Worried - unknown allergy ? 😟

[Ploopy26]

Hi
I have an 11 year old daughter who has complex gut and heart issues. She doesn’t have a huge oral intake but this has been increasing slowly.
around 4 weeks ago she tested positive for Covid but was fine in her self / no fever but a bit of a sore throat.
a week later she was seemingly better. I ordered a take away in which she ate chicken nuggets and chips this was around 7.30 pm and around 11.30 pm to 12 am she started breaking out in hives. ( some bigger than a 50 p coin ) they were coming up and down and travelling but like one place at a time.
the next morning we went to to the GP who decided to send her to our hospital for bloods to rule out infection.
hospital knows her well so they allowed her on the ward to have these done and sent us on our way with give piriton if needed. At this point her hives has settled right down. On the way home we popped in to Nando’s and she only ate chips. Before we left she started scratching her cheek and once home with in an hour her face was covered again in hives, I got her some piriton and 10 minutes later she was screaming and trying to claw her face off at this point they were down both cheeks ( quite big down her chest and belly )
I took her to A&e because she was hysterical and I had already given CIT and PIR.
the hospital allowed her extra piriton and gave it to her IV. They put it down to the fact she had Covid.
anywhs we are now 4 weeks down the line and she is still getting hives but not every day, it seems to coincide on the days she has chips but it isn’t immediate so I don’t know.
yesterday we went to TGI Fridays for my birthday she has chips only. She complained slightly of a belly ache but said it wasn’t too bad. This was around 4.30 - 5 pm
around 8.30 she started complaining of feeling dizzy but didn’t this did not last long. Around 10.30 she comes out in hives.
settled with Cit.
today she has been fine but only ate rice cakes and crisps.
we have a referral to allergy Clinic for antibiotic reasons as she started reacting last year to 2 antibiotics that she never reacted to before. Our hospital are still using them because they said it’s not a genuine allergy ( she vomits instantly as they give it IV and breaks out in hives with in minutes every time )

can you be allergic to potato / chips or is likely oil but can it appear at any age ? As she has defo eaten Nando’s chips a lot in the past.

My dad used to react like this to anything cooked in sunflower oil, which was interesting to manage as it’s a very commonly used oil! He wasn’t always allergic - it appeared in him at about the age of 65.

Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Allergies can appear at any age, yes. I’m guessing her mast cells have become hypersensitive due to the Covid infection, as this is quite common. Does she have a good understanding of what’s happening? It must be scary for her, poor thing.

I would say it sounds like the oil, but quantity based if she's eating crisps fine. Try cutting it out for a few days and anything cooked at home use virgin olive oil, or other organic/ non refined oil.

Coeliac disease can cause skin issues. The chips in these places could be coated with a batter to make them crispy and the batter contains wheat flour:

Dermatitis herpetiformis is a skin condition that causes an itchy, bumpy skin rash.

I would talk to the GP about getting DD tested for coeliac.