Fruit Loops

[bleh]

My daughter tried Fruit Loops for the first time today and ended up with hives on her face. She was protesting when my wife took her cereal away since she actually liked it. Damn you Fruit Loops! I have no idea if she's allergic to something in the Fruit Loops or if it has some sort of contamination....

[twinturbo]

Tough call, the most likely explanation given her allergen set and assuming it was the Fruit Loops, then a nut or peanut contamination. How is she doing?

And yeah, the mystery reactions suck.

[eragon]

I think,even without the allergies, fruit loops are a cereal to avoid!

I always tell my kids never to eat anything that looks like it has the potential to glow in the dark!

[lakeswimr]

We have overlapping allergies and my son eats those just fine.  He only gets them about once or twice a year, though.  We have never had trouble with Kellogs cereals.  Hope you figure it out.

[bleh]

She's fine. I just hate not knowing what caused the hives. We'll just stay away from fruit loops for now.

[lakeswimr]

Doe she have other things with red dye? 

[maeve]

My daughter has the same allergies and eats Fruit Loops without issue.  Could it be the dye?  What milk were you using?  Were you using Horizon?  They share lines with items that would not be safe.

[bleh]

I was thinking it might be the dye but she's had colored marshmellows and cake with food coloring. I don't know anything about dyes so I am assuming there are different kinds that make the same color? I have to look into it more.

I don't think it's the milk as she's been drinking it without issues. It was store brand milk bottled by Smith's Dairy.

[twinturbo]

It was branded Froot Loops, right? Not a store brand or anything? Toucan Sam?

[eragon]

depends on the colour and if its a natural dye. (which i suspect that fruit loops dont have , apart from uk ones that do, but thats another story) 

anyway natural pink or red dye is made from crushed beetles, and so contain a protein, and can be a problem for some.

that said, if on a particularly sensitive day for your child, eating something with such a long list of ingredients that are chemical in nature iyswim, might be a problem. My son after a reaction would react to other stuff like this for a while until it was removed and settled down after a period of time.

So my personal rule of thumb, if you dont understand the strange names on packet, and its list is more than a inch long, try to avoid.  The longer the list, the  more difficulty tracing cross contamination, think of the transportation to the food manufacter of each different thing on the label, think of the staff, think of many, many different lines that are shared , alongside each other etc etc etc.

food is vastly complicated these days. 

[maeve]

The unnatural red dye can be a problem too.  My DD was sensitive to it as a young child.  However, it caused behavioral issues not hives.

[bleh]

It was Kellogg's Fruit Loops. It was a mini box of cereal. We bought a Kellogg's variety pack so she could try different types of cereal without having to eat the stuff she didn't like. We still have another mini box put up so I can compare the dyes to the other stuff she has had.

[Tami]

I experienced similar reaction to fruitloops, except I get full body hives. My first experience was as a child in elementary school. We believed it was the food coloring I was having a reaction to, so I avoided most foods with added dyes for a few years. Then slowly started eating them again here and there but mainly avoiding fruit loops. I decided to try them again when I was in high school since I have eaten plenty of other foods with high food coloring and never had a reaction. Well that was a huge mistake, broke out in full body hives took over a week to get them to go down. I felt like a lizard. I've never touched fruit loops since. Now I dont think it was the dye. But I dont know what it could be. Something specific with fruit loops?