My 7 year old son is allergic to carrageenan(stabilizer/thickener) which appears to be showing up in more foods daily and few establishments that are serving it are actually able to find it on their ingredient list until I call the corporate office(which can take anywhere from 24 hours to 3 weeks to respond). I recently read that meat/poultry producers are the number one purchaser of carrageenan because the shoot it into the meat to give it a longer shelf life, but I have yet to determine who is shooting the product into their meat. We also recently found a website that has different names for their different carrageenan based products.

After much testing and weeks of food logs, my sons allergist also believes he is allergic to "food mold" which appears to be true. The allergic reactions have decreased dramatically since we have been avoiding possible food mold. We time and date perishable items and he only eats them within 24-48 hours of being open. He does not eat left overs or food sitting out for more than an hour or two max. No fermented foods like vinegar and soy sauce. No dried fruit and no bruised or old fruit. The list goes on. What are your thoughts about "food mold allergy"? Is there an allergist at ABC health who has experienced having a patient with a food mold allergy?

If he excersizes within a couple of hours of ingesting an allergen the reaction is much more severe. He wears a fanny pack with Benadryl and an Epi-Pen Jr. whenever we leave the house, because we never know when he has consumed an allergen until he is having a reaction. He is on a daily dose of Zyrtec which also seems to help. He has not had a severe reaction in a couple of months and only a handful of mild nausea/vomiting incidents which were all related to carrageenan that we were told was not in the food/beverage item he consumed. However, I am worried that each exposure could be making his allergy worse. Even though we are very careful, I imagine he is ingesting at least some minute amounts of food mold daily and we know he still ingests carrageenan in foods we are told do not have the ingredient, at least a couple of times a month.

We have not been able to find much information about "food mold allergy". Even though we have learned a lot about carrageenan and know some items to be extra cautious about, the people serving the ingredient do not even know, and on occasion will not tell us, when it is in the food. we can give you a list of major chains that gave us inaccurate/partial information when asked about ingredients/carrageenan. We also have not been able to find a nutritionist who is able to help us figure out how to create a healthy diet for our child with not so common food allergies.

We would be very greatful for any resources or information you might be able to offer.