This is a time of year that can be a difficult one for kids with food allergies. All the homemade food, and sweet treats make it difficult to avoid the allergens. It’s important to remain diligent in making sure friends and family are aware of your kiddo’s allergies so that no one accidentally slips them that cookie or bite of pie that could do harm.
Here’s to a safe and healthy holiday season! Happy Thanksgiving!
Well, Mason had his bi-annual appointment in August where they did the skin test as well as his blood work. We got GREAT news!!! Mason has outgrown his tree nut allergy!!! As for the other allergens, the rusults were as follows:
Milk: down from 1.71 to .78
Egg: down from 4.70 to 2.43
Peanut: steady at 4.91
His environmental allergens all stayed the same as they were previously, but as noted before, those are easier to manage and I’m much less concerned with those. For people who want to know what those numbers mean…well, I’m not exactly sure. All I know is that anything over “0″ is a positive and anything less than 1.0 can be challenged. We’re going to set up an appointment to challenge the milk again. But my nerves are going full force after last year’s anaphylactic response. But his numbers are much better so that is a plus. We’ll see!
He’s hanging in there and growing strong. I’m amazed and my little boy!
So I apologize for not updating in over two months. Here is a quick update on Mason. He will be three in September, but his “3 year” allergy check up is August 8th. We’re excited to have him retested and see where we stand on all of his allergies. We of course are hoping and praying for a miracle that tells us he no longer has the allergies, but based on past test results, we know that’s not likely.
We’ve managed to avoid any food allergy attacks. We’re learning more and more every day about food allergies and we’ve been blessed with family and friends who are very diligent in making sure Mason is safe.
I’ll update more, soon!
Last night’s FAAST meeting was very informative. We had a panel discussion with mothers of allergy kids from all different ages- infant thru college age. It was very nice to hear all different perspectives on how people handle their child’s food allergies as well as learn some helpful tips. I came home with pages of notes.
Something I was not aware of is that coconut has now been added into the category of “tree nuts” (it used to be a separate allergen, but now it’s been grouped together). This is especially useful when buying soaps and shampoos, etc. Many products like this have coconut extracts in them that can be irritants to our allergy kiddos! Just something to keep in mind.
We are slowly but surely understanding more and more about these food allergies. We have decided to homeschool Mason for the first few years just to be on the safe side since he has had anaphylactic reactions and since he has reactions to contact, not just ingestion to so many things.
Food allergies are so scary and it’s hard to live with them daily. I often feel like I walk a fine line between hovering and protecting. I want him to have all the opportunities available to him, but I also have that maternal instinct to protect and keep him safe. We’re doing the best we know how with the information that we have.
In my last post, I mentioned FAAST, a local support group in Cincinnati for food allergy kids and families. I would like to list out some other places to go for support that I have found helpful when looking for information, recipes, support, etc.
Kids With Food Allergies
The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN)
Food-Allergy.org
I hope these links provide helpful information to those needing or wanting to learn more about food allergies.
For anyone dealing with food allergies, support is very important. It helps lighten the burden and makes living with the allergies every day a little bit easier knowing someone else knows and understands what you are going through. It also helps to know that there are places you can turn to for help and guidance if you have questions and can’t immediately speak with a doctor. Many of these groups offer multiple meetings a year for parents to get together and socialize with one another and listen to a guest speaker about different things pertaining to allergies.
If you’re in the Cincinnati area, I’d encourage you to check out FAAST as they offer great support, education and training about food allergies and children.
Having other people to turn to who understand what you are going through makes living with FAs so much easier. There’s no need to deal with it alone!
Cross contamination is one of the biggest difficulties in the life of a food allergy sufferer. Cross contamination affects not only food , but also surfaces.
In our home, the biggest problem is the fact that Mason is the only one with food allergies. So the rest of us do eat foods that he is allergic to, we just have to be very careful. If Brody eats a yogurt, I have to make sure his hands and face are completely clean of the dairy proteins. If he has on his hands and touches a toy that Mason then touches, Mason could have a very severe reaction just from touching the contaminated toy. I have to be very careful with sippy cups. If Brody accidentally takes a drink from Mason’s cup after having eaten a food item Mason is allergic to, then again, Mason could have a very severe, life threatening reaction if he drinks out of the cup before I get the chance to thoroughly clean it or get him a new one.
At home, it’s not as difficult to avoid cross contamination. Mason has his own area of the refrigerator that is specifically for his foods. He has his own cabinet of “Mason friendly” foods that are just for him. The problem is public places. Play grounds are a specific area of concern. A common picnic food or school lunch food is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Kids eat and then go play. It’s an easy place for there to be peanut butter proteins on the equipment. All Mason would have to do is touch it and be at risk for a reaction. The same goes for grocery carts. Think of all the items that get put in and out of a grocery cart and how many of them may contain allergens.
Cross contamination in food is another big issue. This is why a lot of allergic people stay away from restaurants. The simple misuse of a cooking tool or the accidental touching by the handler of an allergic food before touching the allergic persons food could all result in an allergic reaction. Peanut oils are popular cooking oils, which can be problematic for those with peanut allergies.
It’s a fine line between protectiveness and a bubble-like world to live in. We desire for Mason to have as normal as a childhood as possible, however we desire to keep him safe, healthy and away from allergens. With careful attention and diligence, this is possible- difficult, but possible.
There are only two basic ways to test for food allergies: skin tests and blood tests.
