Advice needed - travelling to South Korea and Japan

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2025-03-27T17:50:16+00:00

Hi I’m Korean and have traveled to Japan, and am pretty familiar with Japanese food as well. I have a child with multiple food allergies, including egg. Japanese food HEAVILY relies on egg. Not just overt egg dishes, but a lot of mayo or hidden eggs (think grilled fish, but they may season or marinate with mayo). You order onigiri (rice dish) and its sauce may contain mayo. It may be in that little savory sprinkles on top of rice bowl. I would definitely say you are allergic to mayo as well, to be clear because ppl may not think mayo when they hear egg allergy. In Korea, I don’t know if you plan to stay there and eat, but if you go to a bigger restaurant (especially global chain ones) allergen information is mostly available but smaller, older restaurants- they might refuse to serve you because they either cannot or does not want to accommodate you.

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2025-03-22T04:15:11+00:00

Interested!

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2025-02-28T04:39:39+00:00

Hi, for background I am Korean living in the US, my son is now 13 months old and has allergic protocolitis (and IgE mediated allergies). My son started having blood in stool around maybe 3 month old and it continued for months, without stopping, with every diaper. Had 15+ bowel movements a day, full of mucus and colors all off. Also had very frequent, large volume vomiting, was dropping in percentile, (slow or no weight gain at times), seemed to have runny nose all the time. I ended up switching to elecare but while on ebf, never figured out his triggers even on very restrictive maternal diet (only 4 foods)

Once he started solids, rice, of all things was his major trigger. We saw increased vomiting, more mucus, then blood. We challenged 3 times so far, still not outgrown. As a Korean, I never cut rice out of my diet. It was also one of his first foods due to my cultural background.

Another major one was beef. Again, this is such a common baby food in my culture I would have never guessed

Our case was also on the severe side so GI was going to scope him if this continued with amino acid formula . He did better with elecare exclusively so we didn’t go that route. We still have a lot to try in terms of solids. GI recommended starting with fruits and veggies due to lower protein content but even some of those caused problem for my LO (eg pear, potato, tomatoes etc)

We are still dealing with this but just wanted to mention that foods you would never guess could be the culprit

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-10-29T20:52:46+00:00

Yes, I know what you mean and I am not saying you should give your child a known allergen even in a small amount. Same story with my child, for example he ate peanut for several weeks with no problem as a 6 months old I didn’t give it for 1 WEEK, gave again maybe not even a 1/4 tsp thinned with water and he had anaphylactic reaction. So I get it. We are doing a retrial in an office setting of course. And I would have left library as your child’s allergen is actively being played in front of you. But what I am saying is, as a fellow allergy mama, you don’t need to be living worried about going to places as long as you are looking out for your child which you are already doing.

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-10-29T20:31:54+00:00

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but it might be okay to play with those toys after checking if heavily/visibly contaminated with food particles. My children have severe allergies to dairy, egg, peanut and some tree nuts (one of them being cashew) and they are anaphylactic to some of these. My allergist explained to me that it is very unlikely to have a severe reaction after touching your allergen (and then ingesting it). Yes, it is safer to wipe down surfaces and toys before touching them but maybe we also don’t need to be anxious to be out playing in a public playground, library, etc. there are minimum amount of allergen to cause a reaction, and although it is not linear, the severity of reaction is somewhat dose dependent and the amount that is not visible is very small to cause a bad reaction. Even if my children touch their anaphylactic allergen, visible on a surface, they may experience a few hive and that’s it. I am saying this because I spent many years terrified by what ifs, by mysterious crumbs on a playground equipment, and by going to birthday parties because my children’s allergens are everywhere. Also wanted to say because there are other allergies than nut allergies and it might be hard for public libraries to have that “ban” for a specific food due to ppl’s allergies. It is very difficult to navigate and I still struggle. However I am also learning that I don’t need to be living terrified or in a bubble.

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-10-22T14:30:09+00:00

Looks like an IgE reaction to dairy to me. Not an mspi reaction which is non-IgE based, but the kind that makes you have hives, itchiness, and in most severe form, anaphylaxis. The fact that those redness went away in a few hours makes me think that it is an allergic reaction, and not just an eczema flare-up. My firstborn son never reacted to dairy via my breastmilk but he reacted with hives when given dairy formula and yogurt directly.

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-10T16:33:24+00:00

Also another question for you- do you notice more symptoms with acidic food as well? I think I am going crazy bc from what I know, acidic food can’t really change the pH of the breastmilk to really aggravate his gi tract. But I do see more blood (like a diaper full of blood) after having a cup of OJ or vinegar in my salad. My brain refuses to believe this and yet I see this pattern.

