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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
danilynn17
member
Anyone's LO allergic to red food coloring?
danilynn17
member
(We have her one year appointment next Monday and will certainly consult with our pedi then).
My LO has her first birthday this weekend. Her smash cake was vanilla with white icing, with a bring pink "1" on it with a bit of black trim. After she did her thing and we were washing her face then putting her in the tub, we realized she had big red blotches on her face and looked like some welts/large hives were forming. They were only on her face. Seemed fine otherwise- breathing just fine, etc.
After her bath it started getting bed then after giving her a bit of Benadryl (on the advice of the pedi) she was fine.
The only thing we can figure that it was was the food coloring in the icing perhaps? Likely the red- I've heard of people having allergies to it as well. She's had licks of icing before, and small bites of cake on a special occasion. No other food reactions.
Anyone's LO have an allergy to red food dye? Anyone ever have their LO tested for it? Can they do a blood draw or do they have to do a skin prick test?
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Re: Anyone's LO allergic to red food coloring?
DH's nephew is allergic to purple dye. I'm not sure how they figured it out, but I do know that he will either get a rash or tummy problems when he eats it.
DD seems to have a slight contact allergy to cinnamon. It doesn't happen every time, but occasionally when she eats it, she will get red splotches wherever it touches on her face. Our pedi said to just keep an eye on it, and he asked us to take a picture of it if we could. He also said to get some Benadryl to have on hand just in case, but he wouldn't put her through allergy testing for that alone.
A red dye allergy typically, not always, shows as hyperactivity, stomach ache or headache.
Did the cake have soy flour? A lot of bake goods are switching to it. I would check the actual list of ingredients on the cake. Companies are required to post allergens, but it isn't always black and white. Most people who have an allergen are allergic to the protein so some companies only list the proteins used as allergen. For example - my DD is allergic to soy. She can't eat anything derived from the protein, but she can eat soy lecithin which is derived from the soybean oil.
DD was tested before 2 and they did a blood test. I think they do the skin tests 2 because until 2, you can test a false negative.
It was the only thing I could think of with the cake. I didn't think of soy, as a previous poster noted above, I'll have to ask. I can't see this bakery using soy flour, but hey, I'm certainly not an expert. I just thought of red dye because I've heard of people being allergic to it before.
This was my first time giving her Benedryl and I did learn that it winds her up instead of knocking her out, so that's something else I found out through this incident!