Talking Allergies

I've never had a problem before with Special K Red Berries or the Chocolatey Delight cereals but this week had a super duper reaction to 2 new boxes. Took me a few days to figure out it wasn't something new I was allergic to but the cereal!

I noticed on the box it says product of Mexico. Since Kellogg's owns Kashi (or the brand of death as I like to call them ) and Kashi was being made in San Diego, I'm wondering if they're packaging both in the same factory now. Obviously some sort of x contamination here. No warning on the box other than wheat.

Hope that you are feeling better now. Tough to figure it out when it is a product you have had often!

Did you call Kellogg's? Off to the grocery store tonight so will check ours for labelling changes.

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me: allergic to crustaceans plus environmental
teenager: allergic to hazelnuts, some other foods and environmental

I'm not sure if this will help or hinder but will add my peanut allergic son reacted to Kellogg's corn flakes in Mexico and they were only labeled for almonds (in terms of nuts) and no peanuts. It was a strong enough reaction that I thought he was allergic to almonds and had him tested. Definitely cross-contamination in my mind.

Sorry to hear you had reactions.

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DS 1: anaphylactic to peanuts, allergic to fish
DS 2: asthma

What are you allergic to that you think might have contaminated it?

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Cassandra 24 years old.
Allergic to peanuts/most treenuts, cats and dogs.
Grew out of lactose intolerance.

I've had a lifelong allergy to sesame. I used to always react the same way (throat blistering and swelling and vomiting), but the last few times I've had some new reactions. The last time my eyes swelled shut and this time along with a scratchy throat, my tongue swelled, rash from wrists to elbows, and a lovely lizard-like eczema rash down the center of my face from forehead to chin. Along with of course my insides feeling like they were on fire for 3 days. Thank goodness Benadryl works for me.

I'd be curious to hear of any other seed allergies sesame allergics have run into. Sesame seems to be my only food allergy but I've run into 2 other seeds that I've reacted to:
Meadowfoam seed - in lip balm. My lips turned red and swelled bigger than Angelina Jolie's.
Borage seed: - in tanning bed lotion. Oh man, that was bad. I'd slathered it on my entire body. I turned fire engine red and went anaphylactic.

I guess this was a sign I need to stay away from packaged foods and back into whole foods. I eat raw vegan during the summer and it's kinda nice not having to worry about sesame at all!

Amber, our action plan would call for giving the epi for the reaction you had. Do you have a written emergency action plan that tells you the symptoms of anaphylaxis and when to give the epi? Tongue swelling is a very serious symptom. If your tongue had continued to swell or if it had lead to throat swelling you could have had difficulty breathing or even a fatality. Anything that is systemic gets an epi on our plan and any swelling in or around mouth, lips, throat, tongue, as well as breathing trouble, etc. You should know that Benadryl only treats the part of an allergic reaction that can't lead to a fatality. Only the epi pen can prevent a fatality. Most anaphylaxis self-resolves so the fact that you just used the epi and your reaction didn't progress to life threatening does not mean the Benadryl 'worked'. However, if that reaction had been one that was going to turn more serious the Benadryl would not have been able to prevent that from happening. There is no way to tell how serious a reaction will become once it goes beyond a localized reaction. Your allergist should have given you all this info and if not then I would get a 2nd opinion doctor. Best wishes.