Well, it’s official. Now that I blog, my family no longer has any reasonable expectation of privacy. Last week, I showed my husband’s face being shaved with a straight razor with before and after photos. He’d pledged to shave his beard if he raised $1,000 for breast cancer research, and of course, I found a way to tie this into my allergy research. If you missed it, you can read that blog post on Shaving, Fundraising, and Allergies here: http://blog.onespotallergy.com/2010/10/fundraising-shaving-and-allergies/
| Well, now it’s my son’s turn to be featured in a post. Many of you know that I have one son with food allergies (peanut and tree nut) and one son without any allergies. Guess who broke out in this full body rash yesterday? Surprise, it was my non-allergic son! Parenting is very frightening sometimes. |  |
He was out of town with my husband and my in-laws to see a play. They stopped for a snack, and my son had a few bites of some scones plus a mocha. Fifteen minutes later, his entire body was bright red, and some lesions were filled with fluid (like the one on his upper arm). They left the show and went to the drugstore to get Benadryl® before heading home. The rash began to calm down after the Benadryl, and a lukewarm bath with Aveeno® colloidal oatmeal added took away the last of the angry redness.
I’ve ordered mochas for my son and made them for him myself, and I always use coffee or organic decaf coffee instead of espresso. I called the coffee shop and found out the ingredients in the scones and mocha, and my best guess of what caused this is that the mocha was made with espresso: A normal cup of coffee contains about 40 mg of caffeine, while an espresso has 77 mg. I don’t think he’s allergic to caffeine, but I will monitor this very carefully in the future.
Have you had experience with anything like this? If so, I’d really appreciate your input. I’m also curious to know if the rash looks like a food allergic reaction to you. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge. I look forward to reading your comments.
* If you’re reading this as an e-mail message, to post a comment, visit http://blog.onespotallergy.com/2010/10/allergic-to-caffeine-or-why-ill-never-give-my-12-year-old-son-espresso-again/
You have all been wonderful giving me suggestions. I’m proud to have such informed readers and bloggers interacting with me here.
I made an appointment with our family doctor for Aaron to have a check up, and I’ll ask for a referral to Jacob’s allergist. My friend, a homeopath, thought a reaction to a high dose of caffeine was plausible. My naturopath said it could be highly processed gluten in the scones and even in the coffee excreted through the skin, since the liver couldn’t handle it.
I’m in agreement that he has to be tested for allergies – the people reacting to coffee sometimes but not always have me wondering about cross-contamination. Aaron has had very little exposure to tree nuts, so it’s definitely worth checking out. Thankfully everything has been fine since that day.
The nut thing has me intrigued. I don’t have a problem with my home-ground coffee, but sometimes do at the coffee shops. I’d bet money that nut coffees are ground on the same equipment and the grinder is not cleaned. I am allergic to both peanuts and tree nuts. Hmmmm-I think I might have a chat with the lady that owns my favorite coffee shop!
Elizabeth,
I was perfectly fine when I broke out in hives (most probably due to a virus). I had done nothing different in our routine. Did not have any typical bug bite site? Never got sick. Just the hives–which were controlled by Benedryl overnight.
My friend, on the other hand, ended up being diagnosed with breast cancer. So her immunity might have been suffering overall.
Here’s the other thing–CHOCOLATE!!! A housekeeper in our “desensitization” hotel in NC has a daughter, who, in her 30’s, suddenly became deathly allergic to chocolate. The owner of our “desensitization” townhouse, his mother-in-law, in her 50’s, suddenly became deathly allergic to chocolate. Perhaps it is the “mocha?”
I hope it is nothing but a fleeting virus. But if not, he’s in the right family to help him either manage it or get rid of it! Though I’m not 100% sure you can “desensitize” a chocolate allergy?
Cross contamination from nuts in coffee – that’s a new one on me and very frightening. I used to think that sometimes I reacted to coffee, but it could have been my nut allergy all along, as I can have coffee that I’ve made myself at home without any problems. Thanks for the information, and yes get your son tested. Reactions can get worse each time so you want to be prepared.
Elizabeth,
Take it from me, allergies can develop at any age. My son is 15 and we JUST found out about his life threatening environmental allergies and exercise induced asthma last November. I’ve seen this same rash on my son’s body from contact reaction. Honestly, I’d run test to be sure. Good luck!
