Update on Megan's allergist visit

Well my baby is allergic to: cotton seed, sesame seed, chocolate (poor baby) and yellow dye. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all of this because yellow dye appears to be in everything. I feel terrible that we found out what may be causing her problems, especially since chocolate is one of them, but I feel better that we do know. I know, I'm a nut. Can never be happy.

We are trying to coordinate ourselves, the daycare provider and the school now so we won't start the elimination process until this weekend. She has to do the elimination for 4 weeks and then they'll do a re-introduction of the allergens slowly to see what is happening from there on.

The allergist is also sending us to the pedi GI, like I thought, but it takes like 4 months to get in there. He'll more than likely do stool studies as well as check for reflux again and some other things she mentioned he'd do.

The doc also looked at her tonsils and said they were "ok" looking. She said she's seen good and she's seen bad and these are in between. She also said they were H U G E, which we already knew from our regular doc but he wasn't concerned about them. This doc wants to look at them again in 4 weeks and if they still look the way they are she'll send us back to the ENT for another evaluation. We already asked the ENT about them when she had her adenoids out and he mentioned they were large but didn't want to take them out. I will be TICKED beyond belief if they come back and tell me they have to come out because that adenoid surgery was TERRIBLE for Megan For some reason she had a much harder time with it than everyone else I've talked to about it.

So anyone got any ideas on what to do about yellow dye????????? I guess i should be thankful she's not allergy to dairy and wheat. But yellow dye is in everything including soaps, shampoos, etc, etc. ARGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

ETA: We've known since Thanksgiving that chocolate was a problem because she broke out in a rash and puking when she ate too much of it. Poor thing. Can you imagine not ever being able to eat chocolate again? She's pretty bummed she'll never get oreo's again

This post has been edited by coasterqueen on Jan 20 2009, 11:27 AM

buy only natural soaps and shampoos, like from Burt's Bees or a similar company, there are companies that make them without any additives of that sort. Or make your own, I'm serious, there are tons of recipes on the web.
Wow, as for everything else, idk, that's a tough one. I guess keep her only on natural foods that God intended, like fruits, veggies, etc and see what else you can add in.
Poor Megan and poor you, hope you can get this all worked out, Karen.

Thanks, Jennifer.

Yes, the good thing is a lot of organics do not have yellow dye in it. I did a lot of reading last night on Yellow Dye #5 (Tartrazine) and that stuff is scary! It's banned in a few other countries because of it's connection with hyperactivity as well as thyroid tumors. Of course the US will never ban it.

Also, the less processed foods the better. Wish I didn't have so many food phobias or else this would all be relatively easy - except the normal junk food kids like to snack on like birthday cakes, ice cream, pudding, jello, pop tarts, fruit roll-ups (things she DOES like).

I'm wondering if chocolate is something you could possibly offer in very small amounts and see if her body may get used to it. Not oreos but clean, minimally processed chocolate, like dark chocolate for instance.
You may want to also check out dessert bars they sell that are organic and vegan, the kind you can get at health food stores and vitamin shops. If there's nothing in there that she's allergic to that may work as a subsitute so she can have dessert. Or maybe Ice cream that has no chocolate, assuming she's allowed to have that.
Bad as it is, just imagine the good eating habits she'll pick up by removing all the processed foods that so many kids grow up with.

poor thing I feel bad for her but glad you now know what your dealing with. I thought Ivory soap was free of that stuff but I could be wrong been a long time. I am no good about allergie stuff. but I wish you the best and hope you find things to work with for her.

I need to research yellow dye - didn't really know anything about it!

Jennifer, our allergist told us that complete and strict avoidance is the only way some people are able to tolerate foods later in life.


Karen, I am glad you found an allergist that has helped. I assume with the skin prick test? Do you have plans to test for more items at a later date? I know it does seem overwhelming at first, but it wont take you long to find things that she likes, and you will see a world of difference in her eating once she feels better and all these allergens are out of her system. We were told it can take as long as 8 weeks. When Jakob is exposed to egg, or an abundance of corn syrup, or corn products he can be sick or feeling sick for over 6 weeks.

It will get easier..
Did the allergist recommend a supplement?

Did you by chance ask the allergist about an antihistamine that might help block the effects of this things she is allergic to in case she were to come in contact with them?
the atarax or something else?

Jennifer, our allergist told us that complete and strict avoidance is the only way some people are able to tolerate foods later in life.


Karen, I am glad you found an allergist that has helped. I assume with the skin prick test? Do you have plans to test for more items at a later date? I know it does seem overwhelming at first, but it wont take you long to find things that she likes, and you will see a world of difference in her eating once she feels better and all these allergens are out of her system. We were told it can take as long as 8 weeks. When Jakob is exposed to egg, or an abundance of corn syrup, or corn products he can be sick or feeling sick for over 6 weeks.

