Sunday, October 4, 2009

Puffs Has Nuts?!?

My son is anaphylactic to peanuts and he is also mildly allergic to tree nuts. Last week, he had a massive nose bleed which resulted in him using a massive amount of tissue. We had just bought a new batch of tissues, a kind we've never purchased before --- Puffs with Lotion.

After the nose bleed, I noticed some rashes/redness in and around my son's nose and eyes. I attributed it to skin irritation resulting from wiping too much over the weekend. But it didn't get better, instead it got worse --- looking more welt-like, resembling more like an allergic reaction.

Right away, my thoughts went to the tissue. I thought that he might possibly be allergic to the fragrance in the lotion that is in the tissue. I did a quick search on the Internet and found this blog --- the author wrote about Puffs with Lotion tissue containing a tree nut. A TREE NUT!!! I couldn't believe what I was reading! True enough, I looked on the box and it lists an ingredient called shea butter. Upon doing some more research online, I quickly found out that shea butter is derived from shea nuts, a tree nut!

Now everything made sense... hmmmm, who would've thought to check "ingredients" on a tissue box?!? Well, I already read every label on foods that I purchase... reading tissue box labels wouldn't be that hard, I guess!

Seriously though, I thank God that my son only had a mild reaction and that is wasn't life threatening. He did get a secondary bacterial skin infection as a result of the skin trauma... but he is on the mend now that he's on antibiotics.

What can I say? Another new lesson learned in the life of mom with a peanut/nut allergic child!!! Life is never boring!

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