Just had to call an ambulance for the baby. Are reactions sometimes relative to the amount of allergen thats been induced?

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Ive been an idiot. But we've no support, in fact hinderence from our allergy specialist so against my better judgement I just thought we'd avoid my babys allergen - cows milk.

Since discovering this forum I realised how much help they could be, are supposed to be so we're now waiting for an appointment in a hospital in a different county.

In the mean time Id been putting goats milk in my tea but not giving it to the baby Just In Case. He's been getting occasional, short lived red marks around his mouth for a while now. Saturday it stepped up a gear, its after I kiss him, it was a clear allergy rash but went on its own after 20 mins. Today though I kissed him and hives broke out all round his mouth I realised its after I have tea, it started to spread in the same way it did when he had anaphylaxis to a yoghurt, so I panicked and called 999 and got the epipen out and gave him anti histamine. Luckily it calmed right down.

I know I am an absolute idiot for putting him at risk like that, I feel awful.

But I need to ask, can the severity of a reaction depend on how much of the allergen they have? He had anaphylaxis to a whole cows milk youghurt, but this was a kiss after a cup of tea with goats milk. So if he had a yogurt amount equivilant of goats milk = anaphylaxis. But a tiny drop of cows milk will hopefuly just mean hives?

Either way it shows the severity gets worse with each exposure which is frightening.

Induced? Omg, ingested!! How embarassing.

Yes it is common for reactions to get more severe each time.

Sorry :(

No I know, that wasnt the question. It doesnt matter. :-)

i dont think the amount of the allergen will make a difference, i am allergic and it doesnt matter how big or small the amount of allergen i contact the reactions is the same. but that could just be me?

anyway dont feel guilty you did nothing wrong, if he is reacting after just a kiss he obvious has serious allergy issue and you need to be seeing speciast to get proper testing etc and so you can sort out what you need to do before kissing/cuddling him if you have been in contact with an allergen, i guess a drink of water, wash your face, hands? but given the severity fo the reactions maybe just avoid them yourself for the time being until you have a clearer picture of hwat is going on? xx

Thank you.

Im
Avoiding it altogether now. Any allergens arent allowed in the house so its totally safe.

The question was does the amount of allergen matter.

My answer was yes, it may get worse each time.

Meaning, the first time a cup of milk may cause a problem, but the 10th time a splash may cause full on anaphylaxis.

Actually, I think it might, because when you do a food challenge in hospital, you have to build up to a certain volume/weight of the allergen. Our consultant told us this week that there is a lot of research at the moment going into tolerance levels (though this maybe for non-ige reactions).

OP, I think a lot of us have experiences of accidentally exposing our LOs to allergens. The proteins of goats milk and cows milk are very similar, so it is likely that the first time your baby had a yoghurt, they were sensitised to both cmp and goat, and therefore the type of reactions will be similar. Just a guess though, and that's all that any of us can do really.

I hope you get some good support from your new consultant, and in the meantime, keep posing here as there are many of us who have/are going through it!

Thanks.

And sorry scarlgon I see what you mean.

it does NOT get worse each time. Its more a case of being alert to each reaction and the 'situation' that the ingestion happened. my son has had many, many reactions, and only 3-4 so far have been full blown anaphylaxis, he has had varying symptoms as well, some with swelling some without etc, and this is pretty much the thing for multiple allergic kids.

its important to understand what makes a mild reaction speed in to full blown anaphylaxis, and recognise which symptoms you are seeing that indicate anaphylaxis.

factors that increase severity of reaction are,
amount ingested.
poor asthma control.
a current infection or recovery after an infection /illness.
other allergens that body is not coping well with, so that would depend on time of year with hay fever, tree pollen , mold etc.
alcohol speeds up absorbtion of food, and speeds up reaction.
time of the month for woman.

put simply if i use my sons case, he has severe tree pollen allergy, has all yr dustmite, dog and cat , and mold allergy, which means if he accidently eats one of his food allergens he is much more likely to go in to a severe reaction during this period of time.

that said, a FEW people among the allergic can be more sensitive than others, and react with a higher rate of severity.

airbourne does happen, for instance my son used to get hives on exposed skin if he stood next to me in the kitchen while i fried an egg. But this was treated as mild reaction, and we simply washed his skin and gave an anti histamine.
This sort of thing happened quite frequently with his environmental allergies, however I did look at hives with ingestion carefully. small hives , small reaction, full blown body hives getting bigger are a sign of more severe reaction.
its important to try to recognise the symptoms you are seeing and think about what that might be telling you whats happening on the inside, lowering blood pressure or difficulty breathing. have a look on the anaphylaxis campaign web site for more information.

dont beat yourself up about this reaction, i have done this many times with our sons allergies, thats why we have our piriton and epi pens. accidents happen. you are on the start of a huge learning curve, and there are still more days without reactions than those with. this is an indication that you are learning to manage his allergies. So chill, you did the right thing.

