Allergy Tests

This is a busy week for us. Yesterday Gabe had allergy testing done. Let me back up...

Gabe hasn't had dairy (or soy, actually) since he was a baby and it upset his stomach and caused him to break out in patches of ezcema. He would also get a bad diaper rash. Dairy baked into foods has never seemed to bother him, but plain milk certainly did. He drinks almond milk now but he does occasionally have yogurt.

As he started trying more fruits and vegetables, we noticed his cheeks and the area around his mouth would become red. It wasn't concerning enough to schedule a doctor appointment for and he never seemed too bothered by it. He had no trouble breathing, no swelling, etc. so I figured it was just a surface reaction. My mom has a lot of food sensitivities that cause her face to turn red and get hot/itchy so I assumed Gabe probably had the same thing.

Fast forward to the last few weeks and we noticed his sensitivity to tomato sauces seemed to drastically increase. He had spaghetti on base one day and his entire mouth turned red, his lips swelled, eczema patches immediately formed on his arms and hands, and he was in a lot of pain on his mouth (he kept asking for an ice pack.) We gave him Benadryl and it seemed to clear up some. Not thinking about it, I ordered pizza for the babysitter a few days later. She texted me to let me know Gabe's mouth was incredibly red again, he had a rash, and he kept putting his lips on the freezer door in between bites. I came home to find him a mess and he got more Benadryl.

part of his second reaction to pizza...
the area above his lip is still cracked and painful today

After these two experiences, we decided to call the doctor. She recommended he be tested by an allergist. Well, we did that yesterday and none of his results (including tomato) were severe or even moderate. He had very mild positives to a ton of things- milk, egg yolk, egg white, apple, orange, peach, white potato, tomato, onion, squash, pea, oat, rice, strawberry, and dust mites. The allergist said his reactions were all so mild that he would recommend cutting everything out of his diet, then adding one thing in at a time for 3 days to see if he reacts. If he does, keep it out. If he doesn't, he's fine to eat it.

allergy test in progress

The frustrating thing is we still don't know why he had such a big reaction to tomato or if it was something else in the sauce- oregano, for example. We are going to give him another week to heal from the last incident then try to get him to eat a semi-plain tomato product (like ketchup) and see what happens. His poor lip is still cracked and his eczema hasn't yet cleared from the last exposure. Hopefully we can figure out what is causing him the reaction and subsequent pain!