[3happygirls]

Okay...I have a couple questions that will seem silly and entirely unrelated to each other. I'm just starting to wonder. My little one (army crawler) has suddenly gotten a bad cold that hasn't gone away. She wakes up seemingly normal and fine, but once she's up and crawling around the house, she gets goopy, sneezy, fussy, watery eyes, etc. We have a dog and I'm trying to keep up, but she's always covered in it, no matter what I do. She's 10 mos. and has shown no signs of being allergic until this cold (last 2 wks.) We also have a wool area rug, and am wondering if that could be bothering her too. How do I tell if this is just a bad cold or allergies? I keep hearing you can't tell if they have allergies until 1 year. Is that true? She's been around the dog since she was born with no signs.

Here's the unrelated question...This is a food issue. After she had been on solids for a while, I introduced green beans and she threw them all up (no signs of any other illness...only once). This was SEVERAL months ago. I thought it a coincidence, made sure she felt better and had a whole bag full of green beans, so a week or two later, I gave them to her again....she threw up!! Okay....I thought maybe I'd done something wrong (let them sit out too long cooling), so I figured it another coincidence and possibly the beans were "bad", but hadn't given her green beans in months and months. A couple weeks ago, my sister was watching her and gave her green beans....what do you know?? SHE LOST THEM!! She hasn't thrown up any other time, except when she's had green beans. And she doesn't continue vomiting, once she gets them out of her system, she's done. WHAT'S UP?? Has anyone ever heard of a GREEN BEAN ALLERGY?? What other foods might this go along with?

 

[wenat]

Green beans are in the legume family. See: http://www.calgaryallergy.ca/Article...cal.htm#Legume
(legumes list pasted below)

Legume:Acacia; Acacia Gum; Alfalfa; Arabic; Black-eyed pea; Carob; Carob (St. John's Bread); Cassia; Chick Pea; Field Pea; Green Bean; Green Pea; Guar gum; Jack bean; Karaya Gum; Kidney bean; Lentil; Licorice; Lima bean; Locust Bean Gum; Mungo Bean; Navy Bean; Peanut; Peanut oil; Pinto Bean; Soybean; Soybean oil/flour/lecithin; Split Pea; String Bean; Talca Gum; Tamarind; Tonka bean; Tragancanth Gum; Urd Flour.

Vomiting is a good sign of an allergy -- and it's good because she'll get most of it out of her system, rather than digesting it and getting eczema or diarrhea.

The bad news: peanuts are also in the legumes family, as is soy. So be VERY careful when introducing either to her, as they're top allergens, and dangerous, as well.

 

[wenat]

You can get allergies before a year.

DS2 was super-wheezy in my bed for a few nights at around 2 months old. So I washed the bedding and comforter, and the next night, he was fine. I'm betting on dustmite allergies in him, as his brother and I have it too.

And just ask all the moms whose babies have weeping eczema -- they'll assure you that their kids have allergies.

 

[Missy]

Vomiting is very frequently a sign of an anaphlyactic allergy, so, no, it's not necessarily a "good" thing. It could, at any time, lead to a more severe systemic reaction. My son did this with bananas; like you, the first time I thought he was sick. I was still new to this allergy stuff and I thought, like you, who the heck is allergic to bananas?? Turns out he's anaphylactic to bananas. Then, when it happened with avocados, I knew...

Any food is a potential allergen. Green beans are, in theory, a lower allergenic food, even among individuals who are allergic to other legumes.

 

[Pauli]

That sounds like an allergy. My dd reacts the same way to rice. Immediate vomiting. And also I suspect wheat although her only exposure to wheat has been through breastmilk.
Green beans are not a common allergen but it's possible to be allergic to absolutely anything. Fortunately green beans are easy to avoid...heck I've avoided them most of my life and I'm not even allergic!

