Sudden allergy to safe food?

[carnaval]

Hi all,

We are really struggling and im so anxious now. I really need help. My baby seems to be developing allergy to foods that he's used to eating. For example, we've just given him cod fish fingers and within 5 minutes the area near his mouth, his cheeks and chin went red and hives appeared too. It looks a lot like perioral food rash but im not sure if you can have perioral food rash to cod. He's just two. The reaction did not spread to other areas, and he did not get anything on his hands (he eventually touched the food).

Could this be perioral food rash? We've contacted our allergy nurse, but she will only get back to us on Monday.

I really would like to know if any of you have had these issues with your child and it turned out to be something else rather than allergy. He also seems to be reacting to safe foods a lot since spring started.

Thank you so much. I cannot eat. I cry all the time. I'm so worried.

Thank you

Anyone?? Please please please

Hey there!

My 2yo son has multiple food allergies so I feel your pain.

I don't believe a perioral rash would cause hives and white fish isn't an irritant food (like tomatoes or citrus) so I'd be suspicious of a true allergy.

My son's reactions to fish have been vomiting and trouble breathing so far but he gets hives from foods like legumes and nuts.

In your position, I'd stop feeding fish and get referred to an allergist for skin pricks / blood test for the fish.

With regards the fact it was a previously safe food, this happened to us with baked beans (ate many bowls before one day getting full body hives) and hazelnut (ate maybe 20 times before he began to react).

@carnaval

Probably not the cod, but the coating. I'm quite old but have, in the past three years, developed multiple allergies. I've been hospitalised twice. I photograph the packaging of everything I have reacted to, so I can keep a record and try to work out some of my triggers. I'm even allergic to shampoo now.

I've loved and eaten peanut butter all my life. I'm now allergic to peanuts.

I'm so sorry that your baby has this. My DD1 had lots of allergies even from being fbf. She now has only one, which is an ingredient in toiletries.

@goodbyetowinter Curious why you say probably not the cod? Fish is a top 8 allergen. While it's less common in toddlers, it certainly occurs. My son is allergic to all finned fish.

Allergies don't always present with the first exposure. It may also be that the previous occasions he had cod he didn't eat as much.

[quote LuckyWithMyLot]@goodbyetowinter Curious why you say probably not the cod? Fish is a top 8 allergen. While it's less common in toddlers, it certainly occurs. My son is allergic to all finned fish.

Allergies don't always present with the first exposure. It may also be that the previous occasions he had cod he didn't eat as much.[/quote]
Only on the basis that coating on fish fingers can have a lot of ingredients. My DD was allergic to the colouring they used when she was little. I had to put her in an exclusion diet and the first foods she was allowed were boiled rice and duck. I can't remember when I introduced plain cod, but that was fine for her. I haven't heard of a finned fish allergy as I'm still at an early stage in my anaphylactic journey. Sorry about that.

@LuckyWithMyLot

Hey there!

My 2yo son has multiple food allergies so I feel your pain.

I don't believe a perioral rash would cause hives and white fish isn't an irritant food (like tomatoes or citrus) so I'd be suspicious of a true allergy.

My son's reactions to fish have been vomiting and trouble breathing so far but he gets hives from foods like legumes and nuts.

In your position, I'd stop feeding fish and get referred to an allergist for skin pricks / blood test for the fish.

With regards the fact it was a previously safe food, this happened to us with baked beans (ate many bowls before one day getting full body hives) and hazelnut (ate maybe 20 times before he began to react).

Hi Lucy, thanks for replying. We are both under NHS and private care. I've spoken to both and they said that if baby doesn't have consistent reactions (as in, one day they have the other they don't), it's usual that it's an allergy. We are have an appointment for food challenge next Monday and I will ask for them to test cod and pepper.

It's so sad because he could always eat cod, both at home and nursery. The day before he had a reaction he had cod at nursery.

I live in fear as new allergies can appear out of a sudden as it seems.

How do you navigate food allergies?

Also, as I'm told it is unusual it's an allergy, I've managed to find scientific papers where it says it can happen.

And then I worry that I would remove a food that is not an allergen and that could make it an allergen in the future. Or I will keep giving him a food that is an allergen and he will have anaphylaxis because of that.

