The Conundrum of Daycare Colds

Guys. My toddler has been sick for 4 weeks straight. Every time there’s a glimmer of hope that her symptoms are improving, she wakes up the next day with a fever and a cough and it’s back to the doctor. How does this relate to food allergies? Well, we are supposed to be incorporating cashews into her diet after she passed her oral food challenge. But she kept having symptoms after eating cashews. Was it cashew related? Or just virus related?

I mean just look at the possible food allergy symptoms that can also be caused by a virus:

• Itchy or runny nose and sneezing
• Yep. She’s been congested for a month.
• Hives
• When I think of hives, I definitely think allergic reaction but did you know that the most commonly identified trigger for hives in children is viral? This happened so much last year that my kid had to go on Zyrtec indefinitely after a virus. Every time we stopped antihistamines the hives came back. You know what makes a food allergy parent super worried? Random hives.
• Nausea, repetitive vomiting, severe diarrhea
• Check, check, and check. GI viruses are the worst.
• Shortness of breath, wheezing, repetitive coughing
• Yep. She was already doing all of that for weeks. And, when she’s sick with a dripping nose, her cough always gets worse while eating. What wonderful timing!

There are some symptoms that I don’t associate with viruses. But these aren't symptoms she's ever had with food allergies.

• Itchy mouth (mild) or significant swelling of tongue or lips (severe)
• Tight or hoarse throat, trouble breathing or swallowing
• Pale or bluish skin, faintness, weak pulse, dizziness

Her food allergy symptoms have always been runny nose, hives, repetitive throwing up, and coughing. If her baseline is a runny nose with a cough, how are we supposed to pick up on mild food allergy symptoms? This was especially difficult when she was younger and we were just introducing foods. No wonder I was so stressed out her first year. Every time she broke out into hives I would get out her Food Allergy Action Plan and listen to her breathing. It didn't matter if she hadn't eaten anything. Why was this baby's skin growing bumps?!

Let's just hope she better get better before her next allergy appointment! Last food challenge she sneezed one time and the allergist's stethoscope was out before I could say "bless you!"

Do you need an easy guide for possible food allergy symptoms? FARE has the best one I've seen. Just click on Emergency Care Plan for a downloadable, printable guide.