Thanita
I really appreciate these comments! I thought of the insect sting possibility and also the viral one. He’s had a lacey rash after a virus, but I wondered if maybe he was getting sick and having a breakout prior. He’s 100% healthy with no sign of viral infection yesterday or today. I also considered whether or not there’s a pollen or mold where he was (Stratford, Ontario) that he’s not normally exposed to. It’s a tourist town, and maybe they had something ornamental and rare. Having said all this, my gut now says he needs to be tested for food allergies (and I can include caffeine), and that he’s allergic to tree nuts. The only time he gets any exposure to nuts is on outings like this without his brother, so it’s a small step to take to become 100% nut free and carry and EpiPen. I wouldn’t wish food allergy on anyone, but it’s better to know about it than not know.
I’d also suggest the allergy testing. Another thing to consider (especially if allergy tests come back negative), My son had an unexplained reaction quite similar and when we saw the doctor they said it’s possible for a virus or infection to cause hives. Has your son been sick lately? Also my husband gets hives if he’s exposed to the cold (temperature not virus).
Wow, it looks like a strange episode I had a few years ago. Not allergic to any foods. The only thing I can imagine was that it was a reaction to a bug bite? My friend, who is a doctor, broke out in hives the week before. She said there was a virus going around and we both could have been exposed? Since he had been at a play exposed to countless amounts of germs, viruses, bacterias, PEOPLE in general, you have no idea. I would certainly test him every year for sudden onset of allergies since his brother has life-threatening anaphylaxis/reactions. I would blame food before coffee/espresso UNLESS he was the child with the nut allergy–WHICH IS AN EYE-OPENER because I would have never thought of the BEANS processed with nut-flavored coffee. Even if you are only allergic to peanuts, the tree-nuts could have been processed with peanuts at some point… Another reason for us to be grateful for desensitization as we are espresso drinkers and share with the children. We have our own machine by not grinder–YET!!! THANK YOU!
I’ll believe anything. Last winter my non-allergic son broke out in hives a few times after taking a looong hot shower, the second time he used no shampoo or anything. He’s either allergic to the hot water (yep it’s possible, I googled) or a chemical in the water but it never happened at all in the summer. Wierd.
Thanks, Colette. It looked like a contact allergy to me, but I haven’t changed a thing when it comes to soap, shampoo, or how I wash his clothes. Since it came on 15 minutes after eating, I’m also led to believe it’s the food.
Well, it does look like hives to me, and yes — food allergies can cause hives. Because the reaction seems so tightly linked to the coffee house, and because it was everywhere, like you I would suspect the food. (For the record, I once had a rash just like that after I had tried on a t-shirt at Disneyworld — I suspect that whoever tried it on before was using a sunscreen that I was allergic to, so think also about contact allergies… new soap? detergent? sunscreen? moisturizer? etc.) I’ve never heard of anyone being allergic to caffeine (can he have tea?) I think I’d be suspicious of other ingredients first, even if he’s never been allergic to them before. Also, if my son had never had a rash from eating peanuts, we may have never diagnosed his EE.
Hi Andrea. I should take him for testing. It’s just hard to get my head around since he has always eaten freely, but he definitely could have been exposed to nuts he hasn’t eaten before. Knowing what I know about the potential severity of food allergies, I do need to know what caused this.
I would be willing to BET it is not the caffeine, but rather a cross-contamination issue. I would send him for the full scope of allergy testing asap. New allergies can develop and with his brother having issues and seeing this reaction, I would not horse around. So, so happy he is okay. last spring I had a sip of a non-nut coffee and almost did not make it…cross contamination. Please have it checked out.
Thanks, Noha. He is fine now (thank you for asking). He was calm throughout and seemed a little irritated with all my attention, but the more you know, the scarier this is. He has always eaten freely, though he doesn’t get tree nuts often.
Elizabeth.. I’ve seen the machines that grind coffee and sometimes they are used to grind hazelnut or other nut infused coffee. I am not sure if your non allergic son has consumed nuts previously but the cross contamination is one possibility. Did the manufacturer change something maybe? I would be more inclined to believe that it’s an issue of cross contamination (possibly a new allergy to a food he’s never had before) as opposed to a caffeine allergy given that he’d had caffeine in small amounts before without symptoms. That’s just my opinion though, I’m no medical expert. However, looking at the picture, I would say that it looks very much like an allergic reaction to food. The hives/rash looks very similar to the kind my daughter gets if she just touches milk without ingesting it. So yeah, your instinct is right on there. I hope your son is okay and I hope he feels better.
No, Marty, he’s never had any experience with any food allergies at all. That is an interesting fact about the cornstarch. Does this look like a food allergic rash to you?
I have heard that some coffees have cornstarch blown into the bag before they add the beans to prevent the beans from sticking to the bag. Has your son had any experience with corn allergy?