Allergic to hummus?

lisa5

Hi I'm new here and don't know too much about food allergies.  My DD is 13 months old and had a reaction to hummus...red welts on her face and body where the hummus touched her.  I'm assuming it might be a reaction to the sesame seeds.  The strange thing is she has had hummus many times before this and had no reaction.  We used a different brand this time, but all the same ingredients. Does anyone know why she wouldn't have a reaction before?  She also had a similar experience with yogurt...at 8 months she broke out in hives.  Luckily when we reintroduced it at 10 months she was fine and had been okay with whole milk, etc.

Any advice or information you have would be appreciated!

TIA!

Jessica-Kay

Exact same ingredients?

My son was BF until he was 13 months, when he was switched to whole milk. He was fine for a little while, then around 15 months started getting these nasty diapers. He now no longer has any dairy, and is perfectly fine.

So yes it could be from one of the ingredients in it.

mcarter127

Allergic reactions usually don't happen with the first exposure because it takes a few (or sometimes more) times for the body to build an immune response to it. I would say the most likely culprit would be the tahini but it really could be anything. I would compare the list of ingredients because they're probably not identical if they were different brands. See if you can narrow it down from there. I think also seeing an allergist would be a good idea. I would stay away from everything that was in that hummus because you don't know & because allergic reactions tend to get worse each time so the next one could be really bad. Make sure you always have benadryl on hand in case she reacts to something else. I would also avoid other high allergen foods that she has not yet tried until you can get some testing done. Good luck & I hope you can figure it out!

magdusia

Most of the time a reaction doesn't happen on the first exposure. usually it's second or third. but i wouldn't be surprised if sometimes it takes many more times to see a reaction.  It could also be that the other hummus uses more sesame oil so the reaction is more visible.

Or she just developed the allergy, which happens often. 

Has she seen an allergist yet?  i wouldn't do any experiments on your own. I would avoid chick peas and sesame and then have her tested for it. 

thiswillbe

My DS had a bad reaction to hummus (my blog-- link in sig-- has some pictures), which got us started on the allergy testing for both DD and DS. DD is allergic to chickpeas AND sesame (among other things), and DS is allergic to sesame, but not chickpeas. Definitely time to get some testing done, I'd say. The pedi took one look at the photos and said "yep, you'll be getting an epi pen."

lisa5

Thanks, ladies!  We will definitely be avoiding hummus and I will talk to my pedi about seeing an allergist.

sche0523

I am so glad you posted this.  We recently found out our 6 month old has milk and peanut allergies.  I eat a lot of hummus and the last couple of times I had it DD had some reactions.  I thought it might be the chickpeas since they are legumes like peanuts, but I guess it could be sesame or tahini too... Wow, this allergy stuff is overwhelming at first!  I think we will see an allergist too though.  GL