Corn Allergy? What Corn Allergy?

Saturday  in mid-morning  Mystie

I took Hans in to our local Northwest Allergy and Asthma Center on Monday. Hans has had an eczema-type rash up one leg for a couple months and on Marji & Tonya’s recommendation, I took him in to see Dr. Walker.

I was pretty curious to see what they would have to say about my diagnosis of Hans’ corn allergy than what they would say or do for Hans’ leg rash. I was pretty sure I knew what they would say and do and I was right: Eastern Washington triggers like tumbleweed, here’s steriod cream and antihistimine syrup and steroid nose spray. The steroid nose spray I wasn’t expecting, but he hasn’t woken up with a crusted over face or made congested noises at night since we began it. I was also pretty sure he would disbelieve my assessment of corn allergy, and I was right. He did his best to look like he was considering it and didn’t think I was an idiot, but he said that corn allergies are very rare and he doubted Hans was having reactions to corn.

Then came the skin test. They scratched little samples of different things into his back to see which ones would react, which ones he was allergic to. Russian thistle, the most common tumbleweed around these parts, was huge. The grass and tree mix they used didn’t look so bad, but they only did a few select tests so as not to torture the poor boy. They also did a skin test for corn.

When the nurse came back 10 minutes after poking my Hans to see what had developed, she noted that he obviously had very sensitive skin because his skin reacted a bit even to the saline control test. To ensure everything is working properly, they test a portion of direct histamine, which should produce a hive, and a portion of saline, which should produce nothing. Well the Russian thistle hive was as big as the direct histamine hive, but the corn test had produced less of a reaction even than the saline! The nurse cheerfully showed me, “But the corn looks awesome.” “You’ve never had a small child with food allergies and had to try to figure out what in the world it was,” I thought. No, there was no elation. There was silence and slight dread as I thought that now the whole elimination diet, examining everything he eats to the minutia might have to begin all over again. Uck.

The doctor returned and said, “So, he’s not allergic to corn.” “Well, he’s allergic to something he eats because he will sometimes get this rash around his mouth, and corn is what I had connected it to, but now I’m back at square one for figuring out what is causing that.” He does have sensitive skin, the doctor pointed out what I had known for years, and people with sensitive skin will often react around their mouths to anything acidic, especially if they lick their lips while eating or even the acidity of saliva will sometimes cause that reaction.

I was dumbfounded. Here were the options I had:

1. Skin tests are bogus. Not likely. Blood tests might be, muscle testing has to be, elimination diet is so difficult and subjective that it gives me a headache just thinking about it. I’m more apt to trust the skin test over any of the other tests.

2. I misdiagnosed it from the beginning. Hans has always, since he began eating food, occasionally gotten rashes around his mouth. For many months he was off dairy and wheat and that seemed to cut down the instances but not eliminate them. Corn was always the allergy I was paranoid about, because a girl from our church who had been in one of my girls’ club classes several years ago had a corn syrup sensitivity and I knew how much that impedes life. It seemed to me when I eliminated corn products, he wouldn’t get rashes. I knew he was sensitive to acid, but I never thought of doing more than not giving him orange juice or oranges or pineapple. I am almost positive I can directly associate instances of him getting into the tortilla chips and getting a rash thereafter. However, I also know that I didn’t keep him strictly corn-free. I didn’t worry about things like maltodextrine, dextrose, plain “starch,” and all those other foreign-sounding ingredients that are corn-derived. I kept him off of anything that had corn in the name and never noticed a reaction if a little corn starch slipped in, if he had muffins made with someone’s regular baking powder, if he had a piece of bread without corn syrup but with corn starch. However, I was pretty sure I noticed reactions after corn syrup slipped in. There were also slight rashes that were unexplainable. I thought I had been controlling his diet, and then he would get a rash. Corn is convenient that way, though; you can never be positive he didn’t have any if he had any food at all that I didn’t prepare, so it’s easy to still blame unexplainable rashes on corn. I am absolutely confirmed in my hatred of and frustration with all things related to food allergies. It seems I never get the right answer.

3. I kept him well off of it for long enough that his body healed and though he was allergic to it, he now is not. Marji has experienced this and said it was just a little over a year of staying off oatmeal that Emma tested clean and ok. The honest side of me doubts that he was ever really clean enough for that to be the case, but the optimistic side of me does like this solution the most.

4. He is sensitive to corn syrup only and not the grain, which is what they tested with. My highest suspicion was this answer.

5. It’s something else that’s associated with processed foods that gives him a reaction, but it’s not actually the corn. I don’t even want to go there.

6. It’s all just been a skin reaction to acid all along and I’ve been so paranoid about having a child with food allergies that I saw them where they were not. Very probable.

Whatever it is, as I was pulling out of the parking lot after our appointment, I began laughing almost hysterically. “Why are you laughing, Mommy?” inquired Hans. “Do you know what the doctor told me?” “What?” “That you are not allergic to corn! That you can eat corn!” “Corn?” pipes up Jaeger, since it was one of his first words.

So we did a little experiment. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I kept him off of anything that had “acid” in the ingredient list (even ascorbic acid which is vitamin C) and continued to keep him off corn. Thursday morning Hans woke up and when I came in immediately inquired, “Is today corn day?!”

Thursday Hans had Fruit Loops for breakfast, popcorn for lunch, fruit snacks for a snack, real candy for a treat, and corn chips with dinner. If he had any sensitivity at all to corn in any form, he got a good dose of it Thursday.

I would even have given him a Cherry Coke, but discovered that soda is as acidic as citrus.

Marji came in to babysit that evening while I went to Bible study (Matt was at Home Depot sorting out our cabinet order), and Hans immediately began jumping up and down and telling her all the things he had gotten to eat that day.

All day I monitored his face. All day long all I saw was a smiling face. Friday morning came and …

drumroll, please.

His face was perfectly clear.

Hans thinks that since before it was no corn and now that is no longer the case, instead it is all corn and he’ll ask, “Is there corn in this?” Now meaning, “It needs corn in it! Let’s eat corn!”

I have no idea what to say. I have no idea what will change. I did walk through the grocery store since Monday and suddenly the full realization hit me. We have no food allergies at all. I don’t have to read ingredient labels. It doesn’t matter. I can go to a picnic and not feel bad for Hans and pack extra special things to bribe him away from what everyone else has brought. This is completely revolutionary and my brain even yet has not wrapped around it.

I do know what Hans thinks. This is his completely clean face the day after “corn day”:

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 12th, 2007 at 10:29 am and is filed under Lady of the House. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.