My son David will be 5 in June. When he was about 6 months old he started having issues with eczema. When he was 11 months old his pediatrician referred us to an allergy specialist. She did a skin test and he tested positive for dust, mold, cats, dogs, and every pollen they tested for. He did not test positive for any foods. When he was 2 1/2 we went back for another skin test. The results were all the same. He has dealt with severe eczema and environmental allergies his whole life, but never had a reaction to any foods.
Then on December 23, 2012 we were at my grandmother's house having Christmas dinner. David was 4 1/2 at the time. He was eating and told me his mouth hurt. I looked in his mouth and everything looked fine. A few minutes later I looked up and his lips were very swollen! I told him to take a deep breath, looked at his tongue to make sure it wasn't swelling, and had him drink some water to make sure he could swallow. He seemed to be breathing ok so I gave him some children's Benadryl chewables and took him into the living room to watch him closely while the rest of the family finished dinner. After a little over an hour the swelling had gone down and he looked and acted normal. Everything he ate that night were things he had eaten before, the exact same meal he had a month earlier at Thanksgiving and every Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas since he started eating solids.
So I kept giving him Benadryl every 4 hours through the night and stayed up all night watching him breathe. The next day (Christmas Eve) I called his pediatrician and she called the local Walgreens and called in a prescription for him to get a 2 pack of epi-pen jrs. We were not sure what food caused the reaction, but it seemed like the pecans on the sweet potato casserole were the most likely culprit. A couple of days after Christmas I called the allergist to make an appointment and was told they couldn't see him until March 4th.
So, this past Monday I took him to the allergy specialist and she did a skin test. This time she only checked for foods and not all of the things he had tested positive for in the past. he tested him for cashew, almond, English walnut, peanut, pecan, Brazil nut, hazel nut, cow's milk, egg white, and soybean. He tested positive for cashew, English walnut, peanut, pecan, and hazel nut.
I feel like she didn't give me much information. She told me what he was allergic to and asked if I had any questions. Of course I couldn't think of any at the time, but now I feel like I have a million questions!