Baby who could DIE if he touches tomato ketchup

A TWO-year-old toddler's life is in danger from tomato ketchup - and even touching a dollop of sauce could kill him.

Two-year-old Ruben has a severe allergy to tomato ketchup [WALES NEWS SERVICE]

Little Ruben Curie has a severe allergy to tomatoes with the slightest contact sending him into a potentially-fatal shock.

Ruben has to avoid the ketchup to stay alive - even though the rest of his family regularly have it on their tea.

His mother Kasi, 24, told how the toddler is lucky to be alive after being rushed to hospital when tomato ketchup touched his finger.

She said: "We still have tomato ketchup because its not fair to my other children to deny them. I just make sure Ruben goes nowhere near it.

"But my children were eating their tea of chicken nuggets and somehow Ruben got a drop on the tip of his finger.

"I grabbed a cloth and washed his hands immediately, the ketchup was only on his finger for only seconds.

"Only hours later Ruben was in a terrible state. My boy looked like he'd done ten rounds in a ring with Mike Tyson.

"His eyes were swollen shut and his tongue had blown up. We had to push his tongue down so he could breathe.

"I knew straightly away he'd gone into an anaphylactic shock. I called 999 for an ambulance immediately."

Ruben was rushed to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant, South Wales, to be given steroid injections - and within 15 minutes the swelling from anaphylactic had subsided.

He was discharged later that evening and Mrs Curie was given antihistamine liquid to administer to him.

Mrs Curie says: "We had the fright of our lives. The doctor said Ruben had suffered a very severe reaction. It's hard to imagine that a dollop of ketchup could have such an effect."

Ruben could go into anaphylactic shock with just a drop of ketchup [WALES NEWS SERVICE]

Mrs Curie said she first realised something was wrong with Ruben when he was six-weeks-old. He was covered in angry, red marks that looked like burns.

At first doctors thought it was baby acne and then eczema Ruben was given steroid cream.

His mum said: "I realised he must be allergic to something so I kept a food diary. A pattern emerged when he ate anything with tomato in it.

"I was careful not to make him anything with tomatoes."

His sister Faith, five, and brother Craig, four, were told not to share their food with Reuben. Mrs Curie, of Rhondda, South Wales, said the family rarely eat out because there is always the fear of cross contamination.

She says: "Even prawn cocktail crisps are a problem because they have tomato powder in them. We can't risk eating out very often because we don't know exactly what is in the food.

"We've had to be creative - Ruben loves pizza like most children but he couldn't have a takeaway one or a shop bought pizza.

"Now make them from scratch but just make it without tomato. His favourite food is green pesto and pasta which thankfully has no tomatoes.

Doctors told the family having a sensitivity to tomatoes in very common but having a anaphylatic reaction to them is very rare.

Mrs Curie said she is now waiting for Ruben to see an allergy specialist.

"I never want to see my baby like he was after that tomato ketchup. Having a child with such a severe allergy is life-changing."