Allergic to Smarties, M&Ms

[justtheone]

My DS (nearly 3) has always been prone to mild allergic reactions. Last summer I noticed that it seemed to flare up when he had smarties, so he has been on a smartie free diet since July! On Tuesday afternoon he had 15 mini M&Ms and by bedtime he had very puffy red eyes. I've given him Piriton but the reaction has not calmed down yet. My query is.... has anybody got experience of a Smartie allergy? If yes, what else should DS avoid?

Could it be the e numbers?

But which ones?

No idea. Try the british allergy foundation. There is probably a list somewhere of likely culprits. DS's eyes swell up every few months or so but we've never been able to fathom out what causes it. Just him him piriton and he's okay.

DD2 is allegic to red food colourings, in smarties, m&ms, beans sauce, tomato soups, generally anything with red colouring in it. HTH

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Smarties contain amongst, others E110 (sunset yellow )and E124 (4r ponceau) that are known to cause problems in children. I was reading about it yesterday I will see if i can find the web page

The ingredients in smarties are:
Milk chocolate (58%)
Sugar
Wheat flour
Modified starch
Colours (E171, E124, E104, E110, E122, E133, E1202)
Flavouring
Glazing agent (carnauba wax)

Still looking will get back to you

I had a friend who was allergic to M&Ms (don't know whether she was allergic to Smarties, as we didn't have these in the States). They used to have traces of peanut in them, which is what she was allergic to. Don't know whether they still do, but it might be worth checking into?

My brothers both had a bad reaction to colours like this in their youth and my ds gets an eczema flare up after a lot of colours. I think E110 is the most likely culprit, its one of the ones associated with hyperactivity too. My brother was particularly sensitive to E102 and E110 (yellows and oranges) which can crop up anywhere, altho its not too hard to find colour free stuff these days. I think there was an article on the BBC website..which lists all the colourings. Although this was more related to the effect on behaviour and concentration I think. I always try to avoid coloured sweets and stick with chocolate, but you can end up feeling like a real meanie when they see their friends having things they can't so i do cave in occasionally.

Thank you for all the replies. My DS has attended an allergy clinic and is due for a retest in July. The first set of tests showed that he is allergic to cashew nuts and sesame. He had had a reaction to hummus, so we asked for the sesame test. He has been fairly clear of any reactions since I ruled out smarties so I have been able to determine that he is not allergic to a number of foods that I previously suspected of causing problems. We generally stick to chocolate and plain biscuits but I can see problems when he starts to go toschool.

DS1 has food allergies to peanuts and egg white. We stopped giving him smarties when we realised he would act 'drunk' when he had, had just a few and get a mild rash around the mouth.

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