I had a major scare last night. DD (who is 7) told me after dinner that her lip felt funny. I came and checked it out, it looked OK, told her there was nothing there and resumed cleaning up the kitchen. She insisted a minute later that it really felt weird. I looked at her and if you can picture this, where her upper and lower lip connect, on the inside of the lip, there was a blister looking thing that was swelling up - on the inside of her mouth! As I continued looking at her, it appeared that on her lower lip, on the outside now, about a finger's width apart, were two more spots that were starting to swell a little bit. The one at her corner was a lot bigger, maybe close to 1 centimeter in diameter? I tried to not panic, but gave her some Benadryl right away. It took over an hour to work but finally the swelling began to go down.

Now the scary part for me is, what could have caused this????! She doesn't have any (known) allergies, and what she ate for dinner - tuna fish sandwich - she had eaten the day before with nothing happening. As a matter of fact, she ate nothing yesterday that she hasn't already had dozens of times before. She didn't appear to have any bug bites, she didn't bite herself while eating.... I just am puzzled and worried as to what caused this?

Any ideas? And should I be more worried now?

TIA,
Suzanne

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Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like. - Lemony Snicket

I would say the tuna fish was the culprit. DD was in 5th grade when we discovered an allergy to fabric softener. She wore a shirt that had been laundered at SIL's two months before. I at first thought the detergent. She went to get her hair trimmed a while later and started breaking out around her neck before the hair trim was done. The stylist said she couldn't imagine what it was as the cape had just come out of the dryer.
My point, a person can seem to suddenly develop an intolerance to something that has always agreed with them.

I have to agree with genichols it sounds like a sudden reaction to the Tuna Fish, I had a bad reaction to laundry detergent when I was in 3rd grade I broke out everywhere my face included I looked awful, we had to use purex for years and I finally outgrew the allergy until I tried Surf detergent once and I was fine for several months and then bamm I broke out horribly again and back to Purex I went and I still to this day have to be careful sometimes I develop a rash from seafood or even detergent that I have had no problems with for months or even years.

I would talk to your Doctor about this the next time you go in and maybe have allergy testing done, I went through years of allergy shots and for most people they work, for me they didnt because I had undiagnosed immune system problems.

Good luck and glad you had some benadryl to help her out.

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~ Christine ~
Grammie to Trinity Lorayne Jean Keens Born June 9, 2011 Loving my awesome guitar picking 100% Country Boy boyfriend Kenny !
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

My dd gets this and I wish I could remember what they called it. It wasn't a allergy in her case...I would make a doctors appt and have them look at at. My dd uses a prescription gel to put on the blisters which helps speed the healing of the blisters and numb the discomfort but with you giving her benadryl and the swelling going down to me it sounds like it a allergic reaction to something

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Angels may not come when you call them, but they'll always be there when you need them.

I think I can say I know my fair share of allergy issues, if thats what this is. No guarantee, kwim?

But JUST from what you read, it could be Tuna fish - and an allergy to tuna. It could be something else IN the tuna (some cans contain soy... some may contain even something else)

What was the tuna on? Bread? What type of bread? (Nut bread, perhaps?)

Any mayo mixed in? Egg could be in most mayo's.

Dairy? Cheese? Milk to drink?

Too many variables. You can have an allergy to anything.

I would guess that if she had tuna before, its probably not tuna now (unless she's grown into a tuna allergy - which is possible...)

Glad the benadryl worked. I'd avoid the foods she ate for the meal, until you talk to your ped about it.

If it IS an allergy, you can get testing done (RAST- blood draw) from your ped, or you can see a ped-allergist.

And of course, if its NOT an allergy, then don'te read all that, that I posted

Jason
Caitlin 4-17-00 Allergic to Dairy, Egg, Wheat, Bananas, Grapes, Rye, Sesame, Beef, Garlic, Mustard, Onion, Peas and Avoiding Latex and all Nuts
Sara 2-13-98 NKA (Avoiding Nuts)
Meghan 2-28-03 NKA (Avoiding Nuts)
jtolpin's photos and albums on webshots

It could be the tuna. I used to love tuna and all seafood, then when I was in my early 30's I developed and allergy to iodine, which is in alot of seafood. So now I can no longer eat seafood, or have any type of x ray, MRI or any other type procedure that uses a contrast, because the contrast dye/liquid is made of iodine. You could give her tuna again and see, but be ready to rush her to the ER, or what my allergist did with me when I was allergic to yellow food dye was have me take it in his office, so he could counter any affects (anaphylactic reaction) I drank something with yellow food dye in it in his office and when I had no reaction it proved I had grown out of the allergy. I had originally had several anaphylactic reactions in my 20's when I became allergic to yellow food dye. I grew out of it in my mid 30's. I also became allergic to pennicilin in my 30's. So you can become allergic to anything at any time.

OMG! (To all that you have written in your posts.) The tuna fish was a recipe from Allrecipes.com, a pretty straightforward recipe: it had hard boiled eggs, celery, onion, mayo, a little honey mustard, a little dill, seasoned salt and pepper. I think that's it. The brand of tuna was either Star Kist or Bumble Bee, Albacore, in a 3 oz pouch. As I said, she has had tuna before and never a problem. I think this is maybe the 6th - 8th time in her life that she has had tuna fish. And ALWAYS, it's been albacore. The tuna was on Whitewheat bread, and she had Quaker's Kids' snack mix to go with it. She drank Capri Sun - some kind of sports kind of it - and had fresh cherries for dessert. ALL of which she had had before!

