Allergic to Formula?

[the picture above is a little blurry, but isn't he the cutest??]

Last Tuesday around noon, Cody had his first two ounces of formula (just regular Enfamil that Camryn drank for several months)and had an allergic reaction almost immediately that included choking, vomiting and hives. :( It was very scary, but after calling the pediatrician, they recommended that I go to the nearest ER to get him checked out immediately. Buddy drove us so that I could ride in the back with Cody and Kevin met us there. We were seen almost immediately and by then he was acting more like himself. As it was determined to be an allergic reaction and not getting any worse (and he was able to nurse), they recommended Benadryl and he was soon back to normal. By 6 that evening he was smiling again. Thank goodness.

This is a picture from the ER - almost two hours after the reaction started and after the benadryl. He was covered in hives and his ears turned bright red and got so big and swollen!


Resting at home...

The first guess is that he's allergic to the cow's milk in the formula. But, when I took him to see the pediatrician on Wednesday, he was not convinced. I told him the story and showed him the picture from the ER. He told me that its just not the typical reaction he sees, although he knows that can happen, it's just not as common. The word he used was 'peculiar'. So, he thinks that the choking/vomiting might have been from some drainage that Cody has had the last week or so (mostly due to the fact that he seem to be alternating between heater and AC on a regular basis instead of being able to stick to one) and the hives might have been related to something else. What else though? It happened within 10 minutes of having the bottle... so, naturally, I've been racking my brain and trying to figure out what else he might have been exposed to. No ideas yet.

Since we are not sure what he was allergic to, we are avoiding the milk formula for a little while - we hope to try it again in a few months. Kevin and I are both having a hard time believing the milk allergy - just doesn't feel right - but then again, we don't know what else it could have been! We tried soy formula yesterday - he had almost three ounces and did just fine! Whoo-hoo!

We stripped him down before giving him the first soy so that I could watch for hives - here he is enjoying his bottle in only a diaper!