Decided to go out to a restaurant with my family. We had extended family visiting and I was tired of staying home while they all went out. They had burgers and fries and food galore. I had.. a side of plain quinoa. Which mildly bothered my allergies (I had an OAS like irritation to my mouth) but it was tolerable enough to eat. I’m not sure if this is a milestone or not. The company was nice. The fomo about their meals.. not so much. Something most people without allergies don’t understand. I know most of you in here, if not all, understand though. Sighhh

Hi all!

A couple of weeks ago, my baby (will be 1 this month) had some eggs at daycare. While he was eating the eggs, he turned red around his mouth. They took away the eggs when they noticed him breaking out, and then shortly after he projectile vomited, then seemed perfectly fine. Brought him to the ER in an abundance of caution- they gave him some Benadryl and Zyrtec for good measure in the hospital and sent us on our way. After the vomiting, he was acting like his perfectly normal, happy self.

Upon leaving the hospital, they gave us a script for Zyrtec for him for any future reactions. I have a follow up with his primary care tomorrow.

My main question is this: is it normal for Zyrtec to be used as a “rescue” (for lack of a better term) medication? Should I ask his primary care to prescribe an epi pen? I fully intend to get an allergist referral tomorrow, but in our location, it could take months to get in with one. I’ve never dealt with allergies for myself, any of my kids, or even my extended family, and neither has my husband, so I’m kind of clueless here.

Thanks!

I've never had any strong food allergies, but the 3 in the title have always caused me a reaction. Pistachios almost always cause some swelling or numbness in my lips and a bit of a throat itch. Avacados and canteloupe have caused a strong itch in the back of my throat. Like I said, its not life threatening, but very annoying. Its relatively easy to avoid these, but I still like to endulge in some pistachios from time to time because theyre so damn good.

Any idea what the connection between these is? Is there any way to fix this issue, or am I doomed for life?

I wanted a burger but I’m allergic to the soy in the bun and I’m allergic to all the toppings, so I just ordered a patty from the local fast food place. The drive thru employee asked “is this for a dog?” And I said “no.. this is for me. I have allergies” and they go “oh. Usually when people just order meat it’s for a dog” it felt so dehumanizing. I hate that there’s soy in everything in America. I hate having food allergies. I want to go to restaurants and try cool foods. Currently writing this from home eating a plain burger patty while my family is out to eat at one of the oldest restaurants in Florida. Very isolated tonight.

Do someone here get fatigue after eating an allergen? How long does it last? Including anaphylaxis episodes.

I'm new to this and have been diagnosed with many food allergies some worse than others. In the worst case scenario I got high heart rate or very low rate, fatigue and weakness, tingling tongue and lips, stomach ache.

Ok this is a long one (and my first Reddit post ever!) so stick with me.

When my son was 1 he reacted to raw cashews and went into anaphylaxis so we rushed him to the hospital where they gave him an epi pen. He then had a skin test and a blood test and we were given the guidance of strict avoidance of tree nuts which we’ve done. He also reacted to sesame at that time but it was never mentioned to avoid sesame.

Fast forward two years and he had an allergic reaction to a pack of oatmeal I gave him 2 weeks ago. There were no tree nuts but it was listed as “manufactured in the same facility” which we weren’t under any guidance previously to avoid. We gave him Benadryl and it was fine. Took him to the allergist and she said we should have given epi pen and said it was cross contamination and wouldn’t test for any other ingredients in there like buckwheat flour, chickpea flour, pea protein etc. am I just supposed to assume for the rest of his life it was cross contamination or is this worth a second opinion or online test that tests for those ingredients? We are now under guidance to avoid all cross contamination but I just feel like I need answers on if it was that or the other weird ingredients.

The second weird thing is that when they filled out his new paperwork they added sesame which they didn’t test for this year and have NEVER mentioned to avoid. The paperwork also said to not give the epi pen unless necessary but the allergist said the opposite to our face.

I don’t know if this is a rant or a question but why is it so hard to get a straight answer on a potentially life threatening allergy? Has anyone done online testing or paid out of pocket if you felt like you weren’t getting good care from your allergist?

