Anaphylaxis symptoms that infants cannot describe | Anaphylaxis signs that are potentially difficult to interpret in infants and why | Anaphylaxis signs in infants: Obvious but may be nonspecific |
General |
Feeling of warmth, weakness, anxiety, apprehension, impending doom | Nonspecific behavioral changes, such as persistent crying, fussing, irritability, fright | |
Skin/mucus membranes |
Itching of lips, tongue, palate, uvula, ears, throat, nose, eyes, and so forth; mouth-tingling or metallic taste | Flushing (may also occur with fever, hyperthermia, or crying spells) | Rapid onset of hives (potentially difficult to discern in infants with acute atopic dermatitis; scratching and excoriations, as such, will be absent in young infants); angioedema (face, tongue, oropharynx) |
Respiratory |
Nasal congestion, throat tightness; chest tightness; shortness of breath | Hoarseness, dysphonia (common after a crying spell); drooling, increased secretions (common in infants) | Rapid onset of coughing, choking, stridor, wheezing, dyspnea, apnea, cyanosis |
Gastrointestinal |
Dysphagia, nausea, abdominal pain/cramping | Spitting up/regurgitation (common after feeds), loose stools (normal in infants, especially if breastfed); colicky abdominal pain | Sudden, profuse vomiting |
Cardiovascular |
Feeling faint, presyncope, dizziness, confusion, blurred vision, difficulty in hearing, palpitations | Hypotension; measured with an appropriate size blood pressure cuff, low systolic blood pressure for infants is defined as less than 70 mmHg from age 1 month to 1 year and less than (70 mmHg + [2 x age in years]) in the first and second years of life; tachycardia, defined as greater than 120 to 130 beats per minute from the third month to second year of life inclusive; loss of bowel and bladder control (ubiquitous in infants) | Weak pulse, arrhythmia, diaphoresis/sweating, pallor, collapse/unconsciousness |
Central nervous system |
Headache | Drowsiness, somnolence (common in infants after feeds) | Rapid onset of unresponsiveness, lethargy, or hypotonia; seizures |