Author Topic: Christmas panic attack... (Read 4218 times)

~ Vik ~ · « **on:** December 25, 2009, 17:53:37 pm »

*sigh* What a morning... $:-\$

For those who don't know, D has a pretty severe contact allergy to milk. He also has eczema, and some foods (like mango) cause it to flare even if he doesn't have a frank allergic reaction. We *think* that he's also got an allergy to something in dijon mustard, as he's had reactions (hives) to three lunches at his daycare where that was the common ingredient. Well, every Christmas morning my parents and sister come over and bring breakfast: eggs, ham, potatoes, and my mom's famous corn sticks. My parents know about D's allergies and everything was safe except the corn sticks, which are laden with butter.

About 5 minutes into breakfast I notice that Dylan's top lip looked funny... And it got puffier, and puffier... Then he started frantically rubbing his eyes and I noticed hives on his hands and around his mouth. Starting to panic, I order my DH to get D's prescription Benadryl (which we keep on hand at home and the daycare) and I start getting him out of the high chair. Then I notice the hives all over his chest and belly. We lay him down, DH gives him the medicine, and I am just staring at him waiting for any signs of tongue swelling or laboured breathing, ready to rush to the hospital if needed. Fortunately, the Benadryl kicked in and within about 15m the lip swelling was going down and within about 45m the hives and everything were gone. He's perfectly fine now, except that his eczema has flared up.

So.... WHAT THE HECK?

He didn't really have anything new! Here was what he ate (not a lot as the reaction happened so quickly:

A bite of toast w/ dairy free margarine (eats this almost daily)
A sip of Tropicana orange juice which he spit out (has NOT had this before, but has had clementines; could this be it?)
Some grape punch (had this a couple of times before)
A bite of deli ham (eats this once or twice per week, no milk ingredients)
A bite of scrambled egg which he spit out (not had scrambled egg before, but has had processed food like pasta with eggs in the ingredient list)
A bite of banana (eats this almost daily)

What do you think? OJ, eggs, something else? Am I going to have to get an allergy test done? I know that future exposures to an allergen can cause worse reactions than the initial one, so we really need to figure this out... Poor little monkey, what a Christmas morning

Canwi · « **Reply #1 on:** December 25, 2009, 18:05:24 pm »

My first guess is the corn sticks Vikki. If he has a siginifcant contact allergy, then he may have had something that was in contact with the sticks (inadvertently)
After that I'd be suspicious of the eggs esp. if they were made with milk or butter in them.

Glad the Benadryl worked. Hope you have a far less eventful rest of the day.

Lolly · « **Reply #2 on:** December 25, 2009, 18:33:32 pm »

When DS was 8 months I gave him scrambled eggs for the first time - within a few mins he had bright red weals on his face and on his hands and wrists basically every where the egg had touched and generally on his face. He had had cooked egg in jarred pasta baby food but not fresh egg before. About 5 months later he had some Austrian wedding dessert which was a very loose eggy souffle type pudding - his whole face went red and puffy including his ears and eyes. Both times the reaction went within about 15 mins with no intervention - thankfully!

I would think it is quite likely it was the egg, especially as you don't mention he had the corn sticks. We avoided egg totally with DS, apart from 2 times in daycare he had sausages that we knew had egg in them. I thought that would be ok as he had been ok on the jarred food but on both nights he had the sausages he refluxed up his bedtime milk (hadn't done this for a long time and only on those 2 nights) - so we think that egg may well have had an influence on his reflux.

He has skin prick tests and an egg challenge done when he turned 2 and was clear of any reaction so can now eat eggs - he won't but that's another issue!

HTH!

Laura

Mashi · « **Reply #3 on:** December 25, 2009, 19:05:29 pm »

Oh Vikki what a day! Glad he's okay now.

I also wonder if it is the eggs, or if something he did eat touched the corn sticks? Sometimes the egg in prepared foods is not "real" egg but like a powdered egg substitute, and although made from and containing eggs, perhaps it's only the yolks not the whites, or perhaps the protein is broken down enough in the processing of it?

~ Vik ~ · « **Reply #4 on:** December 26, 2009, 00:03:11 am »

Thanks for your thoughts

there definitely wasn't any milk or butter in the eggs; mom just brought over a carton and scrambled them with water. So if it was the eggs, it was the eggs themselves. What you're saying Mashi about prepared-food eggs being different from fresh eggs. I hadn't thought of it that way, but given that it happened to your lo too, Laura, that seems quite possible. I was kind of hoping it would be the OJ... Citrus is a lot easier to avoid than eggs, kwim?

I asked my mom about the possibility of the corn sticks touching anything else, and she was quite offended and adament that they did not $:-\$ Who knows though... I'm sure that she was careful, but all the food came over in one basket separated by tea towels, and maybe something got contaminated over at their house. I'm quite obsessive about dairy (even trace) as I know how quick and severe his reaction can be. Others know that he's allergic, but that don't really *know* unless they've been there.