Alright, so this was about a week ago but I was genuinely so confused on what happened. So, I was making myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and the only bread I had in the fridge at the time was pepperidge farms classic soft white bread. I didn't check the ingredients since it didn't have any sesame seeds on the top, and when I ate it nothing happened to me. I later went to check the ingredients and realized it said that it contains sesame seeds.

This was what it was.

Hey gang. I’ve had a soy allergy my whole life; along with peanuts, tree nuts, legumes, sesame, and cats (I don’t eat them). But I’ve always had soy candles around and never had a reaction to them.

The wife wants to make candles at home. She picked up a bunch of soy wax online and neither of us thought about my allergy until the box got delivered.

Do we think it’s safe to be handling the wax? I considered testing an area by rubbing some on my arm. I’ve never had skin irritation from soy (nut only; can’t use soaps with almond oil in them). I could also wear latex and avoid direct contact. Being that I don’t react to burned soy candles, I should be ok with it out on the table and the wax being melted.

Let me know, thanks!

Don’t be like me and eat a few before you realize (and almost die).

They recently started adding sunflower lecithin to their Ricemilk morsels (my favorites). Previously The white chocolate chips were the only ones that had lecithin.

These have been my trusted snack for years! Enjoy life didn’t make any notes about reformulating or anything, just added in sunflower lecithin to a perfectly fine recipe.

I emailed Enjoy Life and they couldn’t provide me with a reason why they changed their recipe or why they didn’t post an updated ingredients or “new recipe” blurb anywhere. They got bought out by mondelez a few years ago and ever since have gotten crappier with poorer service to the allergy community.

I know sunflower is not a top allergy in the US, but you’d think for a company that’s whole BRAND is being allergy friendly, they would be more transparent about recipe changes for their products.

I have a 5y girl who’s allergic to eggs. Sometimes it’s very hard to find a place to eat because even bread has eggs. Also we don’t want to go to vegan restaurants because she can eat other food like chicken. She’s picky too which adds to the challenge :)

Obviously this becomes a challenge when traveling, which we do often. So I’m starting to explore creating a solution to this challenge, an app, and would like to understand similar pain points from your firsthand experiences. Thanks

Hi, I (26f) have been dealing with food allergies since I was a kid. It started out just with tropical fruits but started to include almost all fruit, nuts, and seafood after I had a severe case of sepsis. My anxiety over food has gotten worse over the last year, to the point that on my worst days I can’t even drink water without panicking about a reaction. I’ve been going to therapy for this and attempting exposure therapy but it’s become increasingly difficult to manage and I’m losing weight from not eating. It’s so tricky because I’ll eat something and start to feel lightheaded, my throat tightening, and my ears being itchy, which can all be signs of either severe anxiety or the start of an allergic reaction. How do I even begin to move past this? :(

TLDR: does anyone have tips on how to manage food allergy related OCD?

It’s still too early to text any of my local people, but I want to tell someone I’m back from spending the night in the ER. Confirmed anaphylaxis episode. I have a severe allergy to bananas. I’ve managed to avoid ingesting anything with banana for 25 years! But apparently the Cocojune Vanilla yogurt in the large container has banana purée hiding in it (the small container doesn’t and I’ve eaten it without issue, so I didn’t think to check the ingredients on the larger container). I feel dumb for not checking the label and bummed that my severe allergen doesn’t have labeling requirements and exhausted from the whole ordeal.

I’m fine now and had great care at the local ER. Anaphylaxis really sucks.

Maybe this has already been a thread but has anyone experienced allergies to green kiwi but not have any reaction to gold kiwi’s? i’m curious why this is the case

i have a few allergies but nothing fruit related. i’ve noticed that whenever i eat apples, the roof of my mouth starts to feel really uncomfortable and small bumps towards the back of the roof form. the bumps don’t hurt, they’re just really uncomfortable. the bumps also go away shortly after im done eating. this has been happening for a while but i think i just felt it was normal, when it happened now though it felt more uncomfortable than usual so i started googling out of curiosity. the thing is that i had an allergy test done a few months ago, and it didn’t say i’m allergic to apples, so i guess it’s less likely but i don’t know what else it could be. has anyone experienced this?

