"Well, she's allergic to garlic."

Bug had two reactions in one week at daycare. The first was on a Tuesday. When I saw daycare's number on my caller ID my heart dropped. I knew something was wrong. "Bug is having a reaction. She has a rash on her face and some on her neck," her teacher said. "We gave her Benadryl." I didn't know what to say. I told them to watch her closely, give her the Auvi-Q if it got worse and hung up. I didn't even tell them that one of us would come check on her. I started to cry and called my husband. He could get to daycare quicker than I could. Trying to speak clearly through the tears I called daycare back to let them know Garlic Free Daddy was on his way. The rash had stopped spreading.

Once we knew Bug was ok I started a root cause analysis (my background in patient safety comes in handy quite often with food allergies). She had Annie's Extra Cheesy Cheddar Bunny Crackers. (We just love Annie's!) They contain no peanuts. They are not manufactured in a facility that may contain peanuts. It must have been a fluke. Maybe another kid had peanut residue on them and she somehow came in contact with it.

Photo from www.annies.com

On Thursday I got another call from daycare. I immediately started tearing up when I saw the number (It's great when I get calls in work meetings. Keep it together, mama!) The same thing had happened; localized rash on her face and her eye was swelling. They gave her Benadryl and watched for additional symptoms. I ran to my car as I cancelled a meeting with my company's Executive Vice President that I was supposed to attend. When I got to daycare the rash had already started to go away and the swelling around her eye was going down. This time she had the homemade hummus. The recipe only had chickpeas, tahini (sesame), garlic, lemon and olive oil. It had no peanuts and her daycare's kitchen is peanut free (love this!). My root cause analysis now had more information. Tuesday's reaction was not a fluke. The only common ingredient was garlic. 

I called her pediatric allergist and explained the situation. The allergist suggested the reaction was to sesame even though the crackers did not contain it. She said that sometimes cracker manufacturers have sesame cross-contamination because the seeds "jump".  We scheduled more skin testing but we couldn't get in for a month. We avoided sesame and garlic while we waited.  

Our appointment finally rolled around and I explained the situation to our allergist again. I brought the hummus recipe and the cracker ingredient label. I told the allergist I thought it was garlic. I had called Annie's and they don't use sesame seeds in production so cross-contamination with the crackers was not likely. (They got back to me within in hours. Thank you, Annie's!) The allergist didn't believe me. She even gave me a line about some products being "too acidic" (aka, not an allergic reaction) causing a rash for kids with sensitive skin. She tested for garlic reluctantly. 

While we waited the 15 minutes necessary for the skin test we saw two bubbles pop up. One was the positive histamine control. The other was garlic or sesame. Garlic Free Daddy and I were hoping it was sesame. Sesame is one of the top 10 allergens. It would be easier to avoid than garlic which is an extremely rare allergy.

The allergist walked in and said, "She is having a reaction. Let's see what that is." And, with a little chuckle she said, "Well, she's allergic to garlic. That surprises me. It's really rare to have a garlic allergy." And when we asked about the severity, "Well, it could be life-threatening." Her tone did nothing to help the situation. Here we are, two terrified parents who just learned that garlic could kill their child and she was less than sympathetic.

The number one rule in pediatric patient safety is listen to the mama. I knew Bug was allergic to garlic but the allergist didn't believe me. I'm just glad the allergist tested for it even though she was reluctant. 

It's safe to say, we're searching for a new allergist. We need someone that listens to our concerns and realizes that Bug's food allergy diagnoses has changed every aspect of our lives. 

And, we're now avoiding garlic like the plague. 

- Garlic Free Mama