Reaction timeline

We had a food reaction this week, and I thought it would be interesting to document the symptom timeline.  It's good to remember that reactions (for allergies, and for EE) can really vary depending on the food, the amount, and the person.  That's why a food journal is so important when you're starting out, because sometimes you just don't realize that something is a symptom until you see it happening repeatedly with certain foods.

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DD is suddenly having a hard time seeing other people eat food that she can't have.  Two days ago, she got up on our counter and ate 2 bananas before I caught her.  :(  Here is her symptom timeline for that reaction:
- within about 4 hours, she had diarrhea with noticeable pieces of bananas in it, and again a couple hours later
- that night, she slept horribly- tossing and turning, and waking up flailing and crying every hour or so
- the next morning, she told me her throat hurt (a common EE symptom)
- last night, she complained of leg pain and started rubbing her ankle (another seemingly common EE symptom- leg or joint pain)
- this morning, she woke up with bright red cheeks and a bad mood

More symptoms

I'm listening to a seminar right now by Liz Lipski (author of Digestive Wellness) and she mentions some common food allergy/intolerance symptoms. (Of course, many of these are more obvious in adults than babies, but sometimes when figuring out your baby's allergies you find some of your own!)

• low energy/fatigue
• "brain fog"
• headaches
• sleep issues
• sore throat
• frequent throat clearing
• frequent caker sores
• nasal congestion
• blurry vision
• excess mucous
• irregular hearbeat
• irritable bowel symptoms
  

Symptoms of food allergies

Here are some symptoms that DD has shown from her allergies/intolerances:

• dark circles under the eyes
• allergy ring around the anus (hers wasn't actually a ring, but a spot on either side of the anus)
• DD's looked like little spots of diaper rash, but they wouldn't go away no matter what creams we used, or how long she went diaper-less; the skin eventually looked completely raw, as if her stools had burned the skin off. It would occasionally bleed.
• poo issues
• green, sometimes looks like strands of cooked spinach
  
• mucus
• blood (red specks or strings)
• strong, foul smell or acidic smell
• frequent diarrhea
  
• colic symptoms
• trouble sleeping/frequent waking
• DD would wake up about 5 minutes after laying her flat; she would sleep longer if I held her upright
• inconsolable screaming episodes, mostly at the end of the day
• gassiness
• arching back, squirming as if uncomfortable
• spitting up
• cradle cap
• this appeared right around the same time as the other initial symptoms and wouldn't go away no matter what we tried. After I removed dairy from my diet, it completely cleared without any treatments.
• eczema
• I don't know if this is a common symptom... but DD always gets a lot of dark, sticky ear wax when she's having a reaction to something in my diet
• for breastfed babies- a sign might be really frequent feeding. DD wanted to nurse sometimes every 20 minutes at our worst point. An LC told me that she probably wanted to eat so often because her stomach hurt, and the milk would make it feel better (temporarily).
  

Other signs of food allergies (many of these signify an anaphylactic reaction, which needs immediate medical treatment):

• hives
• trouble breathing
• this can sometimes be hard to tell in an infant or toddler. Sometimes it looks like the child is trying to stretch their neck out, or keeps pushing their head forward.
• rapid pulse/heartbeat
• sweating
• behavior changes
• sleep changes
• frequent ear infections

Often, children are diagnosed with colic, behavior problems, attention or learning disabilities, or others, when in fact they are reacting to something in their diet.

More symptoms added from user comments:

• horrible hiccups
• full body pin prick rashes
• vomiting
• a huge increase in number of poopy diapers
• wetting the bed while sound asleep