Skin prick tests are performed in a doctor’s office and results are known before you leave the office. Doctors will use a tool that resembles a fork with 2 prongs. A small amount of the allergen is placed either on the tool or directly on the skin. Then the device is placed on the skin to prick or break through the first layer of skin, putting a small amount of the allergen under the skin. A hive will form any spot where the person is allergic. This test is ideal for quickly learning if there is an allergy present. Skin tests cannot predict if a reaction would occur or what kind of reaction might occur if a person ingests that particular allergen. They can, however, confirm an allergy in light of a patient’s history of reactions to a particular food.
Blood tests are another useful diagnostic tool. One test is the RAST (RadioAllergoSorbent Test) which detects the presence of IgE antibodies to a particular allergen. A CAP-RAST test is a specific type of RAST test with greater specificity: it can show the amount of IgE present to each allergen. The RAST test results are compared to “predictive value” charts that researchers have come up with to determine sensitivity. If a persons RAST score is higher than the predictive value for that food, then there is over a 95% chance the person will have an allergic reaction if they ingest that food. Currently, predictive values are available for the following foods: milk, egg, peanut, fish, soy, and wheat. Blood tests allow for hundreds of allergens to be screened from a single sample, and cover food allergies as well as inhalants.
There currently is no cure for food allergies. Treatment consists of avoidance diets, in which the allergic person avoids all forms of the food of which they are allergic. For people who are extremely sensitive, like Mason, this may involve total avoidance of any exposure with the allergen, including touching or inhaling the allergic food as well as touching any surfaces that may have come into contact with it.
One of the scariest things about severe food allergies are the fact that they are life threatening. As mentioned in previous posts, some people may only have gastrointestinal symptoms or itchiness/hives or swelling, but like many other people, Mason’s allergies pose a risk to his life. This is because they can cause what is known as anaphylaxis.
Anaphylaxis is a violent allergic reaction involving a number of parts of the body simultaneously. Like less serious allergic reactions, anaphylaxis usually occurs after a person is exposed to an allergen to which they were sensitized by previous exposure (meaning, it does not usually occur the first time a person is exposed to a particular food). As little as one-fifth to one-five-thousandth of a teaspoon of the food the person is allergic to is known to have caused death.
Anaphylaxis can produce severe symptoms in as little as 1 to 15 minutes, and life-threatening reactions may occur within seconds or progress over hours. Signs of anaphylaxis are: difficulty breathing, throat tightness, swelling of the mouth and throat, a drop in blood pressure, and loss of consciousness- all of which cause the person to have great fear, often feeling as if they are dying (and without treatment, they probably will). The sooner that anaphylaxis is treated, the greater the person’s chance of surviving. The person should be taken to a hospital emergency room, even if symptoms appear to subside on their own. Symptoms can often seem to subside, then flare up again unexpectedly.
There is no specific test to predict the likelihood of anaphylaxis. Allergy testing may help determine the severity of the allergy. Doctors often advise people who are susceptible to anaphylaxis to carry medication, such as injectable epinephrine (ie. Epi-pen), with them at all times. Injectable epinephrine is a synthetic version of a naturally occurring hormone known as adrenaline. For treatment of an anaphylactic reaction, epinephrine is injected directly into a thigh muscle or vein. It works directly on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, by causing blood vessel to rapidly constrict, reversing throat swelling, relaxing lung muscles to improve breathing, and stimulating the heartbeat.
We’ve luckily seen great results with epinephrine in Mason. It has helped him greatly when needed. After epinephrine use, patients are usually advised to remain under observation by a physician in a Dr. office or ER for a period of 3-4 hours to make sure the body doesn’t adversely react again. Occasionally, repeat doses of epinephrine, in addition to steroids and anti-histamines, are needed to fight the anaphylaxis.
Food allergies are very different from a food intolerance. The common misconception is that they are the same thing. I can’t put it into words better than the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), so this information comes straight from them.
The difference between an allergy and an intolerance is how the body handles the offending food. In a true food allergy, the body’s immune system recognizes a reaction-provoking substance, or allergen, in the food–usually a protein–as foreign and produces antibodies to halt the “invasion.” As the battle rages, symptoms appear throughout the body. The most common sites are the mouth (swelling of the lips), digestive tract (stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhea), skin (hives, rashes or eczema), and the airways (wheezing or breathing problems). People with allergies must avoid the offending foods altogether.
Cow’s milk, eggs, wheat, and soy are the most common sources of food allergies in children. Allergists believe that infant allergies are the result of immunologic immaturity and, to some extent, intestinal immaturity. Children sometimes outgrow the allergies they had as infants, but an early peanut allergy may be lifelong. Adults are usually most affected by tree nuts, fish, shellfish, and peanuts.
Food intolerance is a much more common problem than allergy. Here, the problem is not with the body’s immune system, but, rather, with its metabolism. The body cannot adequately digest a portion of the offending food, usually because of some chemical deficiency. For example, persons who have difficulty digesting milk (lactose intolerance) often are deficient in the intestinal enzyme lactase, which is needed to digest milk sugar (lactose). The deficiency can cause cramps and diarrhea if milk is consumed. Estimates are that about 80 percent of African-Americans have lactose intolerance, as do many people of Mediterranean or Hispanic origin. It is quite different from the true allergic reaction some have to the proteins in milk.
(http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/wh-alrg1.html)
