Does one moderately bad reaction mean another (different) reaction a few days later might be worse?

[AngelDog]

2.8 y.o. DS had a nasty reaction to something on Friday - we're not sure what to. (We know he is slightly allergic to hazelnuts & peanuts, and very slightly to coconut & kiwi. Blood tests showed antibody levels much higher than is explained by his known allergies, so I imagine there are some other allergies lurking.)

This was much worse than his previous reactions, which have only been hives on skin contact. This time his skin went puffy and red, he got a huge hive, behaved in a lethargic manner, and the GP we saw said that her first reaction on glancing at him in the waiting room was "that boy's had an allergic reaction".

Today he's had another reaction - I suspect to something he's eaten (cheese on toast, yellow pepper, cucumber). His face is red & splodgy and he has small hives over the red area. Other than that he's fine, and I've given AHs.

His face usually goes red and splodgy after eating any of those things but he's been eating them most days for months without any hives or any other sign of reaction. He has eczema on his face and the view of the dermatologist and our paediatrician is that it's likely to be contact irritation rather than an allergy, although he's going to be tested for those things next time he has skin prick tests done (Jan).

Is it likely that he's actually allergic to one of those things but that the reaction is more severe than normal because he had a more severe reaction last week?

yes. after one biggish or big reaction body is on super high allergy alert.

it could be the high histamine content in the cheese or a problem with the peppers.

sometimes allergic people react to foods with his histamine content, my son has to avoid a selection of food because of this.

add this to your list of foods to be tested for in jan, or try and get a earlier appointment in case some one has cancelled an appointment.

eczema can crop up on contact reaction, in our experience once the hives has died down etc. but also after a reaction skin is also on a greater higher alert and whole skin can seem dryer and with new ezcema patches.

have you had him tested for enviromental allergies as well as food?

Thanks - that was what I suspected. It was a really big reaction for him - with previous reactions, AHs have made the hives disappear quickly. This time even after giving Piriton, one hive spread to about 1cm diameter and he continued to develop symptoms like puffiness around the face.

I think it was almost certainly the cucumber - I gave him some pepper later in the day and it was fine, and I gave some cheese too, which didn't seem to bother him. Skin prick tests for wheat have been negative so I doubt it was the toast. We had been working on the hypothesis that it was the histamine in the cheese causing the redness, since he has no problem with yoghurt or milk on cereal.

He's not been tested for anything environmental, although we've not had any cause to suspect anything like that. His eczema is pretty good nowadays despite reducing his medication (Protopic ointment) and giving up steroids.

He's even been tolerating tomatoes recently, which have aggravated it for ages. The eczema is almost exclusively around his mouth & on his hands, which is why food triggers have been a big deal for him. His skin was very good even during a patch this summer when the eczema nurse said most of her patients' eczema was awful due to tree pollen or something similar being particularly bad.

Last year I wondered about hayfever at one point, but this year he's had no symptoms at all.

The bad reaction on Friday might have been sesame seeds that he ate at lunchtime (though it'd have been a rather delayed response) or something in the water in the swimming pool, as that was where it happened.