Another Food Allergy?

So I think that Remy has a food allergy.

This not an entirely new revelation… last year, when he was beginning solids, he broke out when he ate some strawberry vanilla yogurt drops. His face turned really red, he was scratching at it. I rushed him to the ER.

The ER doc said we should stay away from strawberries. Remy was too young at the time for allergy testing. And our family allergy doc agreed: avoid them for a while, when he’s older we can test him.

Well, we’ve been doing good. That’s an easy one to avoid. Mostly.

I have noticed that over the past year, we have given him Motrin that is “berry flavored” and that includes strawberries. Other than being a super stinker about taking the meds, he doesn’t have a problem with it. This made me think maybe it’s not strawberries.

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Really? Another Food Allergy?

Ok, more recently, there have been a few times that Stu and I have noticed his face break out after eating something. But we have been unable to narrow down what it is. Until last weekend.

Last Saturday morning, Stu was enjoying some of Target’s incredibly delicious trail mix. Remy ate an M&M out of the bowl. His face immediately looked bad. His little cheeks were red, splotchy. He was irritable. He spit out the M&M.

I looked at the packaging for the trail mix. It said it definitely contains Milk, Peanuts and Soy. And it is processed in a facility with Eggs, Pine Nuts and Wheat Flour. Awesome. That’s 6 of the 8 major food allergens.

After giving Remy Benadryl, Stu and I starting discussing possible food issues.

We ruled out milk. Although he drinks lactose-free milk, he eats cheese like it’s a job.

We ruled out peanuts because he’s had bites of peanut butter with no issue.

We ruled out gluten because, well, I don’t know… pretty much everything else.

That leaves Pine Nuts, Eggs and Soy. My money was on Eggs. He won’t eat them if we scramble them.

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Saturday night, we went to eat with cousins. My sister-in-laws prepared lasagnas. We feasted. Riley had chicken fingers because the noodles were not egg-allergy-friendly. Remy tore the lasagna up. On the way home, he was screaming. His face was red and puffy. (I also think he’s allergic to cats and had cat hair bugging his eyes.)

Then on Sunday, we went to my cousin’s house for a birthday celebration. Remy stuck his finger in the cake and then his face broke out again.

I am now 100% convinced we have another egg allergy in the house. Ugh. My poor boys.

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We are no strangers to the ER and food allergy issues. It has been a source of stress for me for the last 9ish years. Riley’s 7th birthday was probably the worst one. Click the pic below to read about that one.