allergic reaction 2 days later?

cranberry

Mon, Feb 20 2012, 8:53 pm

Ds2 has many food allergies/sensitivities/whatever. I figured most of them out while he was still nursing, and others as he started to eat solid foods. He's outgrown a lot of these allergies, and it's a lot more manageable now.

When he was younger, there was a lot of throwing up and diaper rashes. Now it's mainly diaper rashes. I can usually tell if he eats a problem food because either the next dirty diaper or the one after will give him an immediate diaper rash, which clears up quickly with no creams needed.

But here's my problem. The other day I decided to have him try eating dairy to see if it would be okay now. (Well, really, I made baked ziti for dinner and forgot to leave some without cheese for him, and he very much wants to eat what everyone else is eating, and since we hadn't tried any problem foods in a while ....) I was happily surprised when we went 2 whole days without any diaper rash. Until Friday night.

As I was about to light, I realized he had a dirty diaper and changed it. There was a bit of a diaper rash, not too bad. Right next to the edge of the diaper, though, he had what looked to me and dh to be a big, long hive. I decided to watch it (and him), and give him Benadryl if it looked like he needed it.

By the next time I looked, it wasn't raised anymore, but that whole area where the hive had been was red and there were like some black areas inside. It changed a bit more as time went on, and now it's kind of scabbed over in that area.

I'm trying to figure out if this could be a dairy reaction. I can't think of any foods he ate that he doesn't eat regularly, I didn't change laundry detergents, and he was wearing pants so it shouldn't be that something scratched him. But he's never had a reaction to food 2 days later. They were always pretty soon after eating it.

Does anyone know if foods can cause reactions 2 days after the food was eaten? I'd love to be able to say he can eat dairy again, but I don't want to put him through this misery again if it's most likely a dairy reaction.