Oral Allergy Help

What is Oral Allergy? In short, it's a reaction to food that is localized to the mouth. It's not the kind of thing that causes shock or a full-body reaction (although clarify all of your symptoms with your doctor).

Sometimes, when I eat bananas or avocado sometimes I develop red patches on the skin around my lips. Every time I eat them my gums throb and burn like I swished acid around my mouth. Sometimes this happens when I eat apples. I avoid bananas and avocados all the time. Washing my apples really well before I eat them seems to help.

Since we can't always control what gets into our food, I always carry two things: an EpiPen and Benadryl. We know the EpiPen works, but here's a different way to use Benadryl. My doctor told me in the event of an oral allergy response, just put a bit of liquid benadryl in my mouth, swish it around and spit it out. Genius! I'm asleep within 10 minutes of an ingested Benadryl dose, so I only take it if absolutely necessary. The "swish and spit," I can do.

To make it even easier, I found these pre-measured single dose packets, which are much easier than trying to lug around bottles of liquid Benadryl. Also, liquid is generally faster acting than pills, so if I do need to ingest a dose, I like having these around.

I heard at one point these were recalled or discontinued, but I have seen them around. Walgreens and CVS sell store-brand versions as well. I ordered a large supply from drugstore.com when I got mine, just in case.