Food Allergy Connection-Your connection to the world of food allergies.

I stumbled upon your website as my husband and I sift through three weeks of puzzle pieces in an attempt to figure out what’s going on with our five-month-old son. Even if you cannot offer any suggestions, perhaps our story will be a benefit to someone else going through the same problem.

Three weeks ago we had to transport our son to the hospital via ambulance after his daycare alerted us to a serious allergic reaction. His symptoms included (in this order): blue hands and feet, redness, hives, severely swollen left eye and ear, heavy breathing. It progressed at a quick rate causing us to choose the ambulance rather than transporting ourselves. An emergency room (E/R) team alerted at the hospital five minutes away were ready for him and he responded very quickly to treatment mainly consisting of steroids, oxygen and Benydryl. His oxygen saturation was only 40. He showed no signs of emotional distress, belly discomfort, or anything other than a dire need for a pacifier to help him get through the ordeal. After a night in the ped-ward, his doctors seemed to scratch their heads. A cautious early summarization was that it was a anaphylactic reaction due to the Gerber oatmeal cereal he had started seven days earlier. Only the day prior to the E/R event I increased his daily serving of the cereal from one to two.

Since that time he has demonstrated daily ongoing symptoms of blue, icy hands and feet that remain blue for 15 minutes to as long as an hour, reversing to red and hot before returning to normal; periodical swelling of the hands and feet; slight puffing and pinkness of the eyelids; coughing; persistent thick nasal congestion; small pin-head sized pimply raised bumps which become red at times, then back to normal skin-tone and even disappear. Being diagnosed with severe eczema at two months of age, we could have mistakenly thought redness and swelling was related to the eczema. But I’m sure we would have noticed blue feet and hands had those symptoms occurred. Being alerted and on edge by the E/R event we better related his symptoms to allergy. He was prescribed Prednisolone, Hydroxzyzeme and when removed from those meds., Benydryl as needed. These products have seemed to keep everything in check, although he has now been off the meds., with the exception of a couple of doses of Benydryl, for one week. We also were prescribed with Epi-pen Jr. (Epinephrine) to keep on hand in case of an emergency situation where breathing was altered.

After visiting a pediatric dermatologist; pediatric allergist immunologist; and pediatric cardiologist, we have been chasing our tails, taking paths of rare conditions and diseases, later ruled out. There’s been suggestions of more tests that could mean more trauma than I’m willing to put a five-month old through, not to mention us. It’s as if the physicians are reaching. The only thing we have a definitive on is that he is, in fact, allergic to milk and eggs and has atopic dermatitis (eczema). All other tests have been (wonderfully) normal. The immunologist told us that finding out the milk/egg allergy information is a “happy accident” and that “it didn’t have anything to do with” his E/R allergic event. He also proclaimed that he did not have an anaphylactic reaction.

We return to his regular pediatrician later this week, who will take the consultations from the other physicians and attempt to draw a conclusion. Because we haven’t had one single consistency in opinions, I’m not sure we really draw such a definitive conclusion. We’ve been told everything from: “this is nothing to worry about—could been an unexplained phenomena” to “this could be a life-threatening illness”.

So...we’ve been conducting our own research, looking for symptoms and like-stories. We feel that a more plausible theory is that (unlike the immunologist’s suggestion) a milk or egg product has been the underlying cause. His symptoms seem to be consistent with milk allergies. But because he’s only been on formula, and a limited amount of time on cereal, his eating has been very controlled. I believe I am accurate in pinpointing that the Gerber oatmeal cereal he was eating has neither. He has been on Enfamil Nutramigen formula since his second week of life. Whenever I mentioned the formula his physicians would consider it but quickly discount it as a cause. Upon further research I have found that Nutramigen is milk-based product, although it is ultra refined, and actually “pre-digested” by enzymes. Although it “shouldn’t” cause those with a milk allergy to react, I wondered if it could still contribute to his symptoms. With his ped’s permission I switched to Enfamil ProSobee, a soy-based formula yesterday. Although it’s been just over 32-hours since the switch, he has shown none of the regular symptoms he was previously displaying. Yet, it still may be too early to speculate.

Although it seems like we’re on the right track, it actually leaves us with more questions. If it is the formula, why the hyper-reaction that one day? There’s always a possibility that the daycare mistakenly gave him someone else’s formula that one day, one with milk, causing the reaction. But we may never know the answer to that. Because the daycare is so ultra careful in food distribution, controlled feedings, and because he is only one of four children in his class, it is a stretch.

We’ve had to take him to his ped on a couple of occasions when we felt the symptoms were progressing, but they never reached the point as with the E/R event. Why hasn’t he had such an event since? I’ve basically ruled out the oatmeal, but it still seems suspicious. All things considered, I don’t want to make the mistake of blaming a milk allergy when his symptoms could be a mask of a more serious condition, although all tests thus far point to a normal healthy little boy.

If you have any information that might help us to help our physicians, and make informed decisions about what’s next, please e-mail me.

Thank you.