enzyme deficiency showing allergic reactions?

[eragon]

allergic son is having now non stop allergic reactions without any cause. swollen lips, eyes, tight throat , tingling mouth and feeling sick, and now loose stools.

going to see allergy doc on wednesday, and they are suggesting that it may be a enzyme deficiency (sp? sorry!) related.

things are so complicated at the moment, and we he is so misrable, my poor boy.

does anyone have any info on this? 

we are all so stressed at the moment, and normal life is constantly halted with emergency calls from sch all the time!

[AllergyMum]

Sorry I don't have any information on this.

I do hope that the allergist has so information that can help. Any chance that he has a new allergy to something like soy or corn that is no lots of items.

Big hugs to you and your son during this difficult time

[rebekahc]

I haven't heard of an enzyme deficiency causing allergic reactions, but you might research eosinophilic enteropathy.  Here's one link I found...

http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/GARD/QnASelected.aspx?diseaseID=9142

So sorry your DS is suffering - I hope you find some answers soon!

[lakeswimr]

Haven't heard of that,  either.  Are you sure your child doesn't have a new food allergy?  New food allergies can develop at any age.  My son got 3 new ones in elementary school, two to things he used to eat frequently!  In a child with known food allergies I would suspect a new food allergy or some type of x-contam with known food allergens first. 

Do you have any pets--cats or dogs?  I get those symptoms from being around cats.  How about dust, mold, etc.  I get very bad off from dust, too.

Hope you figure this out soon.

[eragon]

this is not food related at all.
angiodema has been mentioned as well.
if this is  the case, some severe cases can randomly happen any time , for no visable reason, and symptoms can be mild to full blown.

we are all very worried, am keeping a diary, and his symptoms are constant now. despite all meds taken.

hanging on until wednesday.

[GoingNuts]

Eragon, I have no real suggestions, just (((hugs))) for you all.  Hang in there.

[catelyn]

I know you can have an IgA deficiency in celiac disease which can give you a false negative on testing.

[yellow]

I hope the allergist has answers for you! I used to work with a woman who had what was probably angiodema. Scary stuff! She'd randomly start having allergic reactions at work.

Nothing to do with food, environment, etc.  Fortunately, her sister worked on my floor, so they would call down to our floor when here sis would start to react, she'd run upstairs and Epi her and one of us down on my floor would call the ambulance.

Really freaking scary though when it just started for no rhyme or reason.., and so unpredictable too.

[catelyn]

Isn't angiodema just a medical term for facial swelling?

[hopecha]

Do you live in the south ? ( Tennessee, Va?, carolinas ) Or visited there ? 

My BIL developed Mammalian __ allergy from a tick.  ( type tick or chigger and beef or meat into the net)  The body devlops antibodies to the tick that attack a sugar on the meat molecule.  One charachteristic is that the hives and reaction happen hours after eating, not within minutes like with regular fA.  Also, it is hard to figure out.  The allergic person cannot eat any red meat including lamb. 

Just that my BIL was having puzzling daily hives.  He'd be sitting watching TV and start reacting.  Anyway, you might want to rule it out. Also, allergist may not have heard of it.  My BIL's didn't.  Had to show the articles to him.  Then he contacted the university studying it. 

[aouda]

I found this from "Oral tolerance, food allergy, and immunotherapy: Implications for future treatment" http://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749%2808%2900424-7/fulltext :

"Ingested dietary proteins are degraded and their conformational epitopes are destroyed by gastric acidity and luminal digestive enzymes, which often results in the destruction of immunogenic epitopes. In animal models, disrupting the process of digestion can disrupt tolerance and lead to hypersensitivity. Untreated BSA is immunogenic when administered to mice by means of ileal injection; however, administering a peptic digest of the protein in the same manner results in immune tolerance.18 Ingestion of proteins that are protected from both acid and enzymatic digestion can interrupt already established tolerance. Barone et al19 encapsulated the protein ovalbumin in water-soluble, low-pH acrylic microspheres to protect it from digestion. After feeding the encapsulated ovalbumin to mice previously tolerized to ovalbumin, total IgG anti-ovalbumin antibody and IgG1 titers were no higher than in water-fed control mice. Splenocyte proliferation was also increased in the mice who received encapsulated albumin. The mechanism behind this finding is not entirely clear; the microspheres may not only protect the protein from acid and enzymatic digestion, they may alter the site of protein entry into the digestive tract."

So, if the doctor has a particular enzyme deficiency in mind, the problem is something food-related in his view?  Good luck until Wed!

[MandCmama]

Isn't angiodema just a medical term for facial swelling?

It's actually any fluid accumulation beneath the skin ( hives are on the surface) 

[lakeswimr]

I see that this can happen in people who do not have food allergies but since your child does have food allergies I wonder why the doctors are ruling out food allergies as a cause.  New food allergies can pop up any time.  I know you said it is random but if your child developed a new allergy or something he is eating has been x-contamed with known allergens then that could also cause these same symptoms. 

[eragon]

has already had extensive tests, which is why the proff has started going down this sort of route.

symptoms all on and off  for a week so far,  and he feels dreadful.

keeping a record to take to docs on wednesday and am staying at home with him tomorrow, and missing uni.

he has missed SOOOO much school....

[lakeswimr]

I hope I'm not being a bother but in case you haven't heard -- skin and blood tests are over 90% accurate for negative results but that still leaves close to 10% of allergic people who test falsely negative.  So, even if your child tests negative to all foods it could still be a food allergy reaction.  Are you working with an allergists?