Surprise! Your kid is allergic

Huge thanks to Benadryl for sponsoring this post about my son’s allergic reaction and reminding me of how lucky we are.

Image adapted from flickr.

I kept close tabs on what I was feeding my infant son eight years ago. We all did; it was doctor’s orders. Allergies were on the rise and we needed to carefully watch every new food. The most common allergens were to be avoided altogether for at least the first year. It was a large-scale experiment, really, to see if delaying the introduction to allergens would make some difference, some dent, in the relentlessly rising allergy rates. It didn’t. So now parents are back to feeding their babies pretty much whatever they want.

I guess I should probably get over that time my husband accidentally bought the baby cereal with powdered milk already added. Cow’s milk! The horror! I’ll consider it.

This is how I knew that some foods, er, like to make their exit faster than others. Peaches, pears and mangoes, in particular, tended to be fast and loose on the diaper end of things. It wasn’t an allergy, I didn’t think, but perhaps a sensitivity. These were some of his favourite foods, so I didn’t eliminate them completely, but rather cut down on them and kept a careful eye out for any reactions.

So when he woke one morning at the age of two with itchy hives on his arms that spread down his legs, I knew right away. Mangoes! It must have been the mango he ate the night before. It was a Saturday morning, so we took him to the nearest walk-in clinic run by a doctor from India.

“This is allergies,” he said, barely looking at my son. “Look how pale he is. The whiter you are, the more allergies.” I was kind of taken aback. I’ve never had a food allergy in my life and my skin fairly glows in the sunlight. But it’s true. It does seem like fair skinned people (including my milky-white redhead) seem to be more susceptible to allergies.

“Have you given him Benadryl?” he asked.

I shook my head. We didn’t have any.

He sighed. “Give him some children’s Benadryl,” he said and also wrote a prescription for a cream to help with the itching. “Avoid mangoes.” Duh.

It’s been six years since my little guy broke out into hives and thankfully we haven’t had another reaction like it. While he seems to have outgrown his mango allergy, insect bites, on the other hand, can swell like crazy. Throw two other sensitive little girls in the mix and I’ll never be caught without Children’s Benadryl again.

We were lucky, though. Allergies can be very serious. Check out this infographic put together by Benadryl so you’ll always be prepared.