Iris' Allergies

Well Iris saw the allergist today. We told him of her strange reaction to oatmeal, carrots and cheerios. He did a skin prick test for oats and carrots and also eggs. The skin test was negative, so he ordered a blood test. We'll have the results in a week. The reason we are testing for eggs is to see if she can get a flu shot. I am worried about it since it is made with egg protein or something like that. So when she's had oatmeal and carrots she has broken out in a very strange marking. It looks like several scratches and red bumps. It is usually on her cheek close to her eyes. I'm sure I missed it the first time we gave her oatmeal because at first glance it looks like scratches. But when we gave her carrots, we noticed the marks appear while she was asleep. And the next day both cheeks were red and covered in small bumps AFTER the scratch mark appeared. So we took her off carrots. When we tried oatmeal again, it did the same thing. So we stopped oatmeal, but we gave her cheerios. After several days eating four or five cheerios she had no reaction. On the day of her six month well check, I gave her one cheerio I found in her stroller and 45 minutes, during her appointment her face really broke out. So her pediatrician referred us to the allergist and that brings us to today. In discussing my concerns he says I have reasonable concerns, we'll take it a little at a time. He wants to see her again in three months, call if she reacts to anything else, and he gave me a prescription for an epi pin, just in case. The theory being that if she is reacting to mild allergens like oat and carrots, she could have a more serious reaction to some allergen that is more common. And since there is no relation between how people react to one allergen and then another, there is no way to predict what can happen. So I am reasonably paranoid (according to the doctor), but to be honest, I am petrified. The fact that he gave me an epi pen scares the dickens out of me.

Well, anyway, I gave Iris sweet potatoes today for the first time (well she had them with one meal after carrots and before I took her off all veggies until six months). She did fine at lunch, fine at dinner, but right before bed... tada those strange markings appeared. And THIS TIME I TOOK PICTURES. So I'm posting those pictures. Now, I know they look like scratches, but if she scratched herself, she would need about 10 fingers because close up there are several parallel tiny scratches. There are red bumps too and they are all clustered together. These are the markings we have seen with oatmeal and carrots. So, I'll give her sweet potatoes again tomorrow and see if she reacts the same. Then it is to the allergist with pictures and another veggie.