<a href=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=268820>inspired by this thread</a> …
So my kid is allergic apparently to green beans (whole body hives after 1oz baby food) … so unless he grows out of it we’ll be doing some interesting acrobatics when we dine out.
The other day was easy, thankfully, as the steamed fresh veggies didn’t include green beans, though they did include squash (one of his cousins is allergic).
Do you have any odd food allergies and how do you get around it when going out? (I’m sure my kid would love to stick to dessert ;)).
Eggplant, but I’m not severely allergic. I just get an itchy red rash around my mouth. It’s never really a problem unless I’m in a Thai or other Asian restaurant, and when the menu says mixed vegetables, I always ask whether that includes eggplant. No big deal.
I’m allergic to mushrooms. Usually it’s not a problem to ask the restaurant to leave out “x”, and they’re especially sympathetic if you mention that it’s a food allergy. Or, if it’s in big chunks (like when we ate at Shogun the other night, and they completely ignored my request to leave out the mushrooms), it’s not that hard to pick out.
The problem for me is Italian – one of my favorite foods, but every so often a marinara sauce will have chopped mushroom in it, and it won’t say on the menu. I’ve taken to asking in new places, and remembering what they have at my favorite places.
Fortunately, it’s not life threatening (merely uncomfortable), and I’m not so sensitive that a mushroom can’t have been on the plate (as someone with a peanut allergy might be).
Are you absolutely sure it’s the beans and not some additive in the baby food? I know these days they are much better than they used to be about that, but I’d check the label just to be sure.
Also, don’t be absolutely sure it’s the food and not something else in the environment. When one of mine was a baby, she mysteriously broke out in a rash just after I had introduced a new vegetable. I’m skipping a whole bunch of detail, but it turned out that shortly after supper the dog sniffed her little face, and she actually was reacting to the dog slobber, not the food. Another suspicious rash turned out to be the dye in a new item of clothing.
Not to try to take the place of your doctor, of course, but many, many food allergies in babies do go away when they get older. See what he/she suggests about gradually reintroducing the food in a year or so.
I second this…the checking the label part. My son was allergic to dairy and soy proteins when he was an infant and you wouldn’t believe the range of processed foods some form of one or the other is added to. Your best bet is organic baby food, or make it yourself…the less processed, the less additives.
As for how we dealt with it, well we pretty much didn’t eat out until he was over the age of two.
Yeah, I got LOTS of food allergies… they’re very eager to tell you when the kid is young “Oh, likely he/she will grow out of it” but hey, I’m 40 and I figure if I haven’t outgrown them by now, I ain’t gonna.
Actually, I’ve acquired some new ones over the years :eek: [ul]
[li]**First, determine what, exactly, set off the reaction. ** This has been covered somewhat already, but you want to make sure it’s really green beans, rather than an additive (or vice versa) so you truly know what to avoid and what not to worry about. You don’t want to needlessly deny your child healthy food, nor do you want to make him accidently ill.[/li][li]Ask, ask, ask! Ask LOTS of questions. I have to do this every time I eat out. I have to do it when I eat at a friend’s house. I spend lots of time standing in the aisle at the grocery reading labels. You will have to teach your child to do this same thing as soon as you possibly can - by the time he goes off the school he needs to be in the habit of saying “What’s in this?” He needs to know what he should and shouldn’t eat. And he needs to be assertive because there will always be pushy, pushy adults who think they know best and will try to force or trick him to eat things he shouldn’t to “prove” he’s not allergic. Or they’ll just be ignorant.[/li][li]**See an allergist. ** This person will help you determine what your child is allergic to, and what to do if various intensities of reactions occur. Testing to determine what foods your child is allergic to may require him to actually eat samples, which is best done in a medical setting so any reaction can be treated immediately and risk is minimized. Although most reactions can be handled in the home, there is a point at which you should take the child to the ER. Hopefully, you’ll never need to do so but you need to know the warning signs just in case.[/li][/ul]
It’s not your fault … I’m sure reading your posts won’t do it.
For now, we think it is the green beans. It was a jar of branded babyfood with no additives … a couple bites one night, some redness the next day, a couple bites the next day, some redness (we didn’t put it together) and then a 2oz jar over the next two meals … hives that evening (last consumed at noon). Full body.
Since then I avoided all foods w/greenbeans for him except once … green beans were the last ingredient (still baby food) and he had a mild rash for 24 hours.
We plan to experiment on him some weekend we don’t mind staying home and dosing him with benadryl (he had gotten a steroid and benadryl last time it happened). And of course go back to urgent care if eating some and countering any sign of rash/hives with baby benadryl doesn’t cut it.
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Sucks cuz I like green beans.
And he has no trouble with any other legumes that are okay for a 1 year old.
His cousin is pretty much the same story with squash.
I’m sorry.