One other thing I remembered: A few years ago - maybe in 2003, I think - she went under general anasthesia (sp?) to have a dye test done to see if she had kidney reflux. Thankfully she didn't. But.... either later that day or the next day, she and I were in Eckerds and all of a sudden, she began getting these welts on her - they were literally forming as I watched her. I raced to the pharmacist and showed her to him and answered his questions, one of which was had she had any kind of anasthesia recently? That *appeared* to be the culprit there. I bought and gave her Benadryl then and mentioned what had happened to the doctor the next time we went there, and it was noted in her chart that she might have had a reaction to whatever it was she was given. There couldn't be any correlation could there?

And what to do about this, now? Just avoid tuna from now on? What about shrimp? She LOVES seafood of all kinds, especially shrimp! She eats clams, scallops, crab, lobster, tilapia.... Should I cut her off from all of it until I can talk to the pediatrician about this?

Thanks so much to all of you that have posted. I really appreciate it!
Suzanne

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Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like. - Lemony Snicket

By the way - jtolpin - your girls are BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't resist, I had to take a peek at your pics online, and they are just precious!! You must be a very proud papa!
Suzanne

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Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like. - Lemony Snicket

Actually yes there could be a correlation. That is how I found out I was allregic to iodine was by having a dye test in my veins for a gall bladder test at the hospital. Later in the day I also broke out into hives ending up in the ER, I was allergic to the iodine that the dye was made of. I was told to never have anything with iodine again including seafood. The dr. told me that these allergies to iodine tend to get worse each time you are exposed and you don't tent to grow out of them. You will need to find out what the active ingredient was in the dye they used for her test. If it is iodine then she could be allergic to the iodine in the tuna.

Sounds like an allergy to me -- probably fish. Talk to your Ped about having your daughter tested for suspected food allergies -- fish, shellfish (these are two different allergies and most people aren't allergic to both), eggs, milk, wheat, etc.

The fact that she had the tuna the day before and was fine supports the allergy theory even more. The body can tolerate certain things up to a point, but once there is too much, it reacts. One tuna sandwich may have been ok, but two (even in a two day period) was two much.

To be safe, I would not give your daughter any kind of fish or seafood until you talk to your Dr. and have her tested. Otherwise, she may end up having another reaction and it could be much worse this time. One of the big problems with food allergies is that they tend to get worse the more you are exposed to whatever food you are allergic to. Your Dr. will probably want you to keep a food diary of what your daughter eats and I would do this, but also insist on the allergy testing, so it won't be a guessing game.

My DS#2 is allergic to shellfish. I am about ready to have him retested to see if he has grown out of it or not. He was an infant (he's 4 now) when it was diagnosted and has had no shellfish exposure (not that he would even like it) since then.

Sarah.........mom to Jason & Devin

Penny, this might be a stupid question but, how do I find out what kind of dye they used in her test? Also, how will I know if there is any iodine in other foods she might eat? Is iodine a common ingredient in most foods? Sorry if these are dumb questions, but... You guys have given me a LOT of information, which I appreciate, and now I need to get to the bottom of this!

Thank you again for posting this!
Suzanne

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Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like. - Lemony Snicket

Just call the place that did her dye test, they will most likely use the same thing on everyone. Just ask them what the ingredient is they use for such and such test (whatever she had done) explain the situations to them about having the allergic reaction when she had the test done and the allergic reaction to the tuna and just say you were curious if the ingredient might be iodine in the dye. I had my test done at the hospital that I went to the same ER at, so the ER called the x-ray department and aksed them what was in the dye, that's how I found out what it was. Most seafoods have iodine, some more than others, I was told to avoid all of it. I wasn't told to avoid any other foods. I was also told to avoid iodine the medicine that the dr/hopitals use to disnfect an area on a body (the orangy/yellow stuff). They always have to use alcohol, very important if you have to have surgery, because they commonly use iodine to cleanse the area to be operated on. I would also talk to her doctor once you find out any further information.

Confirmed! I talked to my SIL who is an X-ray tech (she didn't do DD's procedure), and SIL said iodine is DEFINITELY used in the dye that was used in her test. For sure! SIL said she has done these procedures many, many times, and each time they have to have the patient sign a waiver stating they aren't allergic to iodine, seafood or shellfish.

Until I can get my DD tested by an allergist, I am cutting her off from ALL seafood, fish, etc, just to be on the safe side. I would not even want to run the risk that she might have another (more serious) reaction.

You are all so informed and knowledgeable!!! Thank you again for your valuable, important advice!

Suzanne

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Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like. - Lemony Snicket

I have a lot of drug allergies, but fortunately I didn't find out until after I was grown and moved away from my parent's house. The ONLY type of pain reliever my Mother keeps in her house is Tylenol (or acetaminophen). After I moved out I realized that I am allergic to: Aleve (naproxen sodium), Aspirin, and Ibuprofen. Tylenol is the ONLY type of pain reliever I can take. I had similar symptoms as your daughter. My point is that it doesn't necessarily have to be the tuna fish. It could be something that you are overlooking (like trying a different kind of pain reliever, makeup, anything . . . )

My vote is for the tuna also. This recently happened to me one morning. I got up, ate a bowl of grapenuts(which in my 40 years of life have had numerous times) and 10 minutes later when I was ironing kids clothes my lip started tingling, then it swelled up and my throat felt like it was closing up. I took a benadryl and it all went away but I have been to afraid to eat any more grapenuts.