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Allergies and intolerances

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Anyone tested food on their childs skin?

10 replies

Katsma · 11/10/2007 22:44

Has anyone ever tried testing their dc for an allergy by putting a suspect food on their skin?

Does it work? How would I do it?

OP posts:
Desiderata · 11/10/2007 22:47

Why would you want to do it?

Most kids go through little allergies. What are you concerned about, in particular?

Jekyllywoo · 11/10/2007 22:48

dd had a reaction to a sponge finger and we suspected egg allergy - so I touched the inside of an egg shell and then touched her face - big mistake, her whole head blew up and was red and blotchy. If you have suspicions get them tested properly as they could have a severe reaction.

Katsma · 11/10/2007 23:25

My DD has a severe egg allergy. When we were referred to the allergy paed, he wouldn't test her for anything, including egg.

He also gave us a list of possible allergens, most of which she'd already tried without any affect.

But am worried about the other things on the list now, that she hasn't yet tried. She is now spending more time in other peoples care. They have been warned about the egg allergy, and trained in the use of the epipen, but am concerned that they may give her something that she's never tried before (eg, mustard, celery, sesame, etc)

Someone once told me that putting the food on the skin will produce a reaction in an allergic child, but not as bad as them eating it iyswim.

OP posts:
sKerryMum · 11/10/2007 23:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Desiderata · 11/10/2007 23:34

What are the symptoms of the severe egg allergy?

Children didn't have this until recently.

sKerryMum · 11/10/2007 23:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Katsma · 11/10/2007 23:46

Kerrymum - I have done this, but am particularly concerned about her paternal grandparents. They seem to think that I'm just being a mean mummy for not allowing her ice cream for eg. Have stressed the death thing, and they make all the right noises, but I'm worried all the same.

Desi - I offered well-cooked egg at about 8mo, and she refused to eat it (fortunately), just grimaced and smeared it around her face. When I wiped it off 2mins later, she had a rash where the egg had been that was raised and white (bit like mozzie bites). We ended up in A&E, being monitored for breathing difficulties. She had a rash all over her body for the next 4 days. They warned that the next reaction could be worse

OP posts:
Desiderata · 12/10/2007 00:24

Poor you, Katsma.

Kerry has had these problems with her boys, so you should listen to her.

My only advice is to go easy on the grandparents. Whatever is causing this modern day rash of allergies, I can assure you that it was virtually non-existent in their day. They really don't understand.

Give them some leeway, and make them understand without anger. People of their generation were probably war babies who were grateful for anything they got.

Honestly, however rough it is for you, I'm only 42 and this sort of thing just didn't happen even when I was a child. I would love to find the cause of all this. I truly would.

But cut the old folks some slack. They're not being mean. It's truly beyond their ken.

Katsma · 12/10/2007 00:35

Desi - you're right, they mean well. (Have just checked out your profile, and you're right about Bono as well!)

Lots of people have said to me that their dc had a reaction to egg, and they just kept trying it every couple of weeks until there was no reaction. These are all people of my mums generation (I'm 38), and I can't remember any of my peers having any allergies either.

OP posts:
cjane · 12/10/2007 19:05

Hi, my dd1 had an anaphylactic reaction to egg at 1yr. We'd been really careful about introducing all new foods individually, and had not introduced egg until she was 1yr. I gave her french toast on the first occasion; she loved it (hurrah, I though - A New Food). Second time (which is when reactions occur), she had red blotches on her mouth chin (alas, at the time I put it down to drooling!). Several hour later, her entire body erupted in a rash. I remember the car ride to the doctors, with her face swelling up like a balloon - we ended up in hospital, which was all very scary. One minute your life is going along normally - the next you are being trained in how to give artificial resuscitation to your baby!

The happy ending (for those in a similar situation) is that apparently in about 50% cases of egg allergy, the child grows out of it. We are in the fortunate position that Dd1 can now eat cooked egg (pancakes, cake, etc), and is old enough (7) to be very sensible about washing hands, etc when handling raw egg when baking, etc

We had 2 'egg challenges' at the hospital - the last 2 years ago when raw egg applied to the lip, began to produce a reaction, which we were able to pretty much halt with antihistine. I have to say our doctor wasn't brilliant (at one point she baulked at the prospect of prescribing a new epipen, "is she still allergic", then suggesting that we should find out by getting her to eat raw cake mixture. Needless to say we ignored her advice, and I thought myself very restrained not to slap her!

I found the security of doing the allergy challenges in a hospital really comforting - I knew that if something awful happened, we were in the best possible hands.

Agree with Desderata, that you need to be gentle (but very clear) with relatives - it's a learning curve.

good luck!

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