Thursday, April 16, 2009

Allergy Escalation

I have always said that we are very lucky that my daughter does not have contact allergies to foods. Dogs, definitely. Cats, sure. Environmental and food exposure to allergens generally causes her eczema to flare up, but no obvious immediate skin based reaction.

Until now.

Twice last summer she had a mystery reaction that started with very small hives on her face. Both times while we were out of the house. I remember that the first time was after jumping in an inflatable bounce house at the reading festival. My husband and I assumed that someone had rented it previously and had let their dog in. She does get hives from dogs. We wiped her down and gave her Benadryl. The hives left.

Last week here at the house she reacted after daddy kissed her forehead. Hives on the forehead. Daddy ate out for lunch and dinner. We are not sure what caused the reaction. No nuts at dinner. Could have been from nuts at lunch? Could it be an egg or dairy allergy is getting worse instead of better? Aaack!

A wipe down and her night time allergy meds and the hives went away.

So, mystery contact reactions. How fun. It makes me nervous now to send her to school where they are likely not going to notice as quickly as I do.

That's all. Nothing earth shattering, just sharing my own personal craziness.

2 comments:

  1. I was very happy to come across your website....I just found out that my youngest son, who is 14 months, is allergic to eggs, milk, nuts, dogs, dust, mold, and blueberries. There might be more too, the Dr. says, but they could only do so much testing at once. He also had reactions to milk and wheat, although not as severe.

    So needless to say, I'm having a horrible time coming up with what I can feed him, what I can give the others that won't affect him, and how to make up for the things that he likes that he can no longer have!

    Seeing your suggestions was a relief, because I didn't even know where to begin!!!

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  2. We share everything but blueberries with you! I'm glad you're here. It is really hard to rethink how you cook, and relearn what normal is going to be in your house. It does get easier though. Hang in there! (And there are several allergy friendly cookbooks on Amazon if you want a paper copy instead of internet searches.)

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Always happy to hear from you, but please remember to play nice!