Digestive Problems

[oliviasmom2118]

To begin, my daughter had GERD as an infant. Now she gets these HORRIBLE rashes on her bottom.She will be fine and 1 hr later it will be so bad that she is bleeding. This began at about 1 yr of age when she was switched to milk. I began to avoid milk products and she would do fine. Slowly, it began happening again. This past January I took her to an allergist who diagnosed (scratch test) her with allergy to milk, casein, corn, tomato, carrots, bannana, apple, grapes.The doctor told me to avoid these foods and do food test. She has been doing much better but something just didn't seem right. I have found that she breaks out from other foods that I give her as well... It just seems like too many foods to be possible...Last week I took her to a different allergiest for a second opinion. He said that he does not think it is food allergies due to the location of the rash appearing by her bottom and how it appears 1-3 hours after she eats the suspected foods. He said it should appear almost immediately closer to her mouth or all over at once. He also felt that the list of foods were VERY rare to have such a reaction. He wants me to have the blood allergy test done. What is your opinion? Have you heard of children with this type of rash issue? Could it be digestive?

[ChitChatNine]

Welcome .. I know that Jennifer is out of town a bit so wanted to say hello and welcome to the GERD (reflux) Community!

YES YES YES and YES .  A few important thoughts I will share with you because I have been where you are now.   How OLD is she now??

There are intolerances which can be severe and test + on skin tests .. these same things happen as delayed reactions such as a skin rash and can happen anyplace and not just around the mouth with the rash.  What happens to the skin in the test can happen anyplace in a delayed manner (up to a few hrs to days later).  Whereas a true RAST + bloodtest will show something more immediate reaction and usually this is replicated in way of immediate swelling and potentially life threatening reactions.  So some can be RAST negative but positive via skin tests.

Now believe it or not MY 17yr old is severely allergic thru skin tests and reactions to raw carrots but can eat them cooked.  She has what is called an ORAL ALLERGY SYNDROME ... you can google that for great results .. many foods CROSS REACT and can produce immediate or delayed responses.  Carrots cross react with Mugwort which is a weed and my dd has severe seasonal allergies.  Check your dd's INSIDE of her mouth the next time she gets this rash to be certain (hard at this age, though) there is no activity inside her mouth like severe itching ??????  My dd gets swelling INSIDE her mouth with the raw carrots .. hives inside that you may miss with a toddler.  Benadryl controls all her oral allergy syndrome and very very tiny% go on to anaphylaxis but she has an epi anyway as she is LATEX and PLUM an Nut anaphylaxis.

That brings me to the cause of concern that popped right out in the beginning of your post.  BANANNA ....... and the skin rashes.  If they are going to do a blood test please beg them (insist) they throw in a test for LATEX.  Bananna and avacodo and apples (birch pollen) can all cross-react with latex and the older the child becomes the mor dangerous the latex allergy develops.  It is not something that ever goes away and can kill.  My daughter (now 17) first had problems with diapers that went away and then one day at age 11 out of the blue had a severe reaction to a plum!!!!!!  Plums and latex cross react ---- other big offenders are hazelnuts and she is Class 4 positive RAST and Class II to latex and other nuts.

Yes, the list is VERY RARE .... my allergist did not believe the carrot until she was tested in his office and they saw it with their own eyes!

Finding an allergist is oftentimes a tough tough thing to do and you may have to find a few until you get one with the skills and knowledge and willing to look outside the box and/or work with your Pedi GI with the reflux together.

So to recap .. keep in mind that oftentimes these allergies are grown out of or grown into and can get worse .. my other daughter was + to 12 of 16 foods and has since outgrown them all only to be replaced with severe pollen and epi pen for bees.

BTW, doesn't sound like you need an Epi Pen (I'm not a dr of course) but if a latex test comes back + you insist on one.

My dd recently had surgery and they used a latex free/allergy free operating room .. it was awesome!  Latex in and around the mouth can kill ..........

I hope that you find the source of this rash..................

How is the GERD with all this .. an increase in symptoms with the rash?

Cheryl (dd's 17, 15, 10 and ds 9 .. my 9yr old was the reflux king)

[ChitChatNine]

My daughter also shares the apple oral allergy but if she eats organic ones she is ok .. so check that it may be the pesticides but carrots organic or not are a big no for her.

Some of these foods cooked actually cook out the protein and thus why an oral allergy can be tolerated cooked if not RAST +

C~

[peasantgirl]

Hi,

I would do a complete elimination diet for a couple of weeks to pinpoint exactly what foods she is reacting to beyond the ones that you know for sure through allergy testing. They can't possiblity test for every food so she is probably allergic to some that you aren't even aware of, especially because the foods she is allergic to are kind of rare ones to be allergic to. Sometimes it can take longer to have an allergic reaction, not right away.

My nephew's exposure to any of the foods he was allergic to wouldn't cause a reaction for 24 hours. Sometimes it can be delayed, so I wouldn't say that because it takes 3 hours that it's not an allergic reaction.

I would post a link to a website that describes the elimination diet, but I don't know if that is allowed on here.

April