 

[3happygirls]

This is all very interesting. Thank you, wenat for the exhaustive list of legumes. I find it helpful in trying to diagnose this. Although, I AM nervous now about the vomiting and possible anaphylactic reaction being linked together. SO...what's the next step? Have her tested? Trial and ERROR??? That seems scary. But, she HAS had peas, chickpeas, other legumes like soy and lentils and no reaction (so far). Do I discontinue anything in that family, not knowing if she really has an allergy? Wouldn't she have other allergies as well? Aren't allergies genetic? None of the rest of us have them. Any sites you can point me to, or get me going in the right direction to MAKE SURE I'm taking care of her properly would be GREAT!! THANKS, all.

 

[Missy]

I used to have an awesome chart that rated severity of the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis. I wish I could find it for you. Here's another link, though: http://www.foodallergy.org/anaphylaxis/index.html

If your daughter has been eating other legumes with no problems, I don't think I'd eliminate them at this point. Just watch her carefully. My son is allergic to both peanuts and soy and has a mild allergy to chick peas, but is fine with black beans and green beans.

Allergies can be genetic; is there any history of asthma or eczema? My husband had severe asthma as a child, and is allergic to strawberries in addition to having seasonal allergies. I have no known allergies and no history of either asthma or eczema. One of our older kids has a few seasonal allergies, but neither has any known food allergies, although I suspect that my daughter might be allergic to avocados. Our little one just took us by surprise.

Another great resource ishttp://kidswithfoodallergies.org, formerly POFAK. You can read the main board without joining and still get a lot of info, but, if I were still at that beginning stage when everything is so overwhelming, I'd probably fork over the $25 and join. Really supportive group.

Missy

 

[wenat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Missy Vomiting is very frequently a sign of an anaphlyactic allergy, so, no, it's not necessarily a "good" thing.

I meant that it's a "good" thing because otherwise the food stays in her kid's system, and goes on to do further damage to the gut. If there's going to be an allergic reaction, I'd rather that MOST of the food got ejected, than stayed in the stomach.

Missy, are you thinking of this table: http://the-clarkes.org/stuff/ana.html

 

[Missy]

Thanks for clarifying--I've seen so many people say, "Oh, she just vomited..." and me, I'm thinking, "Just???

"

And thank you for the link! I'd been using the Sampson, but I appreciate the changes in language in this one--easier to explain to others!

 

[wendy1221]

My 11 month old is allergic to soy, peanuts, and peas, as far as legumes go. He's ok w/ the rest AFAIK, including green beans, lentils, and chick peas. Those are the ones he's had directly so far. I would have liked to have held off till a year or later for legumes, but he has other ideas when he sees us eating.

W/ 2 older brothers, he wants to grow up fast.

 

[3happygirls]

This is how my little dd is!! She has two older sisters, and I've been trying to hold her off on EVERYTHING, but she protests that she wants to do all the things they do...steals their sippy cups when I'd rather her NOT use one as long as possible!! :

So, for now I guess I'm just NOT giving her green beans, and will introduce everything else slowly until she shows signs of allergy???? Obviously, NO NUTS, etc. Does this include almonds (butter), etc.? I always used almond butter with the other girls until they were 2 or so. I'll look at the list again, but the thought of having a little allergic one is so scary to me!! How do you remember everything, and everything that's included in that family?? I guess, in the case of severe allergies it's SO IMPORTANT that you wouldn't forget. I just really hope this is not an allergy...maybe she just doesn't like the tummy feeling she gets after green beans. It's THE ONLY thing I've noticed. All the "itchy mouth" stuff...how would I know in a 10-mo. old? Anyway...thanks for all the help.

 

[wendy1221]

Yes, no nuts, including almond butter! You might want to look into Sunbutter. It's REALLY good! The no peanut butter before age 2 thing is b/c it's a choking hazard, really, so you shouldn't be giving nut butter either (although I did it, too, w/ my boys. lol. Liam has already had sunbutter on bread.

