does my son have an intolerance to tomatoes?

[kirdy]

Well my son is 4 years old and ever since he was younger whenever he eats tomatoes or anything with them in he gets a sore looking red raised rash over his face and hands which stays there a good few hours he ate some tomatoes at nursery today and he told me that lips felt funny after eating them and also his teacher seemed quite concerned. Should I be not letting him eat them at all?? As he loves them?? Xx

It wont be an intolerance. If anything it'll be an allergy and it may only be to raw tomatoes he may be fine with cooked toms.

But a rashy, tingly face and yes the sensible thing is to stop him eating them.

Mine has this. Saw a consultant due to severe family history of allergies, he said with tomatoes it's often not a true allergy, but it's because tomatoes actually contain histamine. So you can get what llooks like an allergy response but isn't, especially if they are messy eaters. My DS is ok with cooked tomatoes but raw ones give him itchy lumps.

True tomato allergy is possible but apparently quite rare, you can ask to be tested for it

Its not just raw tomatoes is cooked to. Like spag bol or anything with a tomato sauce. Should I just cut all tomatoes out of his diet should I go see doctors about it? X

Hello
DD's allergy nurse told us the same thing that Spagbo mentions above. She said that if you can get the tomato into the mouth without making contact with the lips and skin around the mouth then most people usually don't react. We were told that this is Oral Allergy Syndrome. I think it's the same with strawberries, which is another high histamine food.

Just to confuse things, the other thing I think that can happen is that some people are okay with some types of tomato and not others.

I would definitely ask for a referral to see a pediatric allergist and that way your DS can be tested properly and maybe avoid raw tomatoes in the mean time, esp if he is okay with cooked ones.

Yes I would ask for some tests and avoid in the meantime

Ok thanks will be ringing doctors Monday xxxx

My ds reacted exactly like this from about 8 months old but also used to react really badly when it came out the other end too.

I was advised by GP to completely cut out raw and cooked toms (reacted to both) and that was that. As he was so young my ds has grown out of it - we very gradually reintroduced them at 18 months old - again under advice from GP - but it seems sensible at 4 to ask for your ds to be properly tested.