I just witnessed a potential new allergy: Dragon Fruit

[JaneS]

DS's best friend yesterday had an ana reaction to Dragon Fruit Vitamin Water. He started saying he couldn't swallow his saliva, and said then couldn't swallow anything. He started drinking compulsively, got that "feeling of doom" and started freaking out.
There were no other physical sx other than the throat closing, and his breathing didn't seem to be effected (although hard to tell, he was crying a lot). So maybe it wasn't officially an ana reaction? What do you think?

Dragon Fruit Allergy
Kleinheinz et al report on the case of a 19-year-old woman who experienced two allergic reactions 5-15 minutes after drinking fruit juice. Testing identified that the culprit in the fruit juice was dragon fruit.

[A pitaya or pitahaya is the fruit of several cactus species. These fruit are commonly known as dragon fruit.]

Kleinheinz A, Lepp U, Hausen BM, Petersen A, Becker WM.
Anaphylactic reaction to (mixed) fruit juice containing dragon fruit.
J Allergy Clin Immunol 2009 Jul 9.


http://www.foodcanmakeyouill.co.uk/l...agonfruit.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19596400

Also Dragon Fruit can be called Mangosteen which might be more recognizable:
http://www.healthfitnessandsuccess.c...gosteen-fruit/

It appears to me to be related to a latex allergy?
http://www.mangosteen-juice-online.c...-research.html

Edited by JaneS - 7/14/11 at 4:19pm

[sbgrace]

If my child had that reaction I would have done the epi and called 911. FWIW, my father has anaphylaxis and those are his typical symptoms.

I hope the mother will listen to you about the dragon fruit potential allergy. He may need testing for latex? If my child might have an allergy to latex I'd want to know for medical emergency situations. Is this child asthmatic?

[JaneS]

I would have too, but our children have known food allergies and this child does not.

She was actually the one who mentioned that it was probably the dragon fruit. They did end up in ER last night and his dad googled it.

He is not asthmatic but has had a couple incidences attributed to "dust". The mom is.

[JaneS]

Edited by JaneS - 7/14/11 at 4:23pm

[deminc]

Originally Posted by JaneS

Also Dragon Fruit can be called Mangosteen which might be more recognizable:
http://www.healthfitnessandsuccess.c...gosteen-fruit/

erm, the website is wrong. Dragon Fruit are NOT Mangosteen. They are distinctly different - looks different, taste different, different plant family too.

Dragon Fruit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya
Mangosteen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_Mangosteen

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by JaneS

Situation has changed.

Apparently the new view is that reaction was caused by me and talking about food allergies. (Which obviously I don't agree.)

How my son was hungry and couldn't eat at that moment (my son was fine, only stated clearly he needed to eat, wasn't flipping out at all). And my mentioning the blue Gatorade when she bought it for him might not be a good idea for the car ride home b/c it would jack him up. (We were talking previously about the car ride home from a full day at Six Flags was probably going to be a nightmare.)

She said I could have caused the anxiety in her son... and led him to have a panic attack.

I'm SO glad I didn't answer yes when she asked me if she should give the Epipen b/c I sure wouldn't have wanted to have that responsibility on my shoulders!

Holy cow. Really? Do people really think like that? Oy. That sounds like a toxic friendship to me. Really? I can't even believe it. I also can't believe so many people buy into that vitamin "water".

[JaneS]

Ooops, thanks deminc!

 

Edited by JaneS - 7/14/11 at 4:21pm

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by JaneS

She was actually the one who mentioned that it was probably the dragon fruit. They did end up in ER last night and his dad googled it.

I'm wondering what the ER dx'd, if anything, about the reaction.

I'm sorry that you are going through this with your friend. It's tough to not have support from friends about "alternative" methods, but I think it would be especially tough to be the recipient of misplaced anger/fear. Hopefully when things calm down, you'll be able to talk to her and work this out. I certainly wouldn't like having to walk on eggshells.

[JaneS]

The pharmacist told them to go to ER after observing him 20 minutes into the reaction.

The ER doctor seemed to dx it as an allergic reation b/c she said they ran tests including latex and other things. And gave them epipens, an anaphylaxis info sheet and told them to have the epi on him at all times. ER dr. also talked about the full bucket theory which I thought was great (and has been my view of this kid all along seeing his previous reactions).

Sadly, the subject has been declared off limits between us so I'm sure I'm not going to hear anymore on it. I guess a line of eggs has been drawn!

[FireWithin]

Jane I'm sorry. I've been thinking about this since yesterday.

My oldest son's best friend had obvious issues (to me), so did the mom - that were seriously impacting their health. The further we traveled down our health road, the less connections we had, and the more painful it was for me to keep my mouth shut. It was difficult to navigate. I think we just had different views on what health looks like, and what our bodies wanted. (I mean that I believe bodies are always looking for more health, and if we can figure it out, we can get there. I believe that there is always an answer, maybe we can't find the answer, but there is always a reason) We ended up having a relationship blowup about 1.5 years ago (unrelated to allergies, but somewhat related to health), and in our weakened state we were not able to bring the friendship back. It was really painful and difficult for everyone involved. I now believe that ending the relationship was the right thing for us, but it was painful and severely impacted my son's friendship with his friend. I don't think it was necessary for his friendship to be cut off, and I don't think it would be the case for all friendships, but that is what happened to us. I think other adults could have navigated it better.

so, no advice, just hugs.

[sbgrace]

Yuck. I'm sorry about her reaction to you. That's sad for her son as well.

That said, the ER did much, much better than I would have expected w/the reaction. They told her anaphylaxis, prescribed an epi (not at all usual in my experience--they just tell a person to avoid the food suspects and see an allergist), told her he needed to carry it (instructions on use--wow), and did some initial allergy testing (completely, totally shocks me!)

So she got input well beyond what most would get and correct input at that it sounds like. That's the good thing. The testing may come back with positives and that will be harder to ignore. This is IGE reaction imo so if they tested something he's allergic to I would expect positives. Hopefully it will work out and she will listen to the "doctor/expert" in this case even if she disregards your input.

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

This is IGE reaction imo so if they tested something he's allergic to I would expect positives.

That's the thing, it does sound like IgE ... but I've seen him react to food dyes with hives twice. I think yellow which is known to be one of the "worst" ones. One incident was Kraft Mac n Cheese and one was highly colored birthday cake frosting but only the second day he had it, the first day and the 3rd day, no hives. Such a mystery.

Not sure they would have the ability to test Dragon Fruit! but maybe it is an IgE to latex since I thought one of those links said DF was very high in latex?

[JaneS]

Thanks M2S, that helped to listen to your story!
I'm sorry you had to go through that too, very unfair to the boys.