Ask:
My ds is 14mo old. He is still on formula, cow's milk formula, and is fine with it. Every single time we try to switch him to whole milk he ends up with diarrhea. We start with like 2oz milk and 6oz formula to wean him slowly and when he ends up with mostly milk we get the "explosion diapers". At his one yr ck up his Ped said he may just need a little longer for him to get used to the enzymes in the milk (even though he's on cow's milk formula which I don't understand)but if not he could be lactose intolerant. But the thing my dh and I don't get is he is fine eating cheese slices, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, mac and cheese and ice cream, no diarrhea at all. Whole milk yogurt will cause diarrhea too. His eczema will flare up when we give him the milk it seems like. He goes back for his 15mo ck up next month so we'll say what he says then. Should I persue getting him allergy tested? What would you do? My sister wants me to take him to a holistic type Dr that cured her of some of her allergies but I don't know yet.
The next prob he seems to have is an allergy to peanut butter, sometimes. At 11mo he had it and got a few red hives around his mouth. Last week he had a couple bites of his brother's peanut butter cup and loved it, no rash. Last week he had a sample at the store of those Uncrustables pb&j frozen sandwiches, no rash. Today he had a pb&j sandwich for lunch, I made it at home for him, and he started with the rash around his mouth, then his whole face, runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, acted like he was itchy around his face (which I'm sure he was)and irritable. So I called back to find out how much Benadryl to give him and a half hour later he was ok. I don't understand why he can sometimes have pb with no reaction and sometimes he does have a reaction. It is driving us crazy!
I know he can't have eggs, I'm not even going to try until at least 18mo or maybe later. He's had 4 reactions so far with the hives around his mouth and face. The last time it happend last month while we were camping and I didn't have his Benadryl. I was eating macaroni salad, with egg chunks in it, and used my fork to feed him his dinner and I couldn't figure out why he had the rash. Then it dawned on me I used my fork instead of his by mistake. Same thing on vacation he had some of my hashbrown potatoes for breakfast and I didn't even think twice that they were on top of the scrambled eggs, the reason he had the rash then too. Just by cross contamination basically. Yet he had his flu shot in Dec and had no problems. I know people allergic to eggs shouldn't get it since it's grown in eggs and the egg protein and everything but then we didn't know.
Sorry this is so long and probably confusing. I just have not dealt with food allergies before. Has anyone dealt with what I'm dealing with before? I just don't know if it's normal to sometimes have reactions to foods and sometimes not. TIA
Answer:
My dd has multiple food allergies, so for what is worth, I'll give you my thoughts.
I would definitely see an allergist. Allergies at this age can be shifty and hard to diagnose, but you have documented reactions- hives, diarrhea, etc. It can't hurt and could possibly help a lot to get an appt. with a good allergist. And it wouldn't hurt, either, to see a holisitic doctor- just to get another perspective.
The milk in cheese is pretty processed, which could explain why your son can tolerate that and not other things, like whole milk yogurt. Frequently it's the milk protein that makes the GI system unhappy and causes diarrhea, not lactose intoerance (which is actually pretty rare). Many children have problems with milk products but outgrow that by 2-3 years. Eczema is a typical symptom that goes along with that.
Your son, though, has reactions to multiple foods, which make it not so certain he will outgrow all his allergies. Some foods can be tolerated separately but when combined with other foods cause reactions. Ex. I had a friend who could eat strawberries or chocolate, but when he ate chocolate covered strawberries he had a violent allergic reaction that sent him to the hospital. Maybe your son can tolerate peanuts alone but some combination of the bread and/or jelly with the peanuts causes him to react.
Allergies can get worse over time, and since you are seeing hives, I would definitely see the allergist and try to make some sense of it all. I would also carry benadryl in my purse for him. In my experience, most pediatricians don't know a whole lot about pediatric allergies- new information has come out the past several years and continues to come out all the time. I happened to luck into a ped whose son has food allergies, so she was immensely helpful and recognized them in my dd right away. My dd is allergic to soy, dairy and rye (those are the wosrt, there are others). It is frustrating... you have my sympathy!
Answer:
i agree i would have him allergy tested my niece is severaly allergic to foods and it has been thru allergy testing they have found 9 foods she can eat she is slowly improving she is almost 4 and started out she could only eat 4 things...also she is allergic to gluten wich is in every processed food and she also has horrible eczema. so maybe he is allergic to certain compound and natural ingredients. i would highly recommend the allergy testing they can also repeat it as he gets older to see if he has outgrown some of them without him suffering the reactions. good luck in what ever you do hope the poor guy can eat with out worrying about feeling awful..
Answer:
The latest recommendations (according to my pediatrician) are that kids not be given peanut butter or nuts before age three because of the risk of allergies.
These recommendations change all the time because some doctors think that exposing kids to foods that are highly allergenic at too young of an age can increase the risk of allergies and other doctors believe that the risk of developing an allergy or sensitivity is decreased when a child is exposed to these foods at a younger age. I have no clue who is right! My son just had his first "official" peanut butter sandwich on his third birthday yesterday but he's had enough exposure to nuts in the past for me to be certain that he wasn't allergic.
It certainly sounds to me like there's a good chance your son has an allergy to eggs and peanuts/tree nuts, if not to milk as well...and the hives and diarrhea would be enough for me to want to see an allergist for testing. I have a friend whose 3 year old daughter is allergic to eggs and peanuts/tree nuts and she was tested after only one exposure to eggs that caused hives (they're saying she'll most likely grow out of the allergies, but she hasn't yet) and another friend who is allergic to peanuts/tree nuts (her almost 3 year old daughter is as well). She never did grow out of her allergy - in fact it's gotten worse as she's gotten older.
Good luck!
Answer:
Thank you thank you thank you! You ladies are just so wonderful. It does make sense that the peanut butter alone or with the crackers doesn't cause a reaction but with the strawberry jelly (he has had strawberries before) and wheat bread (he can tolerate wheat bread with lunch meat and cheese) something triggers it. I am going to call the holistic Dr in the a.m. and find out if he takes our insurance and if not how much we would be looking at. If that's too much out of pocket money right now not to mention his 3mo wait for an appt I'll call his Ped back again and find out if he needs to be seen first or he can just recommend a Ped Allergist and we can just go there. I just don't want to wait another whole month until his next appt to start finding out what is causing this. I am going right upstairs to grab the Benadryl and keep it in the diaper bag. I keep meaning to do that and you know how it goes, something happens and I keep forgetting. I'll post after I find out what's going on with my little man and thanks again.
Answer:
My ds who is now 5 has a peanut and milk allergy. Thankfully his milk allergy is tolerable in that he can handle some dairy each day but in excess he gets a really bad rash. We found out he was allergic to peanuts when he was only 1 (very scary) When he was little he had terrible eczema and was on soy formula and soy milk later on. His eczema has gotten better as he has gotten older and we figured out that it was the milk. I hope everything works out
Answer:
Well, Connor has not had any juice since last Sunday and has been drinking whole milk/formula and whole milk/water all week and has had not had any diarrhea. We think it's the juice that caused it, even though we really watered it down. So that makes me feel a little better. I am not trying eggs again though until 18mo and I gave him peanut butter/cheese crackers on Thurs which he's had many times with no reaction and he ended up with hives around his mouth. So no more of that either until next month at his appt.