vomiting and allergies

[atristin]

My 2 1/2 year old has a severe dairy allergy and less severe egg & peanut allergies. We've known this since she was 10 mo's, and have always been quite careful about what she eats.
Three days ago, I gave her some gummy bears (momentary lapse of reason on my part), that I'm pretty sure she had an allergic reaction to--lots of vomiting within about two hours, then itchy eyes/nose, lots of mucus production in nose, etc. After she threw up twice, she said she "felt better," and she seemed to be back to normal. She even ate a little bread and drank diluted juice before going to bed.
Caveat: they may have just been lousy, noxious gummy bears, because I had an achey belly and gas after eating them as well, even though I have no history of food allergies.
What made this stranger is that after two days of normalcy, she threw up repeatedly last night, until her stomach was completely empty. She was at the babysitter's during the day, so I can't be sure of what she ate, but the babysitter is normally pretty careful. This time, she was really pooky for an hour after the vomiting, and then went back to normal again, holding down food and water, and wanting to stay up and play instead of going to bed.
I'm puzzled! It doesn't seem like she has some sort of stomach virus, because she has just had two different episodes over the course of two days, with what seems like total normalcy in between--no fever, no sluggishness, etc. And it doesn't seem like it's stress-related--there are no changes in her environment or day-to-day experience happening right now. Is it possible she's developing an allergy to a new food, or that I'm overlooking something in her diet that she might be allergic to? Up till now, her reactions to food have always manifested themselves as skin reactions (hives and eczema), mucus production, eye/nose itchiness, and wheezing, but not through vomiting. Does anyone have any experience with something like this?
Thanks in advance!

[Jessica36]

This is how Zach reacts to some of his allergens, they are GI reactions and can last about a week.

Ok SO you have Dairy, Egg and Peanuts.
Do you have all the hidden names for them?
Do you read every label everytime?
Do you call the company about cross contamination, natural and artificial flavors?
Have you had allergy tested?
If so, what kind RAST or SPT?
Also for what?
When was the last time she was tested?
Do you have an Epi-pen?
Do you know about the different foods in each family? (ie peanuts and soy are in the same family and many people who are allergic to milk have problems with soy)
Has she ever had any other different reactions, like loose bowel movements?

There is a helpful link abin the links section or click on the food allergies link in my sig, it is a WHOLE site just for kids with food allergies and is very helpful. Feel free to PM me also

BTW here are Zach's allergies and conditions:
EE, FA-Egg, Peanut, Dairy, Soy, Wheat, Corn, Peas, Rye EA-Dog, Cat, Feather, Avoiding Fish and Oats

[atristin]

Thanks Jessica,
Yeah, we're well acquainted with all the hidden names of the things she's allergic to, since she had such a severe skin reaction to dairy to begin with that we never wanted her to go through that again. So everyone in the family always reads labels carefully, and we keep her away from foods processed on machinery that processes dairy in particular. We're a little less stringent about keeping her entirely away from foods that contain small amounts of eggs or peanuts, simply because her reaction to those is much less severe. The greatest reaction we'll see to small amounts of either of those types of food is a little eczema.
We had her RAST-tested when she was 10 months and again at 18 months, and she showed no sensitivity to soy either time. She has actually drunk soy milk for the past year and shown no reaction to it.
I should mention also that her sensitivity to dairy seems to be lessening somewhat. It used to be that she would get little welts on her face if we kissed her after drinking coffee with milk in it (to take one example), but I haven't seen that kind of reaction in a little while. And I also saw no reaction at all when another kid accidentally gave her a cheese puff (yech) last week.
When you say that your son has/had a GI reaction that would last a week, does that mean that he would go through something like what I was describing? In other words, is it possible that she was still reacting to the gummy bear awfulness two days after first eating it and getting sick?
Thanks for all the links and info, by the way. I'll be sure to look into this more.

[Missy]

My son also has similar reactions to some of his allergens; whatever it was could have been a combo--both IgE and non-IgE-mediated. Or it could have all been separate stages of a gastro reaction. There could have been a reaction to a new, undxed allergen--maybe a fruit that was used as flavoring; but, I would guess it's probably connected with some sort of x-contamination that wasn't labeled.

Peanut allergies are weird. The numbers seldom mean anything and a previously mild reaction can suddenly escalate to a much more severe response--even ana--with the next exposure.

My son's most severe allergy is dairy. His number for peanuts is pretty low, but we don't play around with it. We treat it with almost as much caution as the dairy allergy because it's so unpredictable.

I have no idea what gummy bears are made of, but most candy is processed around nuts and peanuts.

I would definitely consider both incidents to be part of the same reaction.

Missy

[Jessica36]

Originally Posted by atristin

Thanks Jessica,
Yeah, we're well acquainted with all the hidden names of the things she's allergic to, since she had such a severe skin reaction to dairy to begin with that we never wanted her to go through that again. So everyone in the family always reads labels carefully, and we keep her away from foods processed on machinery that processes dairy in particular. We're a little less stringent about keeping her entirely away from foods that contain small amounts of eggs or peanuts, simply because her reaction to those is much less severe. The greatest reaction we'll see to small amounts of either of those types of food is a little eczema.

Ok REALLY REALLY keep her away from the peanuts and eggs. We didn't even KNOW Zach was allergic to eggs or peanuts until the testing, but were avoiding peanuts, and once we took them away he became contact reactive to them! Can't even keep them in the house! And think of it this way, if you see a little bit of eczema on the outside, what can it be doing to the inside?

Originally Posted by atristin

We had her RAST-tested when she was 10 months and again at 18 months, and she showed no sensitivity to soy either time. She has actually drunk soy milk for the past year and shown no reaction to it.
I should mention also that her sensitivity to dairy seems to be lessening somewhat. It used to be that she would get little welts on her face if we kissed her after drinking coffee with milk in it (to take one example), but I haven't seen that kind of reaction in a little while. And I also saw no reaction at all when another kid accidentally gave her a cheese puff (yech) last week.

Ok a soy allergy can actually develop over time when you use it to replace dairy, totally sucks, Zach was neg on his last test and less then a year later he was positive. Yay on the dairy lessening, but as you know KEEP avoiding it!

Originally Posted by atristin

When you say that your son has/had a GI reaction that would last a week, does that mean that he would go through something like what I was describing? In other words, is it possible that she was still reacting to the gummy bear awfulness two days after first eating it and getting sick?

Yep, cause it can be in your system for up to 96 hours, Ana reactions can happen up to 48 hours after an ingestion! It was/is really bad for Zach, as you can see from my sig, he has EE which is white blood cells in his esophagus that attacks the food he eats so he doesn't get nutrients, so basically when he would eat an unknown offending food, he would vomit for days off and on and have the WORST bowel movements you have ever seen. Personally I would call the allergist and see about more testing. As we get further into this we actually end up with more allergic foods! Sigh!

Originally Posted by atristin

Thanks for all the links and info, by the way. I'll be sure to look into this more.

No Problem! I am Jessica36 over there too