Allergy Scare?!

[mombegood]

Our lo has always had a problem with coughing and our pediatrition thought it was too early for any allergy so she diagnosed it as asthma. Anyhow, it really didn't seem bad enough to get an inhaler for, but now that she is 6 months it has been getting worse to the point where sometimes she's wheezing. So we got an inhaler this week just in case.

Well, today I was feeding her carrots and rice and she started coughing. At first I was thinking she had her food go down the wrong tube but it increased in intensity. I grabbed her inhaler as she started wheezing and I was really starting to get worried because it never seemed that bad. I think both the fact that she could sense I was scared and having a weird mask put on her face scared her more and she started hyper ventilating and wheezing even more. It was sooo scary. I didn't know if I should call 911 or what. As soon as I got my phone she was breathing a lot better and I figured it just took a while for the medicine work. As I was changing her diaper she got a little excited and started wheezing a little more, but she stopped as soon as she was playing.

The rest of the day seemed fine, but I was thinking that maybe it was a reaction to her food. We just started her on rice when she was 6 months and soon after we had her try sweet potatoes and carrots. This is also right around the time when we started hearing her wheezing every once in a while. She also was a little red on her bottom, but I had thought that was due to using new wipes. I read some of the websites posted here, but a lot of them seemed to be more for older kids. I was really nervous when I read I should have called 911 before giving an inhaler if I thought it was connected with a reaction. I'm really nervous now. I am planning on calling ehr doctor right away tomorrow, but was wondering does this sound like asthma or a reation? Other times we heard her slightly wheezing was at night. Could she have had that bad of a reaction just to carrots?

[Jimbob]

First of all I am sorry it has taken so long for me to respond for some reason your post had escaped me. It is possible that your lo has asthma that is brought on by food allergies. It is also possible that it is food allergies that cause wheezing and it is not asthma at all. It would definately be worth talking to your doctor to see if you can get some allergy tests done.

[sorayas mom]

It is definitely not too young to have allergies.  And like jimbob said, asthma can be a sign of food allergies as well.  My lo started developing eczema after I started giving her solids.  It took a month of eating the food in order for symptoms of the allergy arrived, so you don't always see an immediate reaction.  I ended up having her tested and she was allergic to eggs and carrots.  I removed the foods from her diet and the eczema disappeared!  My suggestion would be to remove high allergens from her diet and maybe yours if you are bfing (eggs, dairy, wheat and now carrots and rice) and see if after a few weeks the symptoms get better.  If they do, then you can slowly, one at a time, reintroduce those things into your diet then hers and see when the symptoms reappear again.  If this seems too difficult, I would highly recommend taking her to an allergist and having her tested.  This is what I ended up doing as I could not figure out the allergens.  After going through this process, a few months later the symptoms reappeared and I was able to figure out it was kiwi based on the foods she had already been tested for and the timing of the appearance of the symptoms ( she has also broken out into hives a few times).  Sorry if this seems like a long post and I hope it helps.  If you need me to further explain anything please ask...but this really sounds like a food allergy that can be easily eliminated once the allergen is determined.