From Newsweek · · 1m 30s
One minute after breakfast, she stopped breathing
A Georgia toddler had eaten eggs for months with no trouble, until the morning her body said otherwise.
In brief
A Georgia toddler had eaten eggs for months with no trouble, until the morning her body said otherwise. A food your child has eaten safely for months can still turn dangerous, so know the signs and carry an EpiPen once you do. Originally reported by Newsweek.
A totally normal breakfast
Kendall Thomas, 22, took her husband and 2-year-old daughter to her parents' house in Georgia to eat, something the family did all the time.
“We went over to my mama and daddy's to eat, which we do a lot”
The onesie that helped
The toddler had spilled on her clothes, so she ate in just a diaper. About a minute after the eggs, a red rash spread across her bare stomach where her mom could see it.
“Approximately one minute”
Eggs she had eaten before
This was not a new food. She had eaten eggs many times with no reaction, apart from one small unexplained flare-up months earlier.
“She'd eaten eggs and things with eggs many times with no reaction.”
How common this is
Egg allergy affects about 1.3 percent of American children under 5, roughly 2.7 million people in all. Among allergic kids, 14.2 percent have had their throat tighten.
Benadryl, then nothing
The toddler vomited the medication back up. The rash spread, the coughing would not stop, and on the drive to hospital she went unresponsive and stopped breathing.
“I remember feeling like time was moving so slow and so fast all at once and begging God to save her.”
A scream, then a new normal
Her grandmother cleared the airway in the back seat and after about a minute the child gasped and cried. Within an hour at the ER she was stable, and the family went home with EpiPens.
“It was more difficult at first, but it's become a new normal.”
The short version
A food your child has eaten safely for months can still turn dangerous, so know the signs and carry an EpiPen once you do.