Obviously the best outcome would be that the food is not an allergen so he can have it safely.

It's a minefield. I used to be a cool and calm person and now I'm anxious all the time especially around food. I grind my teeth which is new.

I just want to keep him safe and also to make sure I'm doing what's right and best for him.

What else is in those cod fingers? Do they have a coating? Some brands have started putting pea fibre in breadcrumbs. Pulses are a relatively common allergen.

Another thing to consider, when I've had a very recent allergic reaction to something (ie a few hours) I become more sensitive to other foods. So if I have a proper allergic reaction to one of my known allergens then I'll have very mild allergic reactions (rash, itchy tongue) to things I don't usually react to. They're fleeting rather than developing a new proper allergy.

DD has a moderate egg allergy. We had an incident a couple of years ago where she had had a reaction to egg. The next meal she ate had fresh tomatoes in it and she developed a short-term allergy to tomatoes which lasted a few weeks. I had to reintroduce them really slowly in tiny amounts and well cooked and after 3–4 months she was able to tolerate them again perfectly well.

Here:

He eats peas most days, just to try to avoid peas allergy. So it cannot be peas

@INeedNewShoes also it doesn't have peas in it. I'd be "grateful" if paprika was to blame for the reaction, as he seems to have reacted to peppers once at nursery.

I'm also trying to find the strength to try a tiny amount of plain cod at home. And peppers. And baked beans.

:(

@LuckyWithMyLot
Does your son sometimes have hives for no apparent reason? Is it just mine?

Mine also probably reacted to baked beans after eating it every weekend after swimming lessons. But the allergy nursery at NHS and the private consultant both told me to try again without the tomato sauce.

:(

It really is such a minefield and I feel like we take 2 steps forward and then 1 step back with his allergies. Just when I get my head around them he develops a new one.

We try to keep foods in his diet until we're 100% sure they're an allergen. It's so tricky to know what's best and it's terrifying when you're feeding a "maybe" food. With legumes, he seems to be "growing into" these allergies and we keep finding new bean allergies.

My son gets hives all the time. He also has dermatographia so gets hives from scratching or bumping himself. He also seems to get them from sudden temperature changes.

His first reaction to foods is usually hives, sometimes vomiting.

@LuckyWithMyLot

It really is such a minefield and I feel like we take 2 steps forward and then 1 step back with his allergies. Just when I get my head around them he develops a new one.

We try to keep foods in his diet until we're 100% sure they're an allergen. It's so tricky to know what's best and it's terrifying when you're feeding a "maybe" food. With legumes, he seems to be "growing into" these allergies and we keep finding new bean allergies.

My son gets hives all the time. He also has dermatographia so gets hives from scratching or bumping himself. He also seems to get them from sudden temperature changes.

His first reaction to foods is usually hives, sometimes vomiting.

Mine also gets hives from scratching. I did not know it has a name: dermatographia.

Mine used to get hives in the shower and during swimming lessons to. That seems to have stopped for now.

Do you manage to go to restaurants? I'm terrified of them.

Thanks a lot for talking to me. It's horrible to have to navigate allergies but it's good to know I can speak to people

I understand, plus it's all totally new to us so it has been such a steep learning curve.

Facebook has a good group: Parents of children with multiple food allergies.

We don't let our son eat out, I just wouldn't trust the restaurant staff to understand. Maybe when he's older and really wants to. I've heard Nandos can be good. We bring lots of food and snacks wherever we go. Saves money too!

We went to a toddler group today and the arts and craft activity was making rice krispie nests with mini eggs. Not ideal. We did manage to have some fun playing with the Duplo on the other side of the room though!

@LuckyWithMyLot

I understand, plus it's all totally new to us so it has been such a steep learning curve.

Facebook has a good group: Parents of children with multiple food allergies.

We don't let our son eat out, I just wouldn't trust the restaurant staff to understand. Maybe when he's older and really wants to. I've heard Nandos can be good. We bring lots of food and snacks wherever we go. Saves money too!

We went to a toddler group today and the arts and craft activity was making rice krispie nests with mini eggs. Not ideal. We did manage to have some fun playing with the Duplo on the other side of the room though!

