Allergy testing - *met our fantastic Paed!!!! And we have a plan p7*

[my3girlsjde]

Thanks for the quick response!

Just out of curiousity, did fries also touch her every place the sauce did? Just pondering x-contam in the frying with something else or something on the person's hands who dished up the fries.

I'd say not, she tends to paint with the sauce and the fries were all over her belly with no reactions if I recall.

And you're probably right that it could very well be something new. At age 26 I started getting pretty sick with d&v after eating shellfish, and it graduated from just scallops to also include lobster. I'm too scared to try anything else. Just so frustrating when new things are cropping up when I've still not figured out the old things

And thanks, I think she's adorable too. When she's a teen, I'm going to be wishing for these silly allergy days back

[Mom to M&M]

I'm pretty sure McDonald's fries contain milk - could that be it?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

They don't in Canada anymore, can't remember how long ago they changed it.  I know in the US they still do.

When she's a teen, I'm going to be wishing for these silly allergy days back

Lol, I know what you mean!

[my3girlsjde]

Good to know about the fries if we ever go south of the border. She's also had milk touch her skin since then and no reaction. Maybe different because the skin on the hands is thicker or tougher but she did react to the sauce on her belly also.

This is also a new way for her to react. Before we've had hives, eczema, wheezing, blood in stool, stomach cramps and irritability from ingesting stuff. But she's never once reacted from something touching her skin. Even milk when she was so sensitive that me having a glass and breastfeeding her caused blood in her stool or when she ingested it and had various reactions. All of the foods she's reacted to before have touched her skin (she tends to bathe as she eats lol) and nothing. So I'm a bit stumped. Both a new issue and a new way to react.

Boy this kid keeps me on my toes. Can't wait to call the dr next week!

[deb]

I did a quick Google search for you on the McD's fries - I was also going to say that they have milk in the States at least - and got a hit from a food allergy website with this:
http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/ingredientslist.pdf

French Fries:
Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acid
pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil ((may contain one of the following: Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with
TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness), dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent).
CONTAINS: WHEAT AND MILK *(Natural beef flavor contains hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients).

So could be a number of things.....

[deb]

OK, tried to go to the URL on the previous post but it's been updated. For my own info I downloaded the 31-page pdf of ingredients. The fries look about the same ingredient-wise, but I also found the Sweet'n'Sour sauce. Ingredients are:
HFCS, water, apricot puree concentrate and/or peach puree concentrate, distilled vinegar, soy sauce (water, wheat, soybeans, salt), food starch - modifed, dextrose, soybean oil, xantham gum, spices, sodium benzoate (preservative), natural flavors (fruit, vegetable, and plant source), garlic powder, cellulose gum, dried chili peppers, malic acid, onion powder, caramel color, extractives of paprika, succinic acid.

So soy in the sauce may be the culprit as well.....

[my3girlsjde]

Thanks Deb

I'm inclined to think the soy in the sauce or something sauce related for 2 reasons. 1 - she had fries all over her belly (she often eats with just a diaper on) and no reaction where the fries touched her. And 2 - a friend of mine is a PhD Chemist and one of the parts of her thesis talked about what happens to food when deep fried and how soy breaks down in the deep frying process to be molecularly different. But I think she was talking more about the frying oil and not the actual product.

So which of the myriad of ingredients is it??? This is my huge frustration

E has been happily eating Mr Christie's Brand choc chip cookies with no reaction for about a month. Any other brands and my homemade ones cause hives and diarrhea. Does she overload on a certain ingredient? Is there something specific and small that I'm missing? Can they test for these smaller things like packaging chemicals, hfcs etc? I mean there was always a mystery ingredient when I was bf'ing. This has been going on now for almost 16 months even with minimal processed foods. Though I must add that in the past 3 weeks I have a different kid. I've not tried the eggs again as I'm waiting until this cold is gone.

Are there any of those 'seldom asked for tests' that a Dr may not think of? Iykwim.

Thanks all for having another look for me. Hopefully next week, I'll have an appointment scheduled and we can start asking the right questions to our Dr. 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

http://www.mcdonalds.ca/ca/en/menu/full_menu/snacks/fries.html

Deb, if you follow this link it takes you to the Canadian McDonald's site and the nutrition calculator shows the ingredients (it won't let me copy  & paste them  ).  Canadian McD's do not have milk or wheat in the fries and they haven't for at least a year as that is how long Spencer has been gluten free. The ingredients in the sweet & sour sauce look slightly different too. 

Vicky, I'm really not sure how far they can take the testing or if it would even show anything. So frustrating!

[deb]

Ooh, thanks for the Canada link  I specifically asked Google for Canada but it probably sent me to the US stite since that's where I am physically located.

Dang, there are a LOT fewer additives in the Canadian McD's than in the US! You get liquid sugar in your ketchup, but not HCFS or glucose-fructose syrup. Not fair!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Dang, there are a LOT fewer additives in the Canadian McD's than in the US! You get liquid sugar in your ketchup, but not HCFS or glucose-fructose syrup. Not fair!

I know, strange isn't it...wonder who the Canadian supplier is vs. the American one - would that be where the difference lies I wonder.

[my3girlsjde]

My basic knowledge is that Canada has much stricter guidelines in regards to food than what the US does. Not nearly as great as Europe, but one of the reasons I'm happy we didn't travel through the States when we did our big drive. As much as I had a blast the last time we drove through the prairie states when I was a kid, E would have been a nightmare as far as feeding went. We had limited options as it was.

Well today was 3 days from the latest reaction, and similar to a lot of her poo issues and the 3 day delay she got diarrhea today and it burned her   Thankfully the rawness has gone down considerably since treating and there's been no reoccurance. Fingers crossed that she heals quick and it's the only bout she gets.

Funny how this stuff crops up over the holidays, late Friday afternoons or right when your Dr has left for a vacation . And one of those things if I took her to a walk in clinic, they'd just refer me back to her Dr now that we have one. But on the bright side, she's happy and we just keep taking pics and writing it all down......

[mjohnson33]

Does the antihistamine rule apply to testing for Celiac disease??

[my3girlsjde]

I have no idea. All I know is it interferes with the test results as the blood doesn't show a proper reaction to the allergen.

[mjohnson33]

Oh no, I didnt know that.  I was giving my son Benadryl for a stuffy nose for about a week or so when they tested for celiac and wheat intolerance......I guess I should ask my doctor.

[Jimbob]

We were not asked to stop my ds's daily antihistamine we they were doing the coeliac blood test. We also did not have to stop antihistamines for RAST tests but did have to stop them for skin prick tests. The one thing I do know for coeliac testing is that you should still be eating foods that contain gluten.

Kelly