Carrot allergy? Just started weaning

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We have just started weaning DS who is 5.5 months. He was born 15 days late, so is more like 6 months physically. We wanted to take things slow and have started off on purees mixed with a little whole milk to loosen them up. I am breastfeeding and he refuses formula, so I couldn't be bothered pumping and mixing purees with breastmilk...hence the whole milk.

He has tolerated brocolli, cauliflower and peas. However, when we gave him carrot I noticed a little spotty red patch near his temple. I kept an eye on it and it disappeared within 30 minutes. I put it down to him scratching himself or just a little bit of nothing.

We gave him more carrot today and the areas where the puree came into contact with the skin on his face and hands turned pink and spotty. It didn't appear to cause him any itching or discomfort and faded within 30 minutes. He got hiccups afterwards and has been very gassy today and off his milk.

I am sure it is not a reaction to the milk as he hasn't reacted to anything else in the 3 intervening days between the two lots of carrot puree.

Does this sound like an allergy or some sort of skin irritation to the carrot? Googling tells me carrot can be quite acidic and I wonder if it has irritated his skin and caused a bit of reflux? Me and DH do not have any food allergies, but both have hayfever and had mild childhood eczema.

My DM said that carrot was the only thing that made me spit up when she was weaning me, so don't know if they are just not well tolerated.

Any tips on what to do next? We will avoid carrot for now, but are a little wary if there is a link to other similar foods. It seems such a random reaction to a seemingly innocuous veggie!

I had a similar thing with DS and spinach and aubergine, which are apparently high in histamines. I texted the health visitor and they said to try again in a few weeks. I actually ended up leaving it a few months, but he's been absolutely fine. I also have hay-fever and eczema.

Certain foods cause contact reactions which are different from allergic reactions. A light layer of a barrier cream can stop the rashes but they are self limiting
Carrot is a food that can trigger reflux which might be what you are seeing.

You can be allergic to absolutely anything. My daughter has 20 food allergies and has more vegetables in her list than she does allergens listed in the top 14!

Thanks both. Just to update, we ended up in A&E yesterday with DS. He had pea pureed with a little milk. He developed the rash again, but this time it was more angry and was on his forehead and starting on his neck. No swelling or wheezing, but we didn't know where the reaction was going, so made the decision to go to A&E. When we got there the rash had faded, but they still said they wanted to review him.

We think it could be an allergy to cow's milk, the common denominator. A&E advised to leave weaning until he is 6 months properly and then reintroduce singular foods very slowly and leave off raw cow's milk until he is 1 year old. They also said we could put a dab on his wrist of any new foods to see if there is a reaction before eating it.

I am going to contact his GP and get some advice and see if/when we would look to get a referral to an allergy clinic. I appreciate we could be completely jumping the gun, but I want to be sure we are doing the right things.

Oddly enough, when he was newborn I went dairy free for 6 weeks as he had terrible baby "acne", explosive green poops and was colicky. The symptoms resolved and I reintroduced dairy via several slip ups! We put it down to newborn things and moved on, but perhaps there was something going on after all.

The only other thing he was in contact with whilst eating was a wet wipe which we used to clean him up. I gave him a gentle wipe on his cheek and forehead yesterday afternoon, but no rash appeared from that, so seems unlikely. I might try again with round his mouth area just to double check.

When you do start weaning again for the first couple of times you give a food I would give it as a puree and spoon. 2 things- you will know if they have eaten the food so that no reaction means no reaction and not that it wasn't eaten. Also you can hopefully keep a better eye on getting it on the skin to limit contact reactions. If a lot does end up on the skin take a photo before cleaning them up so you can compare to photos of rashes to hopefully separate out contact and allergy rashes. The skin test is a good idea but just be warned that they might still react when eating what not reacting to touch so still take care even if they pass the skin test.
I would hold off giving any dairy until speaking to the GP. If you are still breastfeeding I would do another trial without dairy and soya.

Glad he’s ok, definitely sounds like dairy is the most likely culprit and A&E have given good advice. You can easily make purees just using a bit of the cooking water or no salt stock so don’t worry about that. I’d also push to get referred to the allergy clinic as you need some advice about if/when you can try introducing other dairy products like butter, yoghurt and cheese.

To add: I’d probably stick to just the cooking water, not stock, when making your purées for now. That way it’s a single ingredient so if there’s a reaction you’ll know exactly what it is.

Yes I was going to say it’s the cows milk. Cows milk is for one year and over.

Good idea about the photos. We have been using a spoon with the purees up until now and the first reaction definitely was just contained to the areas the food touched. Second reaction was also contact areas and also eyebrows...but unsure if he started rubbing his face and spread the food around.

Definitely just going to be using water in the purees going forward. Feel like we have fallen at the first hurdle and somehow caused this by introducing milk too early. 🙁

@Superscientist When you mention doing another trial of dairy and soya free, would this just be if he continues to have symptoms of CMPA whilst breastfeeding? Or is the risk I might make this potential allergy worse if I continue to have dairy whilst breastfeeding. I have continued breastfeeding and eating my normal diet and we haven't had a rash or anything.

Just to see if there's a general improvement. There might be things you haven't even registered as a miss that improve.
It was months after removing dairy that I realised how symptomatic her stools were. I also only identified fish as a food she reacted to through breastfeeding after she reacted to it directly. I found she was fine if I ate fish once a week or less but if I had it more frequently than that she reacted to me eating fish.

Also, my daughter had reacted to a list of foods she had never eaten it's not because you gave it early. Actually the advice to reduce risk of allergies is to introduce early. You haven't don't anything wrong. Be kind to yourself x