Carrots and Hives - Lunch In the Old Hood

On Sunday we went out for lunch with a few friends. We hadn't been to the old neighborhood in a while and we were missing our favorite sandwich joint.  It was good to see Ralph and Ms. Ralph, the owners of the shop, and they were very happy to see 'A'.  It was a beautiful day and we got a seat outside and we were really enjoying the good food and time with friends.

We decided to bring "A's" little booster seat and a jar of carrots so we could feed her carrots for the first time while we were eating lunch.  She didn't seem to mind the carrots that much and we were all enjoying lunch.  Ralph and Ms. Ralph both took time to come out and say hi and visit with 'A'.  It was a few minutes after Ms. Ralph came out to visit that the lunch took a turn for the worse.

"A's" left hand was covered in hives and they seemed to be spreading up her arm.  Of course we had thought about bringing the epi-pen that the dr prescribed ("hey we should be bring the epi-pen if we are going to feed her", "yeah good idea") but forgot and left it at home.

With her face and both hands covered in carrots it seemed strange that the hives were almost exclusively on one hand with one hive on the other and none on her face.  So, it didn't seem like a topical reaction to the carrots but we didn't know if it was because she ate them.  We put a call in to the beeper service at the dr's office and cut lunch short to head home.

As we were leaving it dawned on us that Ms. Ralph had touched "A's" hand when she came out to see us and we thought it wouldn't hurt to ask her what food she had been handling before she came outside.

My wife ran back in as I ran to get the car and Ms. Ralph said "I had just washed my hands".

Could this whole thing be a reaction to the soap?  Further more, maybe the nurses at the allergist's office got the test right after all and the hives the few days 'A' was eating soy were from a soap reaction then too.  We were at a friends house that weekend and it is possible that one of use touched her after washing our hands.

We made a note of the soap at the restaurant, washed "A's" hands off with water and headed home.

The hives were completely gone by the time we got home and 'A' seems fine but this really adds another layer of complexity to the allergies issue.

We had decided that at this age that we don't need to carry around the epi-pen with us all the time because we are in control of what she is eating, but after this expierence that might change.