin prick could have been negative because there was not enough milk in her system at the time. The tests are not 100% reliable.

We get reactions that come and go, sesame for example, didn't show up initially, then physical symptoms became obvious, tested positive on skin prick, excluded, retested later, was negative, reintroduced without any immediate obvious symptoms but DS was randomly vomiting in the middle of the night, retested and sesame was positive again.

[wtftodo]

Thanks for replying, v useful to hear your experiences which sound stressful. I did give Piriton after the bagel. I've also called the allergy clinic to chase for a follow up appt which should be due this year.

[Ringsender]

maybe the egg in the breadcrumb binding is 'fresh' and less processed, whereas in quorn is more 'denatured' and less likely to give reaction? Did bagels have an egg-based glaze? not sure what else in bagels would cause gagging (apart from physical obstruction) if she doesn't have a wheat allergy/intolerance?

[wtftodo]

The bagels were multigrain, she has seeds etc but she might not have had everything in the bagel before. Eg Sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, plus they were from a supermarket bakery and I know they have a not nut safe thing. Thing is yes she might have been simply gagging... Ugh. So difficult