Talking Allergies

So now we're joining another section of this forum! Nice to see you all, but... : (

I had become suspicious of mustard after connecting it with "mystery" reactions in the past few months. He wasn't eating anything new or different, but when I saw a rash develop the other night when he was using mustard to dip his food, I thought back to outbreaks of hives, and mustard was looking to be the culprit. Confirmed with a SPT today.

Any tips? I've read through this thread, and have learned we'll have to be even more diligent with "flavours" and "spices". Our allergist also suggested that we be careful with other seeds for now -she specifically mentioned sunflower and sesame (which ds has only had in hummus, thusfar). She mentioned something about canola being related, but I was kind of spacing out...

Thanks for any info you can share.

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*Son, 5 years old: Asperger's, allergic to eggs, peanuts, and mustard seed (outgrew dairy and soy)
*Son, 23 months old
*Hubby: allergic to cats and trees (non-specified types)
*Self: allergic to penicillin

Sorry for the new allergy.

Canola oil is made from rape seed. You might be able to find more information on that.

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Moderator
Daughter: asthma, allergies to egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, most legumes (not soy and green beans) & penicillin. Developing hayfever type allergies.
Husband: no allergies
Me: Oral Allergy Syndrome, Allergic to Birch trees

My daughter is allergic to mustard. She will not eat bread with sesame seeds on the bun, although she's taken a bite and didn't get a reaction. I never connected the two before.
As for sunflower, she tried once SunButter, and refused to taste it again. She didn't get a reaction either, but I do suspect she probably had itching in her mouth.

In any case, each person has a different allergy profile. While there are trends, they may or may not match with your child.

Just be careful, Kraft processed cheese (like Cheese-Whiz) have mustard in them. Who would have thought of mustard in cheese???

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11yo boy - peanuts nuts chickpeas
8yo daughter - peanuts, nuts, mustard, eggs, sunflowers (new! ), oral allergy syndrome
husband - pollen of all kinds
me - seafood,, oral allergy syndrome

Cdnmama, So sorry you're joining the mustard allergy group We went through the same thing with our son... just didn't realise he was reacting to mustard, and I use to use dry mustard a fair bit in cooking; it also appears in quite a few prepared meats. It took awhile to isolate the allergen. Cleo, very smart to remember to mention the mustard in Cheez Whiz - it just goes to show the importance of reading every label - even those you would never dream of having your allergen.

Our son is allergic to several seeds, but not all seeds. He is fine with canola oil (is rape seed a true seed?? Sometimes something is called a "seed", but is not a seed in the true sense of the word.) Our son has tested positive to some seeds. His sesame seed allergy was a very obvious one; whereas, the sunflower seemed "milder" and I wasn't quite sure what he was reacting to - on occasion. He also tested positive to poppy seed, but we have never knowingly fed him poppy seeds. We also avoid pumpkin seeds and other things we hear with the word "seed". He tested positive for cottonseed, but he is not allergic to cottonseed oil - he has eaten it in many different foods, and has never reacted, so the doctor said that is the true test... if you can ingest it without an allergic reaction, then you are not allergic to it. However, we avoid all other seeds to which he has tested positive, and we continue to avoid any new seeds - our decision, not the doctor's. We're just afraid to witness anymore reactions with the introduction of any new foods. Our son is very healthy and we feel has a very full diet, so we're accustomed to feeding him his safe foods and don't venture from these.

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18 yr old daughter: no health issues
16 yr old son: allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, egg, fish, sesame,sunflower,mustard,poppy seeds, peas, carrots, some fruits, instructed to avoid legumes(except soy & green beans),pollen, cats, horses, cold urticaria

Today I contacted Heinz about their "spices" in ketchup, and the news is not good for my little ketchup-lover. While the customer service person was clear that she couldn't specify the spices, she recommended that we do not give our mustard-allergic son their ketchup. This might sound dodgy, but she really wasn't. It was very professional and helpful.

So now I'm going to tackle making ketchup... any suggestions? Leave out the mustard powder, right?

On another note, I think the mustard allergy explains the things that were happening for ds after eating canned pork and beans. I could never put my finger on it, but they just didn't seem to work for him. This isn't to say I asked Heinz about their beans, but I'm 99% confident they put mustard in their beans (like I always USED to in my homemade ones!).

Marla

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*Son, 5 years old: Asperger's, allergic to eggs, peanuts, and mustard seed (outgrew dairy and soy)
*Son, 23 months old
*Hubby: allergic to cats and trees (non-specified types)
*Self: allergic to penicillin

ketchup?? I wonder if we've just been lucky, but our son has never had trouble with ketchup. Our son is not a huge ketchup eater, but he does eat it sometimes - always without incident. We usually buy the PC ketchup and I just went to check the label and it says "seasonings". I will have to call and check the ingredients.

