reaction or other?

[Saacsmum]

My ds has had various reactions to various foods and chemicals reacting with either gastro symptoms..vomiting, diarhoea, bloating or excema which has been mostly contact related eg, mouth, face and hands flare up when it is an offending food, body reacts when it is a soap powder etc. We introduced banana for the first time this week and his tummy is now quite spotty. There is a cluster of spots around his naval which are red and close together, and around 8-10 spread around the rest of his tummy some which look to have a small head on them. He has been really really scratchy lately, we will take out the banana for a while and retry but what do ppl think is it a reaction or something else?

[KBear]

my DS is allergic to banana - his exczema cleared completely when I stopped giving them to him. Took a while to work out what it was that was making his skin so sore but thankfully it was easy to avoid once I knew it was banana. He also stopped projectile vomiting!

[basketcase]

Souns like a reaction to me. My DD1 was a bit dodgy with banana when tiny but ate it a couple of years later at a friends before I could stop her. She didn?t react at all. Mentioned it to the HV and she said some children do grow out of food sensitivities but not to be complacent as some sensitivites can get worse
I guess avoiding bananas for a while and see how he does.
Got to say that when mine have a skin allergic reaction they rashes tend to be either flat spotty rash or slightly raised red rashes but none have had heads on them. Are you sure it isn?t chicken pox starting up? Keep an eye on it and check that it doesn?t spread. Might be worth limiting contact with other children until you are positive it isn?t a contagious one just to be on the safe side - if possible?

[bobbybob]

I know your ds had an operation early in his wee life, so would have been exposed to lots of latex.

Banana cross reacts with latex, and my ds reacted very badly to banana when I tried it with him, and tests have now shown he is allergic to latex.

I am not saying that your ds is allergic to latex (or banana) but given that early surgery is one of the risk factors for latex allergy it is worth thinking about.

I would get a RAST test for latex allergy before trying banana again.

[Saacsmum]

thanks bobbybob, do you know if dr ford can do this?

[bobbybob]

Dr Ford useless with latex allergy - won't even write it on Bob's notes. Appears to refuse to believe it exists.

Would suggest you ask your GP to refer you for a blood test. They could also test for milk and soy at the same time, which could help you with your own eating if you get a good result.

The result comes back as a number between 0-5, so it's fairly easy to interpret - High is very allergic and 0 is not allergic at all.

[tatt]

bit surprised about the location of the spots. Mine get allergic rashes from the head downwards. Spots have reached the stomach but only when they have more elsewhere. Anyone else had allergic rashes just on the stomach after food? I wouldn't risk banana again in your position if you can get it checked easily but without your history I'd be thinking of chickenpox, heat rash or other things.

[bobbybob]

How is he now saacsmum?

[Saacsmum]

well banana has gone out of diet for two days. spots are starting to clear, they never spread from his abdomen anywhere else but I did notice that he had excema in the corners of his mouth which leads me to think perhaps banana was the culprit. Are rast tests the same as the skin pricks that he has had or different?

[bobbybob]

RAST tests involve a blood test, but I'm not sure what they do that's different, something to do with IaG levels.

Anyway, apparently the skin prick test for latex is inreliable and RAST testing is the way to go.

[Saacsmum]

Well hospital paed was very anti RAST testing saying it was an unnecessary invasion for ds. They did agree to do some more extensive skin pricks for him which is on the 13th.