Talking Allergies

Laurensmom,
I have been dealing with allergies for a year and a half. I've only recently started chatting. Until now I did everything myself. I felt alone and it sucked.

As for you researching your daughters allergy as you have, and wanting to learn exactly what to do until you see your allergist, that is awesome. Your daughter is very lucky to have you as a mom.

I did once go to a restaurant intending to only buy a drink and then noticed that there was a note at the bottom of the menu indicating that they would accomodate people with food allergies or other dietary restrictions. This was several years ago--it seems to me that it was at the Sheraton.

And what's even safer is NOT eating out. (you all knew this was coming) :p

Saskmommyof2,

Thank you for your kind words. Got the medic alert bracelet on order. I managed to get the allergy appointment moved from March to February so far....baby steps!! haha I'm on a waiting list for cancellations. Going to have my list of questions ready just in case I get in earlier.

This is a big adjustment for our family. My husband is having a hard time accepting the severity of the issue. He thinks we should just keep on as we were. Part of me thinks the same thing but at the