Caveat- I’ve called the doctor, and he is on vacation until Monday, when I will call him again. His substitute wouldn’t give me any advice except make an appointment, which is over a month away.
My youngest son, 12, is a classic allergy/asthma/eczema victim, with his red hair and super-sensitive skin. The past few weeks, he has been having lip swelling, and we can’t figure out what he’s eating to cause it, if it’s food-related. I don’t know if environmental allergies would cause something like this. It’s gone from every couple of weeks to almost every day. We thought we had narrowed it down to cucumbers or tomatoes, but then he ate both of those things and it didn’t happen.
We are both kind of freaked out about it at this point. What if he’s becoming very sensitized to whatever it is, and the next time he eats it, he goes into anaphylactic shock? He does stay home by himself for a couple of hours on week days. I bought him some Benadry liquid, but of course that’s not going to work as quickly as needed, in that case.
He says that his throat gets itchy and that he has a hard time breathing at times, but he’s very suggestible and drama queeny, so I can’t be sure that those symptoms aren’t psychological. He doesn’t sound like he can’t breathe when he talks during those times, and I don’t notice anything but the lip swelling.
Have any of you been through this, and what happened? Can his doctor order tests to see what foods he is allergic to? Is this a prick or patch test, or a blood test?
Check for sulfates. I had allergies as a kid, but no food allergies and I developed the same reaction after ditching fast food for a few months. Now I make certain to eat something with preservatives at least twice a month and no more problems.
Wow. That sounds just like it, especially considering the typical OAS pt is atopic, as he is. Thank you VERY much! It’s very comforting to read that anaphylaxis doesn’t happen often with this.
Acid Lamp, I had considered sulfates, too, so hopefully that is something that can be tested, as well.
Do you mean sulfites? There are preservatives that can trigger sudden, severe asthma symptoms. I had a couple of very frightening reactions to salads back in the 1980s, no explanation as to why, then I saw a report on 60 Minutes that was a true AHA!!! moment for me.
Though I’ve never heard of this causing lip swelling. Also, sulfites aren’t used nearly as much as they used to be.
Oh, and I’d definitely get your son to an allergy specialist as soon as possible. Really, you need to figure out what is going on especially if he’s starting to show signs of breathing trouble :(.
He may wind up needing to keep an epi-pen around.
For a true food allergy, they don’t do the skin testing as much any more because that’s notorious for false positives and false negatives. My son, for example, skin-tested pretty allergic to soy - and he’s never had a problem with it. I knew of someone whose kid tested negative for milk - and nearly wound up hospitalized from dairy. They do blood testing, however, which I think is supposed to be more accurate.
Nit pick: Epi pens are for anaphylactic reactions where breathing problems develop. The general and more common case is just hives, whether localized to the mouth or systemic; the treatment is Benadryl. For an adult, you want to take the equivalent dose of a double shot of liquid Benadryl/diphenhydramine. A grade schooler would get a single shot. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU TELL THE RESCUE SQUAD OR ER STAFF YOU GAVE THEM BENADRYL OR EPINEPHRINE.
VWife has a bee allergy, so we keep liquid Children’s Benadryl on hand even though there are no more kids in the house.