Toddler + Hives, advice please :)

[Anonymama]

Hello
DS, nearly 2, has never (to my knowledge) had an allergic reaction/intolerance to food.

However, in the last 2 weeks, he has had hives during/after 2 meals. He doesn't seem at all bothered by them - the rash appears on his cheeks and around his mouth - but he merrily ploughs through the food regardless. 10mns later the rash goes. So far, I don't think there are any other adverse effects.

Having perused the net, I have started a food diary today, and was going to try and identify the culprit and eliminate it for the time being. However, any advice/further information gratefully received.

For information, the meals that triggered the hives were a restaurant bought lamb moussaka (containing lamb mince, onion & garlic, tomato, cheese, aubergine), and pasta (containing durum wheat pasta, roast tomato & garlic sauce, creme fraiche, cheddar cheese, black pepper, and olive oil). I know that tomatoes are a common allergen, but he also had a shop bought fresh tomato soup last night and had no reaction to it whatsoever.

Any ideas?

Hi Anonymama, My dd is allergic to tomato and I would strongly suspect this. In my experience I was not certain that my dd had an allergy to them either. She is allergic to loads of foods but these she ate alot at home but iliminating foods as you are finding is extremly hard. I asked for allergy tests to be done just because her teachers noted her mouth going red after eating them raw for dinner. Some people say its quite common to happen without the allergy because of the acid ect however her tests confirmed an allergy to them. Not severe but enough for the doctor to tell us to only eat in moderation. We however avoid totally due to conflicting veiws reguarding the allergy worsening in time. Due to your ds's hives I would suspect it being an allergy but my dd would normally scratch with the onset of hives and become quite distressed. I have heard that depending on the tomatoe sauces can vary the allergy. eg no skins or pips lessen reaction and also our allergist has commented on food becomming less allergic if cooked except for certain cases like peanuts. Not sure on the other ingredients you mention. Lamb is ment to be pretty good for allergic people I thinks so it shouldnt be that. I have heard about an allergy to aubergine somewhere. Well welcome to the club of food diaries lol your not alone!

I know threads on tomato are quite common you may be able to find some useful threads in the search for messages at top of page. Type in tomato allergy.

tomatos are highly acidic and can cause skin reactions.
this is more common in pre-school children, who react due to their sensitive skin.
hope this helps.

Also some children react due to having a higher histmine on their skin than others.

I too would avoid, perhaps soup didnt react due to high heat during manufactuer and added sugar.
I would wash skin quickly to remove the irritation. esp if has ezcema

Thanks for these comments. Am going to exclude tomatoes from his diet for the time being, and when we do reintroduce them, will use canned & cooked version, as this doesn't seem to have the same effect as less processed ones. Also, will make sure he doesn't plaster the tomatoes all over his face, as he did last night

Thanks again.