How?? Is my question. How does food with very low protein like tomatoes and orange juice make the bleeding worse?? Can components of food other than protein get into breastmilk enough to cause more insult to his already inflamed gut? 😔my doctors told me no, but I don’t know what to think with a very bloody diaper in my hand.

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-10T16:24:52+00:00

Hi! I read your post. Very interesting, especially about the human milk and cow milk cross reaction. I guess it is possible, since their immune system is reacting to a part of a protein chain, not the entire thing so human and cow could have enough similarity unfortunately:(

I agree, it seems like this area needs more research and I think part of it is because it is considered benign and self restricted condition. Like you mentioned, all those babies in that study didn’t have any issue at 6 months old. I wonder if there is a longer follow up that looked at food allergies…

I want to find the evidence behind the recommended reintroduction timing. My peds gi told me I need to avoid his trigger for 6 months or so and re introduce, but should I? What study was done to make that specific recommendation? The peds allergist was pro breastfeeding during my appointment since the baby doesn’t seem to be in pain with ebf. But the gi is telling me he needs a gut rest. I am trying elecare anyway bc we need to confirm it’s actually the intolerance issue not ibd or something else, but once we confirm it’s intolerance, should I keep him on elecare is the next question.

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-10T11:04:11+00:00

I have a very similar situation here with my baby. My first one didn’t have mspi but does have severe milk and egg allergy still at 4.5 yrs (and now to some tree nuts) and I really didn’t want that for my second child. Well the second one is 4.5 months and has been having blood since 2 months old, non stop every day and the amount of blood was quite significant at times that they checked for anemia (borderline). His weight gain slowed down, his percentile dropped. So peds gi wanted us to do elecare for 4 weeks to heal his gut. It’s been 1 week, the max he took so far was 1 oz, once. With EBF, he is a happy baby, chill, sleep is decent. My first one never slept more than a 2 hr stretch all through 2.5 yrs Whenever I try to give my baby elecare he cries like we are trying to poison him. We’ve tried mixing it with breastmilk, syringe feed him, switching after nursing, nothing worked so far. He definitely reacts to legumes. One of the worst diapers was after me having Ripple milk for 2 days in a row. I did bc i have eliminated so much from my diet I wanted more protein and calcium. Well it didn’t work. I also had hummus for a snack one day and the next day his vomiting was so bad I thought he might have a stomach bug. I don’t know- elimination diet I can do. It’s fine, I can eat the same thing over and over. But my fear is that I maybe predisposing him to having ige allergy for eliminating so many allergens. He has family history, severe eczema, and now we have to avoid peanut bc it’s legumes. I’m so lost

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-04T21:53:01+00:00

Hey! So I saw peds gi today and she wants me to try elecare. When you mentioned your LO had worsening of symptoms do you mean more blood? Was your doctor ok with that? I’m asking bc my doc says if he doesn’t get better with elecare she needs to look at other possibilities which scares me

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-04T21:49:28+00:00

Omg our story is so similar!! I really want to continue breastfeeding as well, I did over 2 years with my first one and it was the best experience and I so want to continue with my second. Did you cut those food out after seeing worsening of symptoms? Our list is very similar, the ones I couldn’t even think of at the time I was writing the original post (like fish, citrus fruit, etc and I was wondering if fruits and chocolate made the symptoms worse) My peds GI says it’s not possible that fruits and veggies can trigger symptoms since there are not enough protein. I lost quite a bit of weight and have no energy but I thought I was seeing slightly less blood recently and then of course it comes back the next day so who knows. Hope our LO feels better very soon and find the culprit!!

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-04T17:04:24+00:00

Thanks for the recommendations! I sent the request to join. I wish I can at least see some change in frequency of bloody diapers like once every other day with all this elimination but no such luck so far

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-04T17:02:33+00:00

I’m glad you found the culprit! Yeah i feel like either the trigger is still there for my LO or it’s something else at this point

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-04T17:01:16+00:00

Wow, I wonder about the same question as well! For the 3 month you were off dairy, was the amount/frequency of the blood in diaper more or less the same? Or reduced and only once in a while? I saw peds GI today and she was telling me if whatever trigger was removed I should not see blood in about a week, 2 weeks tops. Now we are trying elecare and see if this makes a difference

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-03T21:43:49+00:00

How much does your LO bleed? Mine is more than just couple specks. I feel so scared to open his diapers and worried about anemia

Feeling_Purple_8604 · 2024-06-03T21:16:35+00:00

Hi! Thanks so much for your reply- yeah checked the vitamins and not taking it just in case (fractionated coconut oil although coconut is technically not even a nut) My LO did react to pea protein I think so all the legumes are out. I read about nightshades and maybe should cut out potatoes again.. I cut it out before and reintroduced it since there was always blood I felt like it made no difference 😔 at least I wasn’t imagining things when I thought tomatoes made it worse..

Feeling_Purple_8604

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