Is anyone allergic to red dye? My daughter has hives and?!
Question:
Is anyone allergic to red dye? My daughter has hives and?
My 1 year old daughter has hives all over her body. I took her to the doctor who said it is definately an allergic reaction. We have not had any food that she hasn't eaten many, many times before. We haven't changed any lotions, soaps or detergents. I haven't given her any new medicine. The only thing I can think of is that I ran out of the grape flavored tylenol I usually give her and my Dr. gave me another brand which is Cherry flavored and has red dye in it. She has taken medicine with red dye in it before, but this is the only thing I can think of. Is anyone else allergic to red dye? What symptoms did you have when exposed? How many times did you take it before getting a reaction?
Answers:
I am not allergic, nor have I known anybody who is; however, some of the red dyes are insect-derived, and the FDA is considering requiring products with those red dyes to be labeled for fear of allergies.
http://www.foodqualitynews.com/news/ng.a...
From the above article, "The FDA says that its main concern over the ingredient is for health and safety reasons. Allergy sufferers unwittingly consuming products containing the coloring have been known to come out in rashes, hives and even succumb to anaphylaxis attacks."
It's possible she would be allergic to one red dye and not another.
Here is another (more scientific) article on the likely offending dye, aka carmine:
http://www.inchem.org/documents/jecfa/je...
And here is another article:
http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/42e7a.htm...
which states:
"Physicians often confirm the results of allergy skin tests through a radioallergosorbent test (RAST) ... However, [the doctor] could not administer a RAST for cochineal extract because no such test has been developed for the additive. Instead, he took an unusual step -- one which had never been taken before with cochineal extract or carmine. [He] ... conducted a Prausnitz-Kustner (P-K) test to confirm that his patient carried cochineal antibodies and was, indeed, allergic to the food dye."