is this just a bug?

[harverina]

Hi all,

My dd is 16 months old and allergic to milk and eggs. This was diagnosed at 6 months old when she had an awful reaction to yogurt.

Since then my dd has developed eczema on her face, mostly on her chin and surrounding area. We have had no further severe reactions, apart from little spots on her arms when we were at a coffee shop and she vomited when she was given a dessert containing milk.

So...for the past 5 days my dd has been sick quite a lot...its been quite random, for example she is sometimes sick immediately after eating, but sometimes it is hours later. It's been hard starving my dd because she has been hungry and crying for food, so we have tried to restrict her to plain foods like toast and porridge.

So, I am now starting to worry that my dd might have another allergy. I have tried to think about what she has eaten before being sick...wheat and soya seem the most obvious...for example...she was sick on thur after having toast, but on frid she had only eaten porridge. Plus yesterday my dd had toast at lunchtime and wasnt sick until 11pm. On Friday night she was sick after having soya milk but on sat night and during the night last night she kept breast and soya milk down. So I don't think its wheat or soya?

Last Wednesday I had cows milk on my cereal for the first time in months...when my dd was first sick on thur I thought I had caused it...could hid still be being this sick though, 6 days later? I am regretting this big time now, I feel awful.

Sorry for ramble, any advice or thoughts would be welcome...I should say that my dd has had some loose poos too. No high temps though.

Thanks.

[harverina]

Just bumping sorry!

[Ivortheengine8]

I wouldnt have thought so, they generally happen fairly quickly after they have had contact with the food. Did she have the RAST tests?
Is she on a special milk now?

I have a 21 month old who had a milk allergy amongst a lot of other things but she grew out of the milk allergy at around 12 months. (she was on Nutramigen before this)
She still reacts to Eggs (although she is ok when things contain eggs) (Bizarre I know), she eats cheese ad all dairy now but I wont give her nuts or fish as she has had severe reactions to these too in the past.
Even though I thought I had a god idea of what her allergies were we still have an episode every 3 months or so where we end up in A and E with problems. Sometimes I just have no idea what has caused it.I am hoping they will do more tests soon because they obviously can come and go.
I am still getting my head around it all tbh because it can be ver confusing and frightening too.
Is she just being sick or are there other symptoms? (apart the eczema)

[Ivortheengine8]

Sorry, I just reread your post and realised you were still BF. Ignore my question!

[harverina]

Yeah she is bf, but rarely feeds during the day so she will usually have one or two cups of also soya 1 plus. No other signs of it being a reaction. She was sick again tonight, first time this morning...now been 5 days. Is this normal for a bug? The Gp seems to think its ok. Maybe I'm just being paranoid?

[harverina]

She only had a skin prick test.

[freefrommum]

Can't really offer an explanation but my DS (now 4) used to regularly have unexplained bouts of vomiting when he was younger. It was usually straight after the last mouthful of his food but it never seemed to bother him and he never seemed ill. He has multiple allergies but he hadn't eaten anything he was allergic to. I've always believed that it was prolonged reflux, which can occur in children with allergies. He's outgrown the vomiting now thank goodness, don't think it's happened since he turned 3. Whenever he had more than one bout in a day we used to take him off his normal food and just give him water, rice cakes, baby rice mixed with water and bananas for at least 12 hrs to give his tummy time to recover. If it was an allergic reaction I would expect other symptoms such as hives or severe itching etc. I would definitely try to keep off the dairy though while you are still breastfeeding if you can - not easy I know!

[garliclover]

harverina, I sympathise. It's so difficult with allergies because it can be a guessing game for ages. My experience may help with your question (or may not)...
When he was 7 months old my DS had a vomiting virus which lasted for 5 days, but it was fairly obviously a virus because he was also listless and slept most of the day. So it could well be a virus in your DD's case, but I'm wondering whether it might not be a developing wheat allergy. My DS's skin prick tests came out negative at 4 months for wheat, so I didn't cut that out of my diet while bf'ing, and couldn't understand why the reflux, eczema and sleepless nights continued despite cutting out dairy and eggs entirely (tests were positive for those). All his symptoms disappeared when I stopped breastfeeding and he was weaned onto hydrolysed formula. I think the bread I was basically living on was the culprit while bf'ing (but only realise that now with hindsight).
Then, we were advised by the dietician to start including wheat in his diet from 7 months. For about a month he had dark circles under his eyes, the reflux came back, he was clearly uncomfortable most of the day, and had weird and very frequent dirty nappies. Then one day he had a very sudden and violent reaction to porridge containing wheat and we decided to cut it out completely. He recovered within a week (I guess it took that time to get it out of his system). The thing is, until that episode when he reacted so quickly to the porridge, we couldn't pin down what was causing the discomfort, and I think that basically he was becoming gradually more and more sensitised to wheat.
Anyway, just wanted to put this possibility out there in case you might consider a wheat-free diet for both you and your DD, perhaps for two weeks, just to see if there is any improvement. Also, I think that unless you eliminate dairy completely from your diet aswell, the symptoms will probably continue to be confusing. The one thing I have learnt from this whole allergy thing is that total elimination and a systematic approach to discovering the culprit is the best way forward. Guessing can drive you insane after a while!
Let us know how things go...

[harverina]

Thanks so much for your replies. Pleased to report that my dd has not been sick today so far so fingers crossed! You are right that its hard with allergies...even the smallest change in my dd and I start to worry she is reacting. My dd has eaten quite well today...porridge, soya milk, some crispies and a plum and no sickness...interesting that she has had no wheat...

Garliclover, I will keep a close eye on my dds intake of wheat and see if it affects her. I live in hope that milk and eggs are the only allergies she has, but know that theres every chance that she may develop more.

Freefrommum (love your name!) my dd suffered from reflux so that is really interesting...I had no idea that those with allergies were more likely to suffer. Until yesterday, despite being sick, my dd didn't seem particularly unwell, that is why the allergy alarm bells started ringing!

I will be avoiding cows milk from now on...have done without it for almost a year it was stupid of me to try it again. Our consultant told me not to give up dairy...is this common advice? I had already cut out raw dairy from my diet very early on because I could see a clear link between my raw dairy intake and my dds sickness from when she was around 8 weeks old.

Thanks again your advice is sooo appreciated. Despite my dds allergies coming to light 10 months ago, I still feel pretty unsure about it all.