Finding out...

Since finding out my daughter is allergic to eggs and milk, we proceeded to eliminate those foods from my diet...that didn't last too long before she had another reaction.  A week after seeing the allergist and her testing positive for eggs and milk, I was making dinner.  That night I made Kielbasa, Rice Pilaf, and Green beans.  The kielbasa was cooked on our George Foreman Grill and basted with Sweet Baby Rays Sweet Vidalia Onion BBQ Sauce.  I made the Rice Pilaf with Earth Balance Buttery Spread (a dairy free butter).  So I portioned out some and put it on her tray for her to eat with her hands.  She was rubbing her face quite a lot.  My wonderful husband said she was just tired, but something told me to look closer at her face.  As I looked at her red face, I noticed she had hives...

 

Above is a picture of her taken with my phone just before giving her Benadryl (my husband was getting it from the cabinet).  After dispensing the Benadryl, I ran her a cool bath to hopefully help distract her from itching until the Benadryl kicked in.  Once we were done with the bath, I got her in PJ's and nursed her.  While I nursed her, I called the on-call allergist and spoke with him immediately.  He informed me that I should call the office in the morning and get her seen that day, otherwise for that moment she should be fine.  The next morning my sister drove us to the allergist's office where I met with the doctor I spoke with the night prior. I brought the labels from all the food we had to try and see what could've caused the reaction.  He said that she needed to be tested for BEEF, PORK, RICE, WHEAT, and SOY.  Unfortunately, they couldn't test her that day because she just had Benadryl less than 24 hours prior.  We decided to test her at the end of the week.  So as I left I made an appointment to see her allergist and to have her tested 2 days later. 

 

Finally testing day arrived, my husband took the day off from work so that he could be there.  We arrived early and once in we met the doctor.  She informed us that should will be tested for: BEEF, PORK, WHEAT, RICE, SOY, PEA, and PEANUT.  The results are in the picture:

 

These are the results after 20 minutes...on the Left top to bottom: Beef, Pork, Wheat, and Rice; on the Right top to bottom: Soy, Peanut, Pea, and Control; in the Center at the bottom is the histamine.

 

 

As we can see, she only reacted to the rice.  This is unfortunately not a common allergy in the US, but is is common over in Asian countries due to rice being a staple in their cuisine.  It's uncertain if she will outgrow it, but it is certain that it's not a new allergy.  I asked if that when she was just starting solids at around 7 months or so of age if when we introduced rice cereal the GI issues she had as a result was the first indication of the allergy and the allergist said most likely.

 

Now not only do I have to avoid dairy products and egg products, but now also rice products.