I'm one of those weirdos who don't have a Facebook account

Thank you so so so much for talking to me. I feel a bit less sad, stressed and worried.

I can't wait for his appointment on Monday with Prof Lack. It will be great if he's allowed to eat another type of nuts, but it will make life a bit more complicated as we will have to make sure he eats it often. But it will be worth in the "end" im sure.
I am trying to think of all the questions I have for Prof Lack

X

It does really help to talk about it, doesn't it? In "real life" I don't know anyone else with allergies.

My son eats all nuts except cashew, Pistachio and hazelnut. It's a good way of getting more protein into him. We offer his safe nuts as spreads on toast and rice cakes and use them in baking and smoothies. We don't feed each nut 3 times a week like we should because he isn't keen on them but we try our best!

It does help. I feel less alone ❤️

Do you have any easy baking recipe you could share, please? We don't really bake

Thanks

Believe me, I'm not really a baker either!

I'll just randomly Google "vegan cupcakes" or "vegan pancakes" and go for the recipe that doesn't have allergens.

You can also substitute flax seed for egg in regular recipes. So one egg would be 1tbsp flax mixed with 3 tbsp water and left to set for 10 mins in the fridge.

Hi OP, I'm not sure if I can be a huge amount of help but didn't want to read and run.

My experience is of having allergic reactions myself, which began in my late teens and ended in my mid-20s (I'm 41 now). I was under the care of the allergy team at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital during that time.

Foods were usually the trigger, but never the same food twice. I went through a period of restricting my diet massively, and eventually the prick test results clearly indicated that I was allergic to different foods at different times - so at that point I gave up and ate what I liked!

I was hospitalised twice with IV steroids and anti-histamines, and periodically took oral steroid tablets, and anti-histamines. I also carried an epi-pen but never had to use it.

The end result was that my diagnosis was stress-induced allergies. When I was stressed, anything could trigger me. When I wasn't (learnt to meditate, took up yoga, had regular Shiatsu etc) I was fine. I wonder if this could possibly part of the pattern when something that wasn't a trigger food suddenly becomes one?

I have no idea if this is helpful or not but just to share - I know my mum was very worried and got a lot of grey hair over whether something I ate was going to kill me - but it didn't. I'm fine now and eat anything and everything. I hope that the same will be true of your son.

Wish you all the best of luck with it.

@WoolyMammoth55 it would be a relief somehow if his allergies were caused by stress.

One thing we noticed is that using a trampoline gives him hives. So that's probably caused by change in temperature.

Yesterday the middle part of his top lip was swollen. It did not bother him nor affected his breathing. Not sure what to think about that one. :/

I can't wait for the allergy appointment this coming Monday

I am
By no means an expert, but I have heard of activity induced allergies, and have heard of exercise exacerbating existing allergies. IE when they’ve eaten something they could tolerate in small amounts but then run around etc. so that might be worth exploring if you are keeping a diary to include what he was doing as well as what he is eating?

Hi OP. My DC is allergic to cow's milk and this was apparent (immediate hives) as soon as we started weaning at 6 months... He developed eczema then asthma. About 6 months ago he started to complain that his dinner was "spicy" when eating fish/fish fingers. We were mystified as there was no milk in the dinners/listed on packaging and he had always eaten fish. He then had a few really nasty reactions (vomiting, wheezing, lethargic) and had skin prick tests which confirm he is allergic to white fish 😞 (He's OK with salmon, tuna and prawns!) Unlike the milk allergy which he may still grow out of, the fish allergy is likely to be lifelong and we have to be more cautious (it is an airborne allergy so we have to be careful about cooking vapours and raw fish, e.g. passing fish counters in the supermarket!). He now has an Epipen.

Don't want to alarm you but just wanted to share that these allergies can develop - he had eaten many fish fingers previously! The Paediatrician explained that eczema makes you more vulnerable to developing food allergies.

@girlfrombackthen that's so scary..
mine never complained about his fish fingers. I had to stop him from eating it because of the rash on his face.

As painful as it's going to be I might request another blood test. The first one was a horrific experience but my son also has eczema, and somehow it feels that skin prick test is less reliable because of it. I could be very wrong.

Sorry about typos. Typing with one hang while we watch Duggee