Regarding the non-priority ingredients... I find it can sometimes take a few days to receive a firm answer. If I ask specifically "does this item contain mustard?", I always get an answer - but sometimes it takes awhile. The full ingredient list is considered "proprietary information", so they will not fully disclose the ingredient list; however, if you have an allergy to a specific food and you specify the food, we've always found companies will provide the information.

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18 yr old daughter: no health issues
16 yr old son: allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, egg, fish, sesame,sunflower,mustard,poppy seeds, peas, carrots, some fruits, instructed to avoid legumes(except soy & green beans),pollen, cats, horses, cold urticaria

My DD used to react (slighlty - just an itchy mouth) to Heinz ketchup. But she was fine with the Heinz Organic Ketchup.
One day, we couldn't find that specific one, so we went with the normal one. She tried it and she was fine with it.
Maybe her allergy is under control?
Caveat lector! My daughter never had an actual reaction to mustard. The only time she had straight mustard in a sandwich, her mouth turned red, and that was it. So maybe she's outgrowing it.

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11yo boy - peanuts nuts chickpeas
8yo daughter - peanuts, nuts, mustard, eggs, sunflowers (new! ), oral allergy syndrome
husband - pollen of all kinds
me - seafood,, oral allergy syndrome

>>Cleo, I'm glad to hear your daughter might be outgrowing the allergy! I keep reading about seed allergies being less common to outgrow, so reading about your daughter gives me hope. : )

We are so torn about this commercial ketchup thing. It might sound overly dramatic, but ketchup just makes ds SO happy! And when there are already so many limitations with food... agh. But then I remind myself what I read in the article Gwen posted:



So would I be giving him the ketchup if "spices" included peanuts or eggs?

Darn this allergy stuff! It's so confusing sometimes. Most of the time, actually!

Marla

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*Son, 5 years old: Asperger's, allergic to eggs, peanuts, and mustard seed (outgrew dairy and soy)
*Son, 23 months old
*Hubby: allergic to cats and trees (non-specified types)
*Self: allergic to penicillin

When my daughter was complaining about itchy mouth after taking regular ketchup, we stopped it altogether. In fact, I wanted mustard out of the house, just llike peanuts, but my husband objected major time.
He's very careful when he uses mustard (although less and less, I have to remind him), but he does use mustard only on occasion. Not even once a week, maybe once a month.

Our allergist also told us that the mustard allergy is just as dangerous as the eggs and peanuts.

Maybe you should call Heinz and inquire about their organic ketchup. Our daughter never complained about that one.

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11yo boy - peanuts nuts chickpeas
8yo daughter - peanuts, nuts, mustard, eggs, sunflowers (new! ), oral allergy syndrome
husband - pollen of all kinds
me - seafood,, oral allergy syndrome

Sorry I forgot to mention that I had asked about the organic ketchup too. The woman said "the answer remains the same".

We are planning to keep a jar of Dijon (a favourite of both my husband and I) in the back of the fridge, with a label to note that it is NOT for ds. I don't think either of us will eat it around him, but we'll see how we work this out.

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*Son, 5 years old: Asperger's, allergic to eggs, peanuts, and mustard seed (outgrew dairy and soy)
*Son, 23 months old
*Hubby: allergic to cats and trees (non-specified types)
*Self: allergic to penicillin

The one and only food allergen we still keep in the house is mustard - in some ways, it's kind of a wierd choice, because of all the foods we have eliminated from our home, it isn't one I miss as much as the others (sesame, fish, eggs, peanut butter and nuts are WAY higher up the list of missed foods! ... not that we tell our son (or daughter for that matter) that we miss these foods!) Anyway, I guess we decided to keep mustard around for hamburger and hot dog condiments. We use one in a squeeze bottle so no knives are ever used with it. Just recently, our son asked us why we keep mustard in the house. He knows we don't have to worry about his food allergies at home - it's our safe zone - so I guess he couldn't figure out why it was here. We explained the squeeze bottle and that we are very careful with it. Our son seemed upset that we have mustard in the house, so we are thinking of just getting rid of it altogether. I dunno... everybody has a different approach to this, and I know some others keep their family members allergens in the house - they are just very careful. But, it has been a lot more relaxing around here without our son's allergens in the house, and it is the one and only place where we can truly relax, so I don't mind if we end up just getting rid of the mustard. It's kind of funny that we've hung onto that one allergen, but we felt it was quite "safe" to have here. It's up to each family to determine their comfort level, as well as the maturity of the individual with the allergy.

