Question:
Our child has had allergic reactions to strawberries and now blueberries.
We know that strawberries are in the rose family along with other 'bumpy'
berries like blackberries and raspberries. Does anyone know what family
blueberries are in?
Answer:
I am allergic to strawberries and raspberries also. I can eat blueberries
and huckleberries. Be careful about eating some commercial foods.
Strawberries and Raspberries can fall under the "natural flavors" category
on lists of ingredients. Froot Loops contain strawberry as well as other
cereals. I usually describe my allergy as to "fuzzy berries". I contacted
some companies as well as an allergy alert service. They both said that
strawberry allergy was not common enough to warn people about.
Just wondering how the allergy "presents" in comparison to the original poster
(neither of you mentioned the signs/symptoms). Is it standard reactions like
rashes, swelling, breathing difficulties etc? You two might want to explore
this further. Or is it like "food allergy" that is frequently discussed on otherwebsites which can
cause gastro problems (which I won't detail here).
Interesting too that unlike you, it's the artificial flavors/colorants etc that
I've had problems with all my life.
Which brings me to a question I asked, but received no response to earlier.
Do you get the same allergic response from "home-grown" or wild berries that you
do with store-bought? (Aside from various sprays used in growing berries,
sometimes I wonder if they add colorants to the fruit, much as they do in meats,
because we consumers get turned off something that doesn't look exactly the way
we think it should)..ie are you positively sure that it's the berries and not
something that's being "man-added" in some way).?
I am very interested in this because I reacted badly to fresh pears, many years
ago. Still looking for answers because I'd dearly love to eat them again..but
too afraid to. I have a great difficulty describing my symptoms. I just feel "terrible".
Imagine you have a really bad cold, but you nose isn't clogged and your
throat isn't sore. I don't have "classic allergic" symptoms. I stay away
from strawberries and raspberries entirely. Some restaurants garnish
desserts with raspberry swirls and the like. I once had a very understanding
restaurant that also was very good. I started feeling bad at the table. The
waitress couldn't understand because she had told the kitchen and they
didn't put any berries in my food. It was later discovered that the
vegetables were cooked with raspberry vinegar. It is important to be
diligent. I once was at a family dinner. Everyone was raving about the
muffins. I tried one and it was raspberry. I was very worried because my
family would be concerned about me and didn't really understand abot my
allergies. I didn't have a reaction at all. I later found out they weren't
raspberry, but blueberry-poppyseed. They were tart and had little seeds in
them. So much for it being "all in my head" as some people have said,
including some Doctors and Nurses. I don't either Fred (have "classic allergic" symptoms) except for the two times
I ate fresh pears, my face and neck blew up like a basketball. Otherwise I'm
usually wondering, is it a cold, a flu, an allergy or what? (like now, and I
think it's the trees).
