Allergies

My youngest two children, Sam and Roman, have a list of foods they are allergic to.  It is very frustrating but I am thankful that for the most part, they are allergic to the same things.  At least that  makes my life easier!  I am so frustrated at companies that use different recipes for the same product!!  In the last 2 months or so, I have come across four items that I buy for my boys that when bought at different locations or in different containers, they contain different ingredients.  After writing to the companies, I found that two changed their recipes and so at one store, I bought the older recipe which is being "phased out."  That is frustrating but not as frustrating as when companies have two recipes that are used in constant rotation!!  This means there is nothing I can just grab at the store and know it's safe for them.  I must read every single label, every single time I shop.  Throw in all the coupons I'm looking through, and it takes me forever to get to the check out!!

The boys are both allergic to dairy (not just lactose), oat, dye (red, yellow, blue), watermelon, oranges, lemons, fresh tomatoes, and I suspect shellfish as well although I haven't allowed them to have any.  Roman also reacts to pecans and walnuts.  Sam gets rashes on his skin when he eats something he shouldn't, Roman gets intestinal troubles. Sam's skin can not tolerate much, he gets welts easier (like if he scratches, his skin gets raised and red), and he can't use most lotions, soaps, no kids' tattoos, face paint, etc. Roman doesn't have any of those reactions. Roman does however get immediate hives from food, where Sammy gets a delayed pimple type rash on his face and body. They both get itchy lips/mouths/throats when eating certain foods (watermelon, lemons, oranges, fresh tomatoes, and the nuts listed for Roman).  Sam also complains that salt makes his lips hurt.  

Focusing just on red dye... When Sam was a baby, when I ate red dye and then nursed him, he projectile vomited (this took a lot of time and patience and food diary entries to figure out). When he was 15 months old, I gave him a lollipop for the first time, and he projectile vomited. He didn't have much, if any, red dye between then and 2, and somewhere in that time, it changed to a neurological reaction. I gave him a lollipop one day and he didn't vomit and I thought "oh, he outgrew it!" I gave him a dum dum several times in a week and realized looking back that it made him *really aggressive and uncontrollable. Dave and my parents didn't believe me so I would try it every so often just to *prove I was right (yeah, that's stupid looking back on it!). Sometime over this summer, I realized that he reacts to yellow and blue dye as well and the reaction is more severe than I remember his reaction to red dye being. Roman got tylenol for the first time at 4 months old and he broke out in hives all over his body. When he was almost 2, someone gave him a big sugar cookie covered in red icing and he broke out in hives as well. Now neither boy gets any kind of artificial dye. I assume (perhaps wrongly) that Roman's hives, like Sam's projectile vomiting, will go away and for a more severe reaction to occur. That's why Roman doesn't get any dyes, although technically he has only ever shown a sensitivity to red dye.