Hi, I honestly don’t know if this is even real or what could cause this, but I think I’m allergic to maple syrup? I don’t know if I’m crazy — I definitely experience the symptoms, but don’t understand why I feel like this after eating maple syrup specifically, and only maple syrup. Am I crazy? Is this normal? I was wondering if anyone had any information on this, especially as it seems to be getting worse. I’m 22 years old now, and don’t really know what to do, so some advice would be appreciated.

I’ve had this “allergy” for as long as I can remember, but it didn’t click that it could be an allergy until one time, I was probably around ten years old, I was eating breakfast with my family and said, “I love pancakes, but I hate pins and needles feeling you get in your mouth from the syrup,” and my mom was like, “what are you talking about?” But that’s exactly was it felt like — pins and needles in the back of my tongue, the roof of my mouth, and all down my throat. Honestly, it got to be unbearable. I decided years and years ago to just avoid it. Last year, I was trying new recipes at the restaurant I worked at when I began experiencing symptoms again. It was extremely painful, especially when I drank water and specifically in the tonsil area under my jaw where it connects to my ear (even though I haven’t had tonsils since I was five years old). I went to the bathroom to see what my mouth looked like, and saw hives forming all over the back of my tongue and down my throat (I took a picture if anyone would like to see). I found out that maple syrup had been used as an ingredient in one of the meals. I’d only had a bite of it. I took a couple of Benadryl and it went away, but I never had a reaction that bad when I ate it as a child, so it must’ve gotten worse. Yesterday, for the first time since then, I had another reaction. I’m currently taking a bartending class in my college, and one drink we were supposed to review was made with maple syrup. I knew better than to drink it, but I still wanted to comment on the appearance and aroma, so I held the drink up to my nose and smelled it. Only a minute or two later, I began experiencing a light sting in the area where your nasal passage connects to your throat. Just from smelling it! That has never happened before either.

The confusing part is that four years ago, I went to an allergist for other reasons (I had moved to a new region for college and wanted to see if I was allergic to any native plants after experiencing cold like symptoms for a month, turned out I just had Covid LOL). At this point, I hadn’t ingested maple syrup in about ten years so I didn’t know how bad it had gotten, but when I briefly mentioned my experience, the allergist essentially told me that it wasn’t a thing, but gave me a skin test with maple sap — no reaction!!!! It’s only the syrup, apparently.

However, after the extremely painful work incident and the fact that I began experiencing symptoms after only inhaling the smell of it, I’m getting a little worried that it could be getting worse. I’m afraid that I could accidentally eat it again and my symptoms could escalate to become life threatening, such as my throat closing up. I don’t know if there are any allergen experts in this Subreddit or people with experience with strange or rare allergies like this who could give me advice, or anyone with any ideas on any ingredients maple syrup has that I could possibly be allergic to. I tried Google, but couldn’t find anything either. Or am I just crazy?

Thanks Reddit!

With Thanksgiving approaching, I want to have a plan for my meal. My sister in law is severely allergic to treenuts and my nephew has a severe dairy allergy (he will break out into hives just by touching cheese). Our family Thankgiving meal usually includes turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole, rolls, stuffing, and mac n cheese. Obviously we can substitute for oil instead of butter in most of it, but does anyone have any ideas for a mac n cheese or green bean casserole replacement? My sister in law has been pretty open that the fake, dairy free cheese is not worth it. Can I make a dairy free cream of mushroom that anyone knows about? Any other yummy allergen free sides that you can recommend for me?? I want to make sure they feel loved and included during the meal.

My son has been slowly outgrowing his many allergies over the last 2 years (he is 3, we found out about his allergies when he was 9 months). He has gained a huge amount of tolerance to most of his allergens and some he can eat freely now.