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18 yr old daughter: no health issues
16 yr old son: allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, egg, fish, sesame,sunflower,mustard,poppy seeds, peas, carrots, some fruits, instructed to avoid legumes(except soy & green beans),pollen, cats, horses, cold urticaria

After ds's reaction to eggs, I was washing an eggy frying pan, and broke down. Afterwards, hubby & I decided that we'd go egg-free. We miss eggs a LOT (but, like you, we won't talk to ds about missing them!), but it's so much better without them in the house.



Absolutely! Now that ds is getting older, we are looking at "re-claiming" some foods for ourselves, since we can discuss this with him. It's only tofu and soy sauce that we want to have back, and we're comfortable to have them around ds, since soy is a lesser allergen for him.

Marla

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*Son, 5 years old: Asperger's, allergic to eggs, peanuts, and mustard seed (outgrew dairy and soy)
*Son, 23 months old
*Hubby: allergic to cats and trees (non-specified types)
*Self: allergic to penicillin

Heinze katcup is mustard free (in CDN) we always travel with it. We removed all of DD food allergens in our house - egg, diary and mustard (as well as nuts). My DD is now starting to outgrow some allergines (egg, dairy - mustard test is next week) so we have two of the three back in the house). I miss mustard the most, and hope to be able to have it one back on day.

Taylor

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Mladyfred

I am 29 years old. When I was around the age of 15 I started to notice that after I would eat mustard I would have certain things happen (i.e. couching up yellow phelm, and wheezing). Through the years with eating mustard and not knowing that this was an allergy I would sometimes eat it and risk an attack. Sometimes it would happen and sometimes it wouldn't. So I played the game of roulette. One particular instance made me go and fianlly get tested. I was at a concert (great seats by the way), hungry from not eating dinner, I decided to get 2 hot dogs. I covered them in stadium mustard. I whoofed them down and took my seat. I could always tell when an attack would come over me. I would start clearing my throat, my throat iches to the point where I want to scrape it with something sharp to soothe it, my nazzle passages close, I start couching up yellow liquid (fluid in the lungs). This time was serious in fact it was the severest it has ever come to (so far). I had all of the following, ichy throat, wheezing, coughing yellow liquid up, nasal passages closed, and now I had on top of that, hives (blotchy) I felt someone sitting on mychest, I couldn't breathe. Usually I would cool out, chill a minute and let it past. I mean it had never gotten this bad. I splashed some cold water on my face in the bathroom and sat on the floor. After about 10 minutes, it wasn't subsiding, but in fact getting worse, so I went to the first aid station at the venue. This is where they gave me adreniline and and Benadryl via an IV. My blood pressure had dropped and my hear rate was through the roof.

I took it upon myself that maybe I should go see an allergisitc and get tested. By golly they actually have a food allergy test for mustard seed. I was surprised. Well it came back that I was indeed allergic to mustard seed. My doctor was surprised because he had said "Wow this is the 2nd one this month that I have found that is allergic to mustard seed". And its because it sounds like its kind of on the rare side.

Now I carry and inhaler in my purse along with my trusty epi pen. I have also been diagnosed with allergy induced asthma and food induced asthma (from the mustard seed). I was the kid playing basketball and softball and eatting hotdogs and mustard all the time. Its amazing that allergys can evolve at any age.

I also have the suspicion that I am allergic to psyllium seed (which is found in Metamusle). I am scared to know what will happen if I were to try to drink that stuff.

I am so glad that you got a diagnosis and an EpiPen. Good for you for following up, because from your description, you experienced an anaphylactic reaction that day at the baseball park.

For the psyllium, I believe I read somewhere that instances of the allergy is on the rise, perhaps because more and more people are exposed to it (including health care workers who are dispensing it). I would not do any experiments at home, that's for sure. If it's something that is prescribed or recommended for you for you at some point, I would definitely talk to my allergist first.

Regarding asthma and anaphylaxis, it's good for you to know that people with asthma are at greater risk of a severe allergic reaction.

For more details:

1. Anaphylaxis - Risk Factors, from the Allergy Safe Communities website / Canadian anaphylaxis guidelines

2. Anaphylaxis: A guide for you and me, in particular the article "When Anaphylaxis Looks Like Asthma"

K.

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Karen, proud Mom of
- DS1 (12 yrs): allergic to cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, potatoes, some legumes, some fish, pumpkin seeds; OAS
- DS2 (1o yrs): ana. to dairy, eggs, peanuts; asthma