Just got home from the emergency room with my 7 1/2 yr. old - (fishy)!

[RamblingRose]

My daughter had an allergic reaction to the tilapia we grilled tonight. I took her to the E.R. and they monitored her breathing, which fortunately was fine, and gave her a shot of epinephrine and benadryl. She looked pitiful! I felt so bad.

She has eaten shrimp & salmon before, without any problems. I know a lot of people are allergic to shellfish, but are not allergic to fish. Does anyone know if you can be allergic to just specific types of fish? Does it have to do with the mercury levels, or water type????

[Heddi]

1. I don't think there's a rhyme or reason to it

Alot of people have varrying degrees of 'alergicness'----meaning, you can eat a food that you're technically 'allergic' to for years and never have a reaction, but eat it the 10,004th time and bam---you start having hives or a tight throat or respiratory distress or whatever.

If I were you, i'd get her to an allergist asap. They'll do a few skin tests to test for sensitivity to a variety of things---dog & cat dander (actually, their saliva, but that's a different thread), different foods like shellfish, fruits like strawberries, things like rat-droppings and roach droppings, feathers, etc.

My husband is sensitive to our cats---if he touches the cats then rubs his eyes, he gets watery and conjested. Other people, however, go into respiratory distress around cats, break out in hives, get a bit itchy, or have no symptoms whatsoever.

Look at insect stings--most people are stung by a bee/wasp/spider once and have no reaction other than swelling at the site, slight fever, etc--you know, "normal" reaction. Some people can get stung by a bee several times and always have the same reaction.

Other people, however, build up resistance to the first bee sting...and if they get stung a second time, will go into anaphalactic shock, where they suffer extreme resp. distress, rapid heart beat, etc, which can be very life threatning. Because of he suffers from this, my husband has to carry around portable injectable epinepherine in case he's stung.

Get her checked out by an allergist. It could have been the fish---could have been an ingredient. Could have been detergent or a million other things that could have affected her at the time she was eating fish. Rule nothing out. Keep an eye on her and write down everything she ate today to show the allergist.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

2. I developed an allergy to shrimp as a kid

I loved the stuff, so I was really upset about it. I'd get hives, and had to take Benedryl. I eventually outgrew the allergy. Here's some info which might help you: http://www.wdxcyber.com/ngen22.htm

[Lars39]

3. Is there a possibility the tilapia had a preservative on it? Like msg?

My husband is very allergic to msg. :shrug: I'm glad your daughter's OK. The suddeness of allergies can be scary.

[RamblingRose]

5. I'm really getting pissed about msg. It used to be known as Chinese

Restaurant Syndrome. Now it's in everything. A lot of franchise restaurants cook with it. At most Chinese restaurants now they don't use msg, or you can ask them to not use it. Read labels carefully.

And who knows what kind of stuff the stores put in the food before they sell it.

[Lars39]

7. He thinks his last reaction was from a head of lettuce that wasn't washed

well. He travels with an epipen, now.

[tridim]

9. The MSG effect is an urban myth

MSG doesn't cause Chinese restaurant syndrome, it doesn't make your heart race, it doesn't make you sweat, it doesn't cause headaches and it doesn't cause cancer (except in gigantic doses in mice). I've seen several studies that use a placebo in place of MSG and the recorded effects are exactly the same. Of course any product containing sodium isn't good in excess, but in reality MSG does nothing but make food taste better.

[Lars39]

10. Well, that urban myth has sent my husband to the ER with a windpipe

swelling up and major hives.:shrug:

[tridim]

17. Food allergies are different

I didn't mean to make you shrug. :)

[RamblingRose]

11. My 4 year old reacts to msg, thought not to any great extreme. I gave her

raymen noodles with the seasoning packet, and she said her throat was itchy. She loves the plain raymen noodles. This happened a couple of times, so I looked at the packet, and one of the main ingredients in the seasoning is msg. She doesn't know what msg is, but will only eat the noodles plain.

[henslee]

4. I never eat talapia. Correct me if I am wrong but it is farm grown and

therefore fish are raised in close proximity to each other which gives them tumors and weird stuff. Any experts out there?

(on edit) Glad to hear your daughter is doing okay. Better stick to Mac and Cheese. Just kidding.

[shanti]

12. tilapia is one of the good farm-raised fish

out there...as opposed to salmon. i bought some frozen tilapia fillets one time and really liked them, so started reading up on them. they are originally from africa, fresh water, and are fed a natural diet. check it out:

http://ag.arizona.edu/azaqua/ista/new/Info.htm

tilapia has now become a part of my regular menu.

[EstimatedProphet]

13. Yes, and I wouldn't worry about farm-raised tilapia

Tilapia naturally grow in close proximity. There are fish that don't raise well in large numbers (catfish as an example) but what typically happens is overcrowding effects the water quality. In cases like that there's a chance of die-offs, but things like tumors? Never heard of that.
On edit: overcrowding can lead to disease, but nothing that could be transferred to humans, anc certainly nothing that cooking wouldn't completely fix.

[tridim]

6. I'm allergic to Cod

At least I used to be as a kid, I can eat it now. I had a back scratch test when I was 10 and the essence of cod they dabbed on the scratch puffed up real good. So yes, people can be allergic to certain types of fish.

[RamblingRose]

8. Did you eat other fish, or just avoid fish all-together?

[welshTerrier2]

14. Allergic reactions can get worse after the first time

you can have all sorts of skin tests to find out exactly what food items she is and is not allergic to ...

i don't think mercury or water type has anything to do with her reaction ...

i have family members who are highly allergic to all seafood ... their reactions can be life threatening ... it would be good to learn everything you can about your daughter's allergies ...

one thing i would recommend is making sure you have some non-expired benadryl in the house ... i would also highly recommend obtaining a "bee sting kit" ... i believe the basic deal with the kit is that it is a needle filled with epinephrine ...

one other tip ... lots of foods contain fish oils or other "hidden" ingredients ... fish extracts can be found in foods you would never expect ... if you're not already a label reader, become one ...

finally, it's not uncommon for people who have one food allergy to have other food allergies ... chocolate and peanuts seem to be fairly common ...

hope this helps ...

[fortyfeetunder]

15. How fresh was your fish?

Last Christmas season, I dined on some salmon my spouse brought home a few days ago, and my throat swelled up. I thought I was having an allergy attack, felt like a sinus infection. A couple of weeks later I had the same problem with consuming shrimp at a holiday potluck. I always carry antihistamine with me so I was OK once I took them with some water.

But I came across this article and wondered if this is what I got into:

http://www.asthma-drsprecace.com/scrombroid.html

[maggrwaggr]

16. what did you marinate the fish in? Did you use oil?

I have a severe allergy to peanuts, I can easily die from it.

So I sympathize with your daughter. It's a very unpleasant and painful reaction.

I would look not only at the fish, but the spices used, the oils used, anything you might have used to marinate the fish. Also anything else that she might have eaten.

Allergies can develop suddenly, believe it or not. Once she recovers, take her to an allergy doctor and have her thoroughly tested!!!

It will probably take her a couple of days to get over this. The benadryl hangover alone can be pretty rough.