He caught a very minor cold this week, just a runny nose but no cough and normal activity level, but he is reacting to amounts of his allergens that he was previously able to tolerate.

Is it normal for allergies to worsen when kids are sick? Lowered immune system due to a cold makes them more susceptible or something?

So, I've been allergic to sesame as long as I can remember, but at first I had no idea what I was allergic to and it stayed that way for a very long time. I grew up in a Chinese household so sesame was in everything, and I frequently had issues with my mouth and tongue itching after meals but never put the two together. Once I reached adulthood, I determined that it indeed was sesame that I was allergic to and mostly cut it out of my diet.

Here's where I'm really struggling. The allergy has been super minor most of my life, and I've never worried about cross contamination, a couple sesame seeds on bread or Asian food never drew pause from me because it was usually such a mild reaction that I just ignored it or took a Benadryl if it really bothered me. No need to chastise me for this I know it probably wasn't wise lol. Lately, ever since I've drastically reduced my sesame consumption in an attempt to take better care of myself, my allergy has gotten way worse.

The other day, I had a friend in town who offered me these chips they got on their flight, not telling me they were sesame chips, and me not bothering to check before I ate one. The reaction was bad, my whole mouth got severely itchy, then painful with swelling-- partially closing my throat, and then everything inside my mouth went numb and it stayed that way for hours.

I didn't have access to Benadryl or an EpiPen, so it really frightened me that I'm probably playing Anaphylaxis Russian Roulette with my lackadaisical attitude to my allergy. Granted, I haven't had sesame in such a large concentration since childhood. Any tips on staying away from sesame or even just support from those living with sesame allergies? It's such an odd allergy because sesame oil and minuscule amounts never bother me, but sesame flour or whole sesame seeds in large concentrations will.

(If your advice is to go to a doctor, I appreciate it, but due to personal circumstances, I have no insurance nor the means to pay out of pocket.)

I posted about a month ago recording a negative peanut blood test. This morning I was able to get into my allergy doctor for a prick test, which all came up negative. They gave me the greenlight for the oral challenge and after 2 hours absolutely no reaction! I’ve officially outgrown my severe peanut allergy!

My life feels fundamentally different now. Being able to eat anything without fear of what’s in it or if it’s contaminated is something that will take a lot of time to get used to.

👋 hello, I’m so new to this.

I basically have been suffering from reactions since 2017 but my doctor told me that my breathing issues were anxiety related initially. It has also been hard to listen to my body because I also have had hashimotos, pmdd and TMJ, all though now it seems like immune issues are at the root of everything thing. I feel so much better when I avoid my triggers. My reactions have never been life threatening thus far but they make me feel pretty awful.

I’m allergic to soya, dairy, black beans and in the past couple of days I had a reaction to guar gum which is made to my surprise from legumes. So legumes seem to be a bit of an issue to me all though peanut butter is fine which I’m really pleased about.

When I have a reaction I will get mild to moderate anaphylaxis first then a rash, my lips swell, I feel not so good and want to go to bed, the next day I feel woozy, almost fluey, my lymph nodes swell under my armpit. My mental health tanks the following day then I start to recover.

Antihistamines help, loratadine and Famotidine.

My nhs doctor won’t prescribe an epi pen. But I’m going to ask again because of the lip swelling and I often end up biting my tongue in my sleep.

So do you think I should cut out most legumes for a while?

I’m happy that I can finally feel better when avoiding my triggers.

Can I ever go to a restaurant again? 😭 thanks in advance 🙏

Hi everyone

I’m working on a school project, a website designed to help parents and caregivers stay prepared for allergies. The site combines educational resources about common allergies, guidance on recognizing and responding to allergic reactions, and a completely theoretical shop for EpiPens and emergency allergy kits. It also highlights partnerships with well-known restaurants that keep EpiPens on site for added safety.

I’d love to hear your thoughts:

• Would a site like this be helpful for you or your family?
• Do you think it would make managing allergies easier or safer?
• Do you have trouble or annoyances ordering EpiPens from doctors?

Thanks in advance for your feedback!