So I guess an allergy test is the only way to know for sure. And we'llve avoiding fresh eggs and citrus until we get it all figured out.

Fortunately, other than some OT/OS/coughing related crankiness, things seem to be back to normal. Now I just need a day off to recover from this one

thanks again

scarlettsmom · « **Reply #5 on:** December 27, 2009, 00:26:13 am »

Oh my goodness, how scary! Poor little guy (and poor you!).

I agree w/pps saying that the scrambled eggs are really jumping out at me. My good friend's son is allergic to egg, gets the same reaction as what happened to your LO. It was scrambled eggs that did it to him - immediately got hives on his face. If that was his first reaction you should for sure get allergy testing done (the skin prick test will let you know immediately) and you will hopefully get an epi-pen prescription. Be careful of certain vaccines too (like the flu vaccine I believe) as it is egg based.

Glad things are settling down and there were no respiratory symptoms.

Big big (((((hugs))))).

~*Nicole*~ · « **Reply #6 on:** December 27, 2009, 00:40:19 am »

Do you have an epi-pen jr? We got two for Ava's celery allergy....the swelling would make me nervous that a future reaction would cause trouble breathing etc.

If you've ruled out all but the two things (eggs and OJ--my mom was allergic to oranges as a child but isn't anymore) you can call the doctor and ask about a skin test for just those two things. We ONLY had the allergist do one test for the celery when we brought Ava so she wouldn't get tons of pricks etc.

I didn't want her to be a pin-cushion but the peace of mind has made ME feel tons better. We keep benadryl and an epi-pen wherever she goes. Makes me feel a bit safer.

So sorry about D's reaction. That was worse than Ava's was and I remember how scared I was.

~ Vik ~ · « **Reply #7 on:** December 27, 2009, 02:42:25 am »

I didn't know that you could ask just for specific items to be tested, thanks Nicole! I was hoping to avoid an allergy test because I didn't want to put D through that. If we can just test for the couple things though, it wouldn't be so bad. And I will ask about a jr epi pen. One for the diaper bag and one for daycare would make me feel a lot safer.

And thank you Tari for reminding me about the vaccines - for reasons unrelated to his allergies I decided against the flu shot for D (and myself) but I will definitely get more information about his other vaccines. He's due for his 15mo shots in Jan!

~*Nicole*~ · « **Reply #8 on:** December 27, 2009, 02:48:05 am »

No problem. You are his mother so I am pretty sure you should get to have a say over what he does and does not get poked and prodded with. That was my feeling anyway...and I made sure to say so when I called for the appt. hehehee. I was very nice but specifically said that I only wanted her tested for the suspected allergy and nothing else as she had been exposed to tons of things arleady: peanut butter, eggs, milk, strawberries, pollen, etc. and been totally fine. They were fine with that.

We are going back in the spring to redo the test to see if it has gotten better/worse or stayed the same.

Best of luck!

Mashi · « **Reply #9 on:** December 27, 2009, 12:16:40 pm »

Yes Vikki, over here the MMR is egg-based!

Lolly · « **Reply #10 on:** December 27, 2009, 15:38:37 pm »

The MMR is egg based in the UK too and we thought DS would need his done in the hospital but they have changed procedures and feel it is safe to have it done in the Drs surgery which he did. I'm not sure if it is the same for a full blown anaphalactic reaction to eggs.

Laura

MasynSpencerElliotte · « **Reply #11 on:** December 27, 2009, 16:55:45 pm »

The MMR is egg based in Canada too...I refused Spencer's and didn't get a flu shot for her either. They will say that egg allergy is not contraindicated for the MMR, but I just wasn't comfortable with her having it. They said they would give it to her in the hospital with everything ready in case of a reaction, but no thanks! Also, you mentioned the dijon mustard, I just found out that mustard was added as one of the top 11 allergens in Canada that has to be declared on the label of products, so could it be the actual mustard bothering him?

Spectra · « **Reply #12 on:** December 29, 2009, 02:48:03 am »

Wow, that's scary Vikki! Glad everything turned out okay. I'm in Canada too, and my son had/has an egg allergy, though he can eat eggs baked in goods. Anyway, when I was at the IWK I spoke to the head of the pediatric allergy department. The vaccines that are grown in egg are the flu shot, includes h1n1 shot, and Yellow Fever. Though the MMR may contain some egg protein apparently it is a lot less than the flu shots. That being said I'd still talk with your doctor, but I had the flu shot and MMR for my son and he was fine. He also scored high on the egg allergy skin prick test and blood test and has an epi-pen for the egg allergy. This was at the same time, about a year ago, but now he shows no signs of egg allergy.