Wheat free bread.) If you have a Trader Joe's around, their store brand of sunflower butter is Sunbutter, which is made in a peanut and nut free facility.

As for reactions w/ a 10 month old, my ped told me hives and other "milder" reactions warrant Benadryl. Hives or whatever plus wheezing, fainting, face or neck swelling, vomitting, etc, warrant an epipen and a ride in an ambulance. Since your babe only had vomitting; no hives, no fainting, etc, she's been ok and wouldn't have warranted anything more than letting her puke it up. HTH.

Yeah, in our case, the reactions are severe enough for me to really remember. We don't have half of his allergens even allowed in the house. My 7 year old has become really anal about it. He tends to latch onto ideas and get obsessed. Sometimes I think we should have him tested for Asperger's, but that's another story.

It's not as hard to go w/out nuts as I thought it would be. I used to eat a lot of nuts b/c they are quick, easy, healthy, and packed w/ protein. Now, instead I have sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, squash seeds, etc, and seed butters.

 

[3happygirls]

I realize I may be rolling a lot of things/symptoms into one. I don't want to reach the diagnosis *I THINK*, I want to get to the bottom of what's going on with dd. If it's all unrelated...GREAT! I just want to be careful not to overlook things. So I'll lay it out here...She has been sick (you can see from my pp that she's had a cold, etc.) The cold is seemingly over...the runny nose, cough, etc. So that's great! THEN, our whole family got the stomach flu (minus myself!) So..she's had a good two or three weeks of having something or another. Yesterday, I noticed a little rash on her elbows and legs/knees. Little tiny red bumps, flat with some large red areas. After talking to a friend, we concluded it was a "contact rash" from crawling, etc. It didn't look like a big deal. By last night, it had spread to her chest and back, and by 10 pm, she was up, crying, itching, uncomfortable. It was on her neck and some on her cheek. I called the Drs. exchange. Basically, they said to give her Benadryl, call in the AM if it was still there. But..."we cannot test for allergies in one that little. I doubt it's allergies. It could be a viral rash, in which case, we can't treat that either". But...bring her in if it's still there. ????????? So, of course, it has lessened (blessing and curse), b/c now, if I take her in, it doesn't really look like much, but I'm glad she got SOME comfort from the Benadryl through the night. Do I take her in?

She got something SIMILAR to this when she was about 4 mos. old. We had been out in the heat, and I thought it was a heat rash. Took her in, just to see and they diagnosed it as eczema. I have eczema and it didn't look like that to me at all, but whatever. It went away after a couple days with cortisone and lotion and never came back until now.

What do you all think? Is there any hope of finding anything out until she reaches some *magic* age? Should I look for alternative treatment? Or is there really too many variables and hard to diagnose one this little until more symptoms/reactions occur? This stuff scares the CRAP out of me!! My cousin has a 2 yr. old with allergies and she almost died before they knew what was going on!!

 

[Pauli]

You could look into NAET (www.naet.com).
Try to keep an open mind, it's definately not mainstream medical thinking, but I'm hearing more and more success stories involving NAET and after reading the book Say Goodbye to Children's Allergies, I am trying it out. My dd and I are both being treated but it's only been a few weeks...we haven't gotton to the stuff we KNOW she reacts to. We're still looking for the undiagnosed sensitivites. But so far, I think I see improvement. Updates as events warrant!

I'm thinking that you're having one of those "mama intuition" moments and it's my experience that you should trust those feelings. Some people will say that kids get rashes and puke and stuff and it's no biggie, and it may not be, but if you're having a bad feeling about it, my guess is that there's something going on.

Anyhow, my advice is read the book....it doesn't cost much to do that...and see what you think about it. BTW, we did blood and skin tests for allergies with fairly accurate results at 9 and 10 months. I'm not sure it was 100% but it gave us enough info to have a starting point, kwim? Look for a pediatric allergist, you probably don't need a referral.