food allergies/intolerances?

Do any of you have experience in the food allergy or intolerance area? I've been having problems with my daughter and have been curious if she could be allergic to something.
Here's the situation:
She's seven months old and has been on solids since she was four months old. About five weeks ago she started vomiting her entire evening meal exactly two hours after she ate it. She eats at 6:30 and every time this happens (about once per week since onset), she starts vomiting right at 8:30 no fail, every time. After her stomach is completely empty she falls asleep in my arms, completely exhausted. She is always back in bed by 9:00, sleeping. She has no fever and the next morning you'd never know she had been sick. She is completely back to her happy, active self wanting to play and eat. The first two times this happened she had a cold and I assumed the vomiting was a side effect of a strong cough. The past three times however, its occured after a meal that included peas, yet she has had peas previously without problems. In addition I have noticed at times she has dry scaly patches on her upper lip and chin. I have just read they can be a sign of an allergy but I have never thought to relate it to anything, so I don't know how they occur in relation to eating peas. Actually, I don't even know if peas are a real problem or a coinsidence. I've slowed down her eating speed considerably, reduced the amount of food given, and kept her upright after eating for 30 minutes, none of which seem to make a difference. So I'm at a loss. Any suggestions would be great, I hate to see her sick so often.

[peggyfromwastate]

I would ask your pediatrician about it, but it doesn't sound like food allergies to me. My nephew developed a mild allergy to carrots at around 5 months or so, which manifested itself in a light rash of red bumps. My son has some severe allergic reactions to all sorts of things, but his most severe is to mustard, and we noted that at about 15 months. His food allergy reactions are always accompanied with swelling of the face, especially the eyes, noticable hives, watery eyes, runny nose, and his skin (usually on his face) becomes very red. He hasn't gone into full anaphylactic shock yet, but we carry epi-pens just in case. He has had mild reactions to peanut butter, so we avoid peanuts altogether. Those reactions also involved some hives, but not really the swelling or runny nose symptoms. If you suspect she may not respond well to peas, try to just cut them from her diet, I guess! She could have some non-allergic, perhaps biochemical reaction to peas. Something that hits when her food is digested in the stomach, or probably more like in the intestines since this happens 2 hr after a meal... I'd be curious to know what your doc has to say about this! Anyway, good luck and I hope this passes!

(BTW- the small dry patch of skin probably doesn't indicate anything-- we got those lots and just by cutting the soap in the bathtime out for a couple of days, or rotating one day soap, next day not, etc. we'd get rid of dry patches for the most part...)

[Michele]

I know your little girl isn't a puppy dog, but if you had described the same signs to me about your dog I'd say it was a food allergy and not to feed the food....if after 4 weeks she's all better, then I'd give her peas.....if it starts up again, then avoid the peas.

[PrincessFiona]

I know your little girl isn't a puppy dog, but if you had described the same signs to me about your dog I'd say it was a food allergy

Shella,

I'm not sure about the food allergy thing...I agree about asking your pediatrician. You also might consider making her meals without peas and seeing if she shows no signs of vomiting...and then adding peas one time to see if that induces it?

It sounds like a really frustrating and kind of scarey situation...things like that always make me nervous! I'll be curious to see what you find out.

kris

I've definately cut out the peas. Some people I talked to suggested giving them randomly to see if I get the reaction, but I just can't do that. Any time you are trying to get your kid sick just isn't the best thing, IMO. I'll be really interested to hear what the pediatrician says too. I hope it will be as simple as cutting out peas from her diet. She definately has no other symptoms like swelling etc, so thats good news for me, and her. Its so nice to get an idea of what to look for. I probably error on the side of too cautious many times. I'll keep you all posted as to what the doc says.

[HeartRN]

Very interesting! My kid (6 months old) just threw up peas yesterday. I thought it was related to her cold and cough, but now that I think about it, she threw them up one other time, too. We really haven't had peas that much, either--I think maybe mixing a little bit of peas with carrots or something is ok for her, but straight peas are a big "no".

[Meenah]

Is it always with peas or with other foods too? I would ask the pediatrician.
Luanne

I'm still waiting for the doc to call back, but in the mean time I talked to my aunt who runs a daycare and she said the most common thing for kids to have problems with (in her experience) are green veggies. I always give her a variety at dinner, so its never just plain peas. I guess I haven't served peas that often either. Probably because I don't care for them at all, not that I'm eating her food. I should be more aware of that!