Oral allergy syndrome?

[laughinplace199]

Does anyone here have experience with this? DS5 was eating cooked green beans last night. A little while later, he was complaining that his mouth was itchy. He ate some crackers, brushed his teeth, rinsed with water, but nothing helped. Luckily, it was bedtime and he fell asleep quickly. This morning he was fine.

I googled "itchy mouth after eating" and found info on oral allergy syndrome. It seems like this could be what he experienced, except that it usually happens with raw foods, not cooked.

Just wondering if anyone had any info/experiences to share. My oldest child is anaphylactic to peanuts, tree nuts, and peas, and she has bad seasonal allergies as well. My middle guy has never shown any allergic tendencies and neither has the little guy until last night.

Thanks!

 

[clanmcculloch]

My DD12 and I both deal with OAS unfortunately. For us, the reaction is pretty immediate. We treat it with Zyrtec.

Had he eaten anything else that night? Anything closer to the reaction? As I said, for me and DD12 it's a pretty quick reaction. It doesn't happen after the first bite but it does start well before we're able to finish what we're eating (ex. if I eat a banana that's not fully ripe then it'll start when I'm maybe half way through the banana).

From what I've read, OAS reactions can get progressively worse with time. This does scare me some because for me my throat and inner ears get itchy and my breathing gets a bit tight and DD12's breathing gets more difficult. This is getting closer to anaphylactic. Zyrtec at this point stops the reaction within 10 minutes but if reactions get much worse it'll be epi pen and ER time. We're very careful to avoid the foods that cause OAS.

For me it's always with raw foods but not for DD12. She gets OAS any time she consumes anything made with soy milk. She's not allergic to soy but she reacts to some unknown ingredient in the soy milks that we've tried, other than plain unsweetened. She can eat a couple brands of soy cheese and she can eat all Tofutti products so we know she's not allergic to soy but we haven't identified what ingredient in soy milks she can't have. I think it's the fact that the specific allergen is unknown is what scares me the most.

I'd get your DS to an allergist to figure out just what he's allergic to.

 

[laughinplace199]

Thanks for your reply.

I don't think he ate anything else, but the first time DD reacted to peanuts was an hour after eating them, so the reaction not being immediate doesn't surprise me.

I wasn't sure if I should take him to an allergist, but I'm leaning toward it, given our family history. DD has her annual appt in Aug, so I'll call and see if there's any chance they can see him as well.

In the meantime, I might try green beans again next week (with Benadryl handy) and see if it happens again.

Your DD sounds like quite a mystery with the reaction to a soy milk ingredient. That must be tough. I'm thankful that, at this point, DD13's allergies are known and the foods she's allergic to are fairly easy to avoid (fingers crossed).

 

[nyrebecca]

I have OAS and am always finding new things that I react to. I will say that some of my reactions have become more intense over the years and I now carry an epi pen with me. I miss some of the foods that I grew up eating. I also need to have some things cooked more than others. How cooked were the green beans? I can't eat things that are al dente. The need to be COOKED.

The best of luck to you all!

 

[kritter47]

Personally, I wouldn't involve a doctor right away, at least until it's repeatable. It could have been one of those mysterious itches that comes out of nowhere. It could have been a minor contact allergy to something he got on his fingers and later got into his mouth via chewing on a fingernail or whatever. Maybe he has a cut or a scald in the mouth from some earlier time and it's itching cause it's healing. You really don't know at this point.

Experimenting with green beans at a later date (and not telling him what you're doing so that he doesn't subconsciously change the results - I also wouldn't ask him "is your mouth itchy?" Let him come to you with the complaint - he obviously did the first time) seems to be the best tactic.

FWIW, I have a bunch of allergies (essentially anything that produces pollen, has perfume or especially has sap gives me hives). But itching sometimes just happens, even inside the mouth, without it being a signal for something larger. That's why I'd wait and see if it's repeatable with the same stimuli.