Baby with instant red rash after eating

[RubyrooUK]

Hello

My 16mo old DS has shown no signs of food allergy/intolerance till now. He has lots of dairy and wheat and has only ever seemed happy. He has a massive appetite and eats almost anything.

Today we had an aubergine parmagiana for a special family meal. It contained: tomatoes, garlic, Parmesan, grand padano, mozzarella, cinnamon and basil baked in the oven. As far as I know, he has eaten all of these things before apart from maybe the grand padano - tomato and cheese pasta is a favourite.

Anyway, I added a few leftover baked beans as I didn't want to give him too much parmagiana as it is so salty.

As he was eating, his face broke out in bright red (very dark) patches everywhere the food touched. This has never happened before but it was so red that I quickly wiped off his face with water and after about an hour, it had disappeared.

Later, he had a poo and screamed with agony (again not normal) and when I changed him, his entire bum and genital area was covered in the same rash. I cleaned him, put cream on and again, it had really faded after his bath/more cream.

He does occasionally get a little nappy rash but nothing ever as quick (had changed him maybe 15 minutes before and everything was fine) or as violent as that. And he has never come up in dark red blotches while eating.

Does that sound like anything majorly obvious to anyone? Sorry, not sure who to ask and I don't want to bother the doctor if it is something really obvious.

My ds and I when I was a child do/did this everytime we ate tomatoes.
Absolutely fine with tomatoes unless they are fresh.
They are rather acidic so reckon it is that.
Has done neither of us any harm, from my memory it was not sore or itchy and tomatoes are still my favourite

DS's face gets great red blotches on it where the ketchup touches it. So all over. Gone within a couple of hours. I'm thinking its the acid in the tomatoes, maybe the same with yours?

Thanks sprinkles and 543 - that did occur to me but I was confused because he has tomato pasta made with grilled tomatoes several times a week and has never reacted like this. And his previous meal was just as tomatoey and he had no reaction or nappy rash.

But maybe this was much more concentrated and acidic with all the cheese too. Note to self: don't serve small child your tasty lunch, even when he comes begging with his bowl.....

It sounds quite nasty.

Apparently Parmesan contains egg. Has he been alright with egg before?
Did it contain pesto? Pesto contains pine nuts? is he oK with those?

It might have been the exact type of tomato or another ingredient in the sauce. I'm pretty certain it's the vinegar in the ketchup rather than the tomatoes that causes DS's as other tomato things are not a problem. Maybe the chef had used vinegar in the sauce.

Hmmm...he has seemed fine with egg so far (pretty sure DH has fed him some) and definitely no pesto as my DH made the dinner himself. Thanks everyone for the advice...

DS used to break out in a rash (similar to what you described) around his mouth with raw tomato and it seems to have gotten worse as he's gotten older (2.4 now). The last time he had raw tomato he got a rash and then threw up within 10 minutes of eating them. That's when I started to think it might be an allergy rather than a reaction to the acidity.

GP agreed and he's currently not having any raw tomato just so I can establish that he doesn't get the rash with anything else.

He's ok with tinned tomato though.

ok with baked beans in the past?

eragon - yes he's fine with baked beans normally. I only give him the reduced salt and sugar ones at home but I think they occasionally have normal ones at nursery.

yank - sounds scary to see your DS' reactions get worse over time. It's good they have identified the problem though.

Two more things have occurred to me though which may be totally unrelated.

1. A couple of months ago at nursery, the staff called as DS had a "red spot" on his cheek that spread out and over his face. They were very concerned but by the time I arrived, it had gone down. Unfortunately I didn't ask about anything he'd eaten.

1. About the time he started on solids, my DS developed a flush on his cheeks a bit like rosacea. I took him to the doctor who got me to speak to a hospital doctor and explained that it sometimes looks more red from time to time (during dinners for example). He said baby rosacea was rare but it could be that and just to leave it for the moment. He didn't think it was eczema but wasn't 100% sure.

Sorry for the dripfeed, just was so surprised when this happened the other day.

Thanks for all your help everyone. Really appreciated.

glad to hear not a bean problem.

was the rash more like hives and nettle rash, very red with white type hives/spots?

facial flushing is one sign of allergic reaction, and certainly foods high in histamine, like fresh tomatos can be a problem, less for some if tinned/highly cooked.
would certainly cause the tummy problems as well, sounds pretty painful for your baby , hurt from top to toe!

it would be advisable to have this mentioned to the gp, and perhaps keep a bottle of antihsitamine (piriton) in case this happens again. until you can clearly determine that this is tomatos, its worth keeping note of reactions and food eaten.

Has he had parmesan before OP? Just that it is possible to react to parmesan and not to other cheese/dairy. Something to do with the way it is processed, I know of a child who has a similar reaction.

....confirmed by the allergy clinic btw so not just speculation!

Hm, thanks mrtumble - he had a small bit of Parmesan cooked in a lentil bake the previous night but only a very tiny bit. He hasn't reacted to anything since though, so we might try him with a little bit at the weekend and see what happens.