Loving Something You're Allergic To

My oldest son loved apples and apple juice...every time he ate them - he got a NASTY diaper rash...what did we do? We didn't give him the apples and told him that while he loves them, his body does not. it's NOT an allergy. His body just wasn't ready.

Once he was 3 - he was better - now at 13? No problems. His body wasn't ready for them yet.

Just tell him that his body can't handle them yet. That's why he gets the butt rash! Get him potty trained and all should be fine....

Here's the thing, a rash doesn't just mean he can't handle it, or it's too acidic. Those completely legitimate possibilities. But, you don't KNOW. (For what it's worth, strawberries are actually alkaline...not acidic.) The danger of giving just one or two of an allergenic food, is you NEVER know when that allergy can turn deadly. An anaphylactic allergy, can develop at any time, and each allergic reaction he has can be worst then the last. The immune system and anti allergy stuff only works for some people, and it's really dangerous to do with certain allergies. Don't play doctor, actually see one.

As someone who lives with food allergies, I wouldn't allow my son to eat berries. I would have him tested so I can KNOW he is not allergic to him. If he's not, then I'd let him have a few until he grows out of this. I've seen how rapidly food allergies can go bad, and how deadly they can possibly be. (I carry an epipen, and if I didn't...I would have died before.)

I would experiment with other berries and see if can't find one he loves just as much but doesn't cause the rash issues. It is likely he will outgrow this but just try to put them out of his mind for another year.

Does he have the same problem if the berries are cooked like in jelly? If not maybe you can give him the same taste but not in a way that would hurt him.

No it's never ok to give a child something he may be allergic to. My son LOVED peaches, yet he has colitis and they gave him horrible diarrhea. We had him tested and he's technically not allergic. So long story short he hasn't had any form of peaches in over 4 years.

Poor little guy. My thing, honestly, would just be to make the house a strawberry-free zone. Fill the void with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, apricots, plums, grapes.... If he's young enough to be in diapers, he's young enough to forget about something like strawberries, especially if you've got other "dessert fruit" around.

It sounds strange, but "none at all" is easier for anyone (kids, adults, anyone) to handle than "only as a special treat."

P.S. This is totally off topic, but I love your son's name :)

He really is not allergic to them just something that makes his poop a it acidic. Don't give them to him for a while. I would venture as he gets older he will enjoy, especially after he is potty trained.

You have to tell him no. A person's reaction to an allergen gets worse each time they're exposed. If he has strawberries now, he may develop a serious allergy to them in the future. Don't risk it.

Try again when he's out of diapers -- if it's not a real allergy, he'll be fine then.

Why not work on strengthening his immune system and adding in whatever nutrient he is missing which will allow him to process those strawberries? I have a friend whose child had 60 food allergies (really - 60!) along with rages. Berries, other fruit, dairy, nuts, you name it. Now he is allergy free and no longer has behavioral issues either. I think that, while your son's reaction isn't horrible, he may be susceptible to greater reaction as time goes on. So it might be wise, as well as way more fun and nutritional, to add in whatever he is missing - and the way to do that is comprehensive supplementation, not single-ingredient "anti-allergy" stuff. I've worked extensively in this area, and I've seen even severely allergic kids have their numbers go down. (Even anaphylactic reactions can be eliminated - even if the child never eats the offending allergen, at least the family can go out to dinner and send the kid to birthday parties where allergens may be present.)

Tell him no. My DD is allergic to apples. My sister is allergic to chocolate. I would just keep telling him that they make his tummy upset when he eats them, so how about x berry instead? My DD is 4 and understands that apples make her sick. We give her grape juice and pears and other foods instead. I don't think she even misses apples anymore.

I had my DD tested, and she came up non-reactive in the skin test. But given her history (the allergist said that food allergies are often diagnosed on history), I think she has the type of oral allergy where she has to consume it. Handling apples has never bothered her. But eat one? She breaks out in a rash and gets stomach pains in moments. No, thank you.

So I'd be matter of fact and move on. I wouldn't offer at all.

I wouldn't give it to him if it is causing all that diaper rash.

When my daughter was young, any kind of berry would break her out in a rash. Her ped said it might be an allergy, might just be a sensitivity, but that most of the time, they grow out of it. He suggested that I avoid berries for six months, then try her again on them. By the time she was two, she could eat any berry she wanted with no issues.

I can't even remember what the foods were but there were a fair few that my kids loved that would give them a diaper rash. They aren't allergic to them and once they were potty trained it was never an issue.

Yes, for people who have an allergy or an intolerance to a particular food, their body will crave it.

When I was a teenager, I literally could and did drink entire gallons of milk all by myself. I loved and ate lots and lots of ice cream.

As an adult, I loved eating crusty artisan breads. Didn't matter what kind; I ate anything. Sometimes, that was all I ate for a meal--crusty bread with lots of butter.

Come to find out that I have a casein allergy (bye, bye all cow dairy) and that I have gluten intolerance (bye, bye, all that absolutely wonderful, yeasty wheaty bread!).

If he is getting a rash after eating strawberries--he needs to stop eating them. If he doesn't, he will end up with Leaky Gut, which will then allow more and different foods to enter his body through his damaged gut, thus setting him up for more food allergies and intolerances.

You can try to introduce them to him when he's older and see how he does. But for now, he has to stay away from them.

I would have him tested to see if he is allergic or not. But, anytime my kids go on antibiotics as a precaution I always put vasoline on thier bums to protect thier skin. So if you find out he is not allergic, you can do that and it should protect him from the rash.