Allergy to peppers? Any DC have this?

[Truckdriver]

Hi,

My LO (DD 7 months) suffers from eczema. I have also noticed since weaning that she seems to react to something. Her face and neck turns red and she starts to scratch like crazy and cry.

Tonight she had roasted veg, red pepper, sweet potato, aubergine. She reacted really badly to something and was very distressed, really scratching and pulling at neck, went bright red. Our GP has given her some antihistamine for her eczema so I gave some of this and she calmed down and has fallen asleep.

I am going to cook all of these individually to try but I suspect that it's the pepper looking back at other occasions.

Has anyone experienced this or has their little ones got an allergy to peppers. Is it a common allergy?

Just to note that she loves pepper and fed all the food to herself - it was not puree.

Yes, my LO has reacted to peppers in the past. I don't know if it's common, but as I understand it you can have an allergy to pretty much anything really...

I found it really helpful to keep a food diary so that I could try to trace patterns and identify the 'culprits'.

hope you get to the bottom of it soon

My mum has a very serious allergy to chilli peppers and a (slightly) milder one to sweet peppers.

My mum's allergy started off mildly as digestive discomfort in her teens but is now life-threatening.

Anyway, I think you should go to your GP and ask to be referred for allergy testing rather than experiment at home tbh. If you do want to try at home then rub a little of the suspected food on her skin (inner forearm is good) then wait 5 min and look for a reaction. If all negative then rub a little on her lips and ditto. Assuming her reaction was minutes after eating rather than an hour or two (in which case she's reacting to the products of digestion of whatever it is and the above won't work).

BarbarianMum - We have a paediatric appointment because of wheezing so I am going to ask about it then. Decided not to do the testing as my DH said it was a stupid thing to do, which now I have calmed down I realise is.

Yes it was an immediate reaction, she seemed to be in so much pain, high pitch crying. Now fast asleep and I am very tempted to open a bottle of wine to calm my nerves.

greenbans - I have already started a diary as I suspect that her eczema is linked to something she eats, or what I eat as she is BF.

Thanks for replies.

Def go for the wine - a lo's allergies have a shattering effect on the nerves.

If you have an appointment re: wheezing (asthma?) then def, def do not test at home as allergic reactions can cause asthma attacks or general breathing difficulties (I had food allergy-related eczema as a child but when given fish I would have an asthma attack within 30 min).

I have an allergy to peppers. They belong to the Nightshade family,so I also react to tomatoes, potatoes, aubergine, chilli peppers and sweet peppers, as they are all part of the same plant family. Tomatoes and peppers give me the worse reation, similar to your daughter. Potatoes - just belly ache.
i hope this is helpful to you.

mimimammoth - Just googled nightshade, interesting reading. The other time she reacted really badly was when I made her ratatouille so tomato, pepper and aubergine all in one! And another time when I gave her mashed potato with cheese, I just assumed it was the cheese because people have told me about the link of diary with eczema.

Oh well, super mummy will come up with some other great meals without these foods in them

Ah. be careful of any processed foods even stock cubes. Soups, sauces curry etc are all likely to have tomato or potato in them. Also remember baked beans in tomato sauce.

There is still plenty she can eat. I do miss pasta sauce and pizza with toms though.

Unfortunately it does sound like your dd is at high risk of food allergy. The eczema and wheezing are all atopic problems and have links to allergies.

Watch out when weaning - ds had severe eczema (just grown out of age 4.5 luckily) and is allergic to dairy, nuts, egg, sesame and peas. I had no experience of food allergy at all when weaning so didn't approach it in a very controlled manner. The sesame caught me out (houmous all over face - not a good reaction) it was only when I did a little research I found out that sesame is pretty high on the list. Do a google on most common allergies just so you're aware and introduce foods gradually so you can pinpoint the culprits. If you're unsure of anything do a skin test as Barbarian mum says but as you've realised don't give her anything you think she's already reacted to.

Mumsnet has been a real help to me over the last four years, it's a real steep learning curve when you start but there's lots of people here who can help.

Bilbomum - Funny you should mention sesame, my 4 year old nephew ended up in a&e Monday night after eating crackers with sesame in. He had huge hives and threw up loads. He reacted like this to humous when 1 but my sis had forgotten. So will be avoiding this also.

Im allergic to peppers. It's got worse as I've got older. It started getting bad in my teens and now even the smell of pepper can literally make me vomit. I'm also bad with tomoatoes, all kinds or peppers/chillis etc. I'm ok with potatoes as long as they're really well cooked, but as others have said they're all part of the deadly nightshade family. It's not a really common allergy though, my gp thought I was joking when I said I tyhough I was allergic to peppers. (mind you he also told me my son was fine the day before he was hospitallised for a fortnight with whooping cough at 7 weeks old) so maybe that says more about him being a bit rubbish than the allergy being uncommon).

Minimammoth and Feynman - Me too! I don't do tomatoes, peppers, potatoes or any nightshades. Started out with peppers, then potatoes and aubergine and I'd been hoping to avoid the progression to tomatoes because they're yummy but in December I had a huge reaction which could only have been them so I'm gutted.

Potato starch gets into everything and tomato is pretty universal as well so, OP, it's good that you're onto this so early because now you can compulsively check labels for triggers.