10 year old girl newly developed severe lemon allergy. Questions!

[jenavy21]

I have a quick question.   My daughter recently had a very severe allergic reaction to lemon.   She has an epi pen prescribed now.  My question is....  Yesterday she had Special K with Red Berries cereal and immediately started reacting like she has to lemons (just not quite as bad).   I am hearing now from friends that freeze-dried strawberries contain lemon juice.   I tried calling Kellogg's today, but they were already closed.   Does anyone know if this is true?  She is new to food allergies and I am trying to keep her safe.   I was thinking she  was developing to strawberries too, but after hearing the lemon juice thing it may very well explain things. 

Thank you for your help! 

[GoingNuts]

welcome!

Oh my goodness, that sounds scary!  What are her reactions like?

I have no idea about the strawberries, but hopefully someone here will.

Good luck!

[jenavy21]

It's been very scary.   Her face, throat, chest get very red and itchy within minutes.  Throat feels tight starts to hurt and her voice starts getting hoarse.   Then her stomach starts to hurt really bad and she gets very sick to her stomach.  We have the epi pen now, but trying to get her to feel comfortable eating foods now is hard.   She is also always very pale with red blotchy patches on her face and constantly complaining of feeling sick (headaches, stomaches, and sore throat).

I am just at a loss and don't know what to do.

[GoingNuts]

Wow.  Has she seen a board certified pediatric allergist who specializes in food allergies?  Could she be allergic to more than just lemons, given that she's frequently pale and blotchy and feeling ill?

I'm so sorry to hear you are going through this.  We have some really super-smart people here (I'm not one of them  ) so hopefully someone will be able to point you in the right direction.

Are you in the U.S or another country?  If you are in the U.S. or Canada, can you give us a general location (like Northeast, etc.)?   We may be able to recommend some top notch pediatric allergists to you.

[PurpleCat]

They can be.  I know for homemade the Barefoot Contessa's recipe calls for spraying them before dehydrating so they stay a nice red color.

I have some here and the package ingredients is simply "freeze dried strawberries"  it gives no other information.

I know packaged "fresh" apple slices can also contain lemon to preserve the color.

[CMdeux]

FREEZE drying shouldn't involve lemon at all.  The major supplier of freeze-dried strawberries is near me, actually-- and they specialize in berries, and only in berries.  A few other fruits, but lemon is definitely not among them. 


Here's what I wonder, though-- if her anaphylaxis was very recent, maybe she is just on exceptionally high alert and histamine-sensitive at the moment?

Strawberries ARE pretty good at provoking histamine-based responses, independent of IgE docking.

[jenavy21]

Thank you for your responses.   She is being referred to allergist and they just took a bunch of blood.  I called Kelloggs and they do not use lemon juice.  So for the time being we are just avoiding all fruits until we get some other answers.   It is very confusing though as she loves strawberries.  But after the other day no more for her right now. 

[GoingNuts]

Good luck Jenavy.  I hope she can see the allergist soon.  Keep us posted.