When and How Did You Discover Your Food Allergies?

Filed in archive Food Allergies on September 21, 2007

My previous entry on discovering food allergies accidentally made me remember the time when we first realized that my son has food allergies. He was nearly six months old when we started him on solids and since I exclusively breastfed prior to that, that was the first time he was exposed to food other than breastmilk. His first solid food was mashed carrots and a couple of weeks after that, we thought of trying rice cereal. We got one of those types with milk already incorporated so all you have to do is to add warm water to dissolve and mix into a porridge.

We were only on the second teaspoon when he started showing red rashes and hives around the mouth area. A quick look at the ingredient list on the package showed that apart from rice, milk is the only other major ingredient. We knew rice rarely causes allergies, so...

What followed was 2 weeks of elimination diet, and it more or less confirmed his dairy allergies. From then on, we knew that milk may just be one of the food items he's allergic to, and we've confirmed that too in the succeeding months, some by accident.

It's been more than 4 years now and it has been a roller coaster ride. In the meantime, he has outgrown his other food allergies (lucky, I know), but is still dealing with peanut and shellfish allergies.

How about you? When and how did you discover your allergies?