~ Vik ~ · « **Reply #13 on:** December 29, 2009, 03:34:53 am »

Wow, thanks for all that info! D has already had his first MMR shot and had no negative reaction to it, so that's a relief. The more information I get, the more it looks like the egg is the problem... I guess it's somewhat common to be allergic to *eggs* themselves, but me able to tolerate them in processed/baked form. I'm calling the doctor in the morning to explain everything and hopefully get set up for a test to know for sure.

Heidi, thanks for the mustard info! I didn't realize that it was such a common allergen. I may ask the doctor about that too. Might be worth testing for, just to know for sure. Been considering asking about nuts too... My sister has a tree nut allergy, and given D's track record I'm not looking forward to introducing that

thanks everyone! Will defintely update after I speak with the doctor

scarlettsmom · « **Reply #14 on:** December 29, 2009, 18:37:53 pm »

Yeah, I've seen more about mustard issues recently too - interesting. I would definitely ask for that to be tested as well.

Nuts are so scary aren't they?! When my DD1 first had peanuts it was at a family gathering (by mistake, she was given a PB cookie) where half the people were in the medical field - dr's, nurses, vets - so we were glad that was the first exposure, lol. Will have to do the same w/dd2.

Looking forward to your update....

Lolly · « **Reply #15 on:** December 29, 2009, 18:41:38 pm »

Don't forget it's not the first exposure you need to worry about it's the second - they will react after initial exposure to the allergen. DS was fine the first time he had strawberries but got hives all around his mouth the second time. Same with the egg - he had had small amounts of it cooked in foods but not larger amounts of the whites by itself.

Laura

~ Vik ~ · « **Reply #16 on:** December 29, 2009, 19:16:56 pm »

Quote from: scarlett'smom on December 29, 2009, 18:37:53 pm

When my DD1 first had peanuts it was at a family gathering (by mistake, she was given a PB cookie) where half the people were in the medical field - dr's, nurses, vets - so we were glad that was the first exposure, lol.

Now THAT'S how to introduce nuts!! lol

So our pediatrician was able to sneak us in late this morning (apparently can't give us a referral over the phone

) and after hearing the story referred us to a local allergist

He said that they will only test for what I ask them to, and agreed that testing for nuts and mustard made sense. The only bad news is that the office is closed until Jan 4 so I can't even call until then, so it may be a bit of a wait for an appointment. D's dr said just to continue feeding him all the foods that he's eaten safely before, but to avoid eggs and citrus until we can get tested. At least I feel like we're going somewhere!

Thanks for all the information and support everyone!

Cozyhat · « **Reply #17 on:** December 29, 2009, 22:56:44 pm »

Glad you'll be able to get an allergy test done.

It did indeed sound like an egg allergy to me...maybe egg whites only.

Straight up egg causes a lot more reaction than egg in food....like noodles or cookies...even ice cream.

My older daughter had the same issue. She could have egg in anything but no straight up egg. Gradually we started her with scrambled egg yolk only and as she got older we would add in a little of the white. Today at the age of 8, she loves eggs and there are no issues.

She also has a moderate dairy allergy which means she can have all dairy products except glasses of milk. Bye-bye eczema.

Having an allergy panel done was the best decision we ever made for her....esp. when it reveals how sensitive you are to particular foods. All it took was a simple blood draw.

Glad you guys are doing better, though.

MasynSpencerElliotte · « **Reply #18 on:** December 30, 2009, 01:57:53 am »

Here's where I read about the mustard...

http://www.allergicliving.com/features.asp?copy_id=338

So glad you are getting in for testing, our Dr. won't refer us and I'm trying to get an appt. with another Dr. to see if she will.

~ Vik ~ · « **Reply #19 on:** December 30, 2009, 12:28:05 pm »

Thanks so much for that link Heidi, that's a really interesting site!

I hope you can find a dr to refer you. It's so frustrating when they won't. It's no skin off their back to just do it, kwim? Our old family dr was like that (getting a referral was nextto impossible) but D's has been good thus far. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you

MasynSpencerElliotte · « **Reply #20 on:** December 30, 2009, 13:40:53 pm »

I started getting the magazine in the mail...but I have no idea who sent it to me! Thanks for the crossed fingers and I'll keep mine crossed that you get a quick appt for testing

~*Nicole*~ · « **Reply #21 on:** January 03, 2010, 17:30:35 pm »

Quote from: Cozyhat on December 29, 2009, 14:56:44 pm

Having an allergy panel done was the best decision we ever made for her....esp. when it reveals how sensitive you are to particular foods. All it took was a simple blood draw.

DD had a blood draw first for her suspected celery allergy. Turned up negative. The skin test showed a severe allergy to it and we were told the blood tests at her age were unreliable and for celery in general unreliable.

Never understood why they sent us then and had her go through that as she was hysterical (my mom took her while I was at work and said I wouldn't have been able to handle it and would have probably left without getting it done-sheesh)

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Author Topic: Christmas panic attack... (Read 4218 times)

scarlettsmom

scarlettsmom

Cozyhat