Doctors Warn: Food Allergies Can Pop Up In Products You'd Least Expect
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Here's a warning for parents of children with severe food allergies: Sometimes exposure can come from the most unexpected places.
Would you believe finger paint? As CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez reported Monday, it actually happened.
Seventh-month-old Lofton Hyde was all smiles recently, but his mother, Christen, said she is still traumatized following a scare last month at daycare.
"And I just happened to see on the caller ID, PDR, and I just had a sense of doom," she said.
MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Family Of Toddler Who Died In NYC Daycare React To Food Allergy Ruling
Little Lofton was rushed to the hospital for an anaphylactic reaction. Daycare workers had just dipped his foot in paint for a craft project, paint that apparently had dairy-based ingredients.
"We started Googling to see if anything came up with possible milk in these products, and it did. They actually say that a lot of these finger paints contain milk, egg, wheat, oat," Christen said.
Pediatric allergist Dr. Sandhya Mani said many parents and caretakers don't realize how common these ingredients are. Many are not even listed on the labels for some craft supplies.
"Children with allergies to milk, wheat, oat, corn, sometimes even soy, these are in multiple arts and crafts projects, including paints, clay, chalk," Dr. Mani said.
MORE: "Elijah's Law" Aims To Protect Children With Severe Allergies
Look for products that list ingredients, or say they're allergy-friendly. Mani said it's a problem that needs more awareness as more kids develop allergies.
"As we go on in generations it's actually becoming more common, not less common. So we think now probably about 1 in 13 children has food allergy," Dr. Mani said.
MORE: Baby Wipes Tied To "Perfect Storm" Of Child Food Allergies, Study Says
Christen posted Lofton's experience on Facebook to help spread awareness. She said she's thankful that daycare staff and paramedics acted so quickly.
"It gets me emotional because if it wasn't for them I don't know if he would be here," she said.
Such an extreme allergic reaction is unusual when the child hasn't actually ingested the allergen, but it's not unheard of. If your child has food allergies, look for products that list ingredients and make sure the daycare center is equipped with an EpiPen for emergencies.