Agree with others, and it seems that it really is unpredictable how they might react, hence the high level of caution that doctors advise if they think you have any likelihood of it being severe or anaphylactic.
With my DS, 4, if he gets a small amount of milk on lip he feels it and might get a hive / tingly feeling. IF he had a lot I think he would probably be very poorly, not sure if sick or wheezing/swelling. So for us it does seem to be related but again, could get suddenly more reactive (or hopefully one day outgrow it!).

That has been very, very helpful eragon. Thats just taught me a lot, I had no idea about any of that.

Will definitely look at the anaphylaxis tonight when the kids are asleep, thank you.

And thanks everyone else too, I really, HUGELY value your input.

I don't have much to add to the brilliant advice from eragon really just that allergic reactions are extremely unpredictable and can be better or worse each time, there's just no way of knowing. My DS comes out in hives if his skin comes into contact with milk or egg (but not wheat for some reason) and so far Piriton has been enough to sort this out. During his wheat challenge in hospital he vomited, went very red & itchy, became very distressed then developed severe breathing difficulties. He's never (so far) accidently ingested milk or egg so I don't know what the reaction would be but I assume it would be similar to the wheat challenge. Thinking about it, he did have a similar reaction once after rolling on the floor with a child who'd just eaten butter popcorn. The kissing thing is very distressing but most if not all of us have been there. My poor DD was so upset when DS came out in hives after she kissed him just after eating chocolate. We're all used to having to wash our hands and faces before kissing or touching him now and I've even heard him telling his friends to wash before they play with him!

I totally back up what erogon said. My DS reactions have at times been to seemingly nothing. It was discovered he has a raised eosinophil count but the raised levels were picked up in February when he is seemingly non-allergic, not on AH and not showing any signs of allergic reaction. So it's been considered that his reactions and the severity can be dependent on these levels before he encounters an allergen iyswim?

So if the levels are raised but he is coping with it bodily wise any allergen may raise the levels up to a level he can't cope with - it may be the speed in which the levels raise that indicates the severity of the reaction. (not confirmed but hypothesized) A bit like febral convulsions - it's not how high the temp is but how fast it increases.
His consultant has also mentioned tolerance levels with regards to DS.

Please don't beat yourself up though. You didn't do it on purpose.

Did you use the epi-pen?

No, no need for the epipen thank goodness.
Thanks for your replies.

I cannot add much to what others have posted here, as I have absolutely no experience except my own.

I suffer from anaphalaxys to kiwi fruits. Due to the fact that they are fairly underused - crossing paths with one is extremely rare, and I have only ever had one severe allergic reaction.

However, I have eaten things which have had kiwis put in and then hastily removed from them without telling me (thanks sis!) and, although I could instantly TELL that kiwi had been in the mix, it did not develop into full blown anaphalaxia.

Similarly I once took a sip of a drink and then panicked due to the feeling in my throat, to find it did contain kiwi, but again no severe reaction.
Whether this is because it was a one off, and my allergy may have diminished in some way, or because the amount ingested was minisclue I couldn't tell you.

I do however, have great sympathy with you, and all people who have to manage severe allergies to everyday items.

Agree about different allergens together being worse
I have less hay fever if I have no lactose, I also react less to cats when milk free

Dd's dr (at addenbrookes) said its an urban myth that allergies get worse every time you are exposed and the severity of the reaction is proportional to the amount ingested so you can have the same person reacting very differently to the same allergen depending on how much they have had. This was a few years ago and I don't know it this is proven or if it is still current thinking. He also said you can react worse if you are already ill.

Again, nothing to add to the excellent information given above, but I do want to add my support. Please don't beat yourself up about what has happened. We all make mistakes, especially in the early days.

This does get easier, I promise! You have learned a lot today (the hard way!), and that will be very useful to you in the future.

We have a lovely allergy consultant, but we see her very infrequently. Most of what I have learned has been from mumsnet (e.g. clued-up people like eragon) and I have also found invaluable support here from people who really do understand.

Hope you and your DS are both feeling much better x

Also remember that the allergic reaction can recurr once the antihistamine has worn off I.e. a few hous later, so keep an eye on your baby in case another dose is required.

Thanks, it never came back. Will definitely get on it with the anaphylaxis website, Im welcoming info fromall directions.

It looks as though its up and running now. Ive saved it in my favorites and join this weekend because its £17 to join, so will have to wait a few days.

Are many of you members?

I'm a member of the Anaphylaxis Campaign and it really is worth it. They offer great advice plus they run workshops for families around the country which are excellent. I went on one last year not long after my DS was prescribed epi-pens and before he started school and it was so useful. They even run workshops for teenagers with allergies as this can be a dangerous period due to risk taking etc (trying not to think about that...).