It will get easier..
Did the allergist recommend a supplement?

Yes, the doc said if we notice changes in her stools, mood, rashes, etc all for the better then we are best not to ever reintroduce the allergens again on a permanent basis. Now I know very tiny amounts of chocolate doesn't cause her rashes, but the one time it did cause a rash and puking was when she ate about 20 or so of those chocolate chips that you melt down to make candies. It wasn't regular chocolate chips, but the ones you make candies with so they are a bit bigger. So that wasn't TOO much really. I think I would fear what would happen to her if she ate a larger amount, kwim? And I remember when she ate a lot of oreo's once at her grandma's that she puked all night after eating them. Otherwise she really hasn't had that much, but she does like chocolate milk and that won't be happening anymore.

Stacy - yes they did an "all over" panel is what she called it. So there were many groups (A - F one of them being the control group). So it was a broad spectrum of things that she was tested for. The allergist was actually taken back by the allergies she saw. Those allergens I said Megan had were part of the "C" panel and the doc's reaction when she looked at it was "WHOA, I haven't really ever seen a positive C panel like that before". That made me feel better, lol. NOT! When she said that I was like "what the heck is in the C Panel?????????". She had me freaked out until she explained it.

She did not recommend a supplement. She told us if we are struggling to get her to eat worse than it is now to call her. She said that really her weight was ok for her but that we can't drop below it. So we'll just keep an eye on her. I already found some fattening things she can eat (or at least I hope I did, lol) - marshmellows and a popsicle that didn't have yellow dye in it. I told her she could eat that all day between her regular meals if she wanted, lol. I know, terrible.

Hmmmmm, no. It sounded like she wanted to see if the elimination made a difference before doing anything else. I gathered that if it didn't make a difference she may have more of an "intolerance" to it and that her problems may be GI related. She mentioned something about her esophagus and them doing a scope and some disease or something like that that the GI doc would want to explore if these eliminations didn't make much difference. I don't know, I got confused at that point and was so exhausted by the time we left. As you probably know, Megan did N O T handle the skin test well at all. It was terrible.

ETA: She did give me a claritin dosage for her to take if she has runny nose, etc because she has a very HIGH allergy to mold and tobacco. That's all she said about that.

This post has been edited by coasterqueen on Jan 20 2009, 01:00 PM

No allergy to Wheat or Wheat Gluten?

I'm glad you're finally getting some answers, although I can only imagine how hard it will be to handle from here on out. Hope the ellimination works. I'm sure once you get in a routine with it, it'll be ok. I can't imagine not having chocolate though, you'll just have to find her candy she can have

man poor baby!!! But its good that you guys know now!!!! Good luck with everything and please KUP on how everything goes I will be thinking and praying for you guys!!! I can't even begin to imagine not being able to eat chocolate!!

I know you probably feel a little overwhelmed right now. I know I would be. And, I can understand being a little sad at the prospect of no chocolate -- but I am sure you will be able to find a special treat equally as yummy to replace the chocolate.

The good news is that now you have some answers and have somewhere to go from here. Knowledge is power, and it's better that you now know what to do to help your baby. I can only imagine how difficult it must be to deal with allergies, but if anyone can do it, it's you.

Please keep us posted on how she is doing, and let us know if we can do anything.

Thanks again everyone. We went through our cabinets last night trying to figure out what has to go and what can stay. Good thing is a lot of organics do not have yellow dye in it so we are good. Although some do use annatto, which is a more natural form of yellow dye and has been known to react like yellow dye. So we are trying to learn the different "names" for yellow dye when looking for foods to eat. I was amazed at the things that had cotton seed in it too. Megan seems to understand the things she can't eat due to yellow dye, but it hasn't sunk in yet that she can't have things because of the chocolate allergy.

DVFlyer - no wheat/wheat glueten allergy from the testing they did in the allergist office. It came back negative. The only positives were in the "C" panel which was the cotton seed, sesame seed, chocolate and yellow dye. I'm not sure why all these things are in the same panel. Other things in the panel were coconut, strawberry, oat and red dye which she did not have a reaction to.

ETA: I went back through the doctor paper work last night and when I posted about the GI and something about the esophagus I couldn't remember the name of it and they will more than likely do a scope biopsy of her esophagus to look for eosinophilic esophagitis. Long word, I know, lol.

This post has been edited by coasterqueen on Jan 21 2009, 06:48 AM

I'm glad you are getting answers to all of these problems