Talking Allergies

Hello,

My son is one and we finally have answers to the reactions we have seen: he is allergic to peanuts (and horses).

We've seen redness around his mouth, eczema, pink bumps on his skin, hives and diarrhea. Since the diagnosis, we have of course never given him any peanuts and I have cut them out of my diet too (I am breastfeeding).

My question is this: I still see a few reactions sometimes (redness around the mouth, bumps on his back and belly) and we can't figure out to what. So when do we administer the epipen? I don't want to be poking him every time his skin turns red since we are all fair-skinned people in the family and we all get red at nothing. But I also don't want to wait and have it be too late...

What should be the point where we administer?

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Actually, just to add: should I give baby benadryl just in case?? For those obscure reactions...

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My allergist told me when the mouth/lips start swelling. We have kept bendryl on hand since ds's diagnosis and have used that many times and *knock on wood* haven't needed the epi-pen. The benadryl is wonderful for irritating reactions and sometimes I wonder if he didn't have it if the reaction could have progressed further.

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ds 6: ana to peanuts and fish, cats, dogs, horses, rabbits, many environmental
dd 12: reacted to pork rinds
dh: brazil nuts
me: shrimp, mangos, environmental

My son is 20 months old. He is also allergic to peanuts. Has never eaten any but his skin prick test showed a severe allergy. He also tested allergic to soy, a legume as peanuts are. His first year I was so frustrated because as I was introducing new foods his little cheeks would turn red for a while after he ate and it seemed so random. I started keeping a daily log of what he ate and traced it back to soy. Some things he reacted to were some of the Gerber crackers and teething biscuits (contained a tiny amount of soy), bread crumbs and/or Campbells mushroom soup (both contained soy) in a casserole ( all over hives from that), mashed potatoes with margarine (which is actually soy). Have you seen an allergist. I believe in the help of specialists for allergies. Some good advice I got from the allergist that helped us was to use a band aid and place some of the questionable item (could be food or a chemical item like a soap or detergent) on the band aid. I placed it on my son's back for 48 hours. When I removed the band aid I would look at the skin where the item was. Some of the spots looked were red with blisters. I knew he was definetly allergic to the item and we removed it. Talk to your pediatrician or allergist about this little trick. Don't try it without talking to them first. I just wanted to explain it a little so you can ask your doctors about it. It has worked well for us. Good luck.

My DD is 15 months old, and she also has some redness around the mouth off and on. I spoke to both my allergist and pediatrician and they say it's not necessarily food related. It's eczema, but it could be due to changes in the saliva's acidity due to teething or eating acidic foods, it could be a sensitivity to some skin products or irritated skin (she sometimes rubs it at night with her blankie)...

She had an anaphylactic reaction a few weeks ago, and that was TOTALLY DIFFERENT!!! The redness and swelling occurred really quickly! Within minutes her whole face was red and puffy, her nose started running like crazy, and her breathing changed. Then it was the Epipen (for the first time)!!! It was totally obvious!

She sometimes had (much) lesser reactions, and we gave her Benadryl and it passed. Our allergist said we could even go up to double the dose (5ml, instead of 2.5ml) if the reaction is more serious.

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Me - Kim - No allergies
DH Ben - 31 - Allergic to nuts and peanuts, lots of environmental allergies.
DD Anne - 4 - Asthma. Allergic to dairy, eggs, mustard, kiwi, peanuts, wheat and barley... for now...
DS Francois - 1 - No allergies so far...