Allergic reactions - are they delayed or immediate?

[coppertop]

Ds1 (now 3.6yrs) reacted badly to the DTP injections that he was given as a baby. After the first set he was his usual self for about 5.5hrs, then he turned very white and was quite listless. Exactly 6 hrs after the injections he stopped breathing.

For the second set of injections he was observed in the childrens Day Unit as no-one was sure if the first episode was due to the injection or purely a coincidence. Again, exactly 6 hrs later he stopped breathing.

The doctor wanted to set up an appointment for the allergy clinic in case ds1 was allergic to something connected with the injection, eg the latex in the gloves, the antiseptic etc but the consultant had heard of a similar case where the child was allergic to the pertussis element. The third set of injections was administered without the pertussis element and ds1 was fine.

Has anybody else ever heard of a 6hr delay before someone has a reaction to something? Or do you find that with your own (or your child's) allergies that the reaction is fairly immediate?

TIA

God that sounds terrifying ,glad he's okay now.
My ds is allergic to eggs and nuts and it's always been an immediate reaction ie.within a minute or so.
I have read that thay can have a delayed reaction which makes sense as it probably takes a while before the toxin gets in their bloodstream.I vould be talking cr*p though,Im sure someone elae will know more.

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Coppertop, this sounds so awful for you and your ds. Thank you so much for posting it though as we want to get ds vaccinated against tetanus and he has severe egg and dairy allergies, and also reacts to many other things. They are all immediate though. He is 2.5 now and hasn't been vaccinated at all.

We have a very helpful GP, but I think he thinks I am a overly paranoid about these vaccinations but reading your posting has made me feel that I am doing the right thing by not having the pertussis element.

Didn't mean worry you all or to put anyone off letting their children have the injections. I was just interested to hear if anyone else suffered from delayed reactions. It just seemed really odd that it always happened exactly 6 hours afterwards each time. The theory about it taking a while to get into the bloodstream etc sounds like a good one.

It took a lot of careful thought before deciding whether or not we should let ds2 (now 12mths) have the injections. On the one hand we didn't want him to go through what ds1 did, but on the other hand I didn't want him to get whooping cough like I did when I was a baby. (I was born during the brain-damage scare in the 1970's). In the end we decided to go ahead with the vaccinations. Ds2 had a raised temperature for a short while but was otherwise fine.

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Coppertop, don't worry you haven't influenced my decision, just helped me confirm in my own mind that what we are doing is right for our ds.

Thanks for the link robinw. I am always keen to read as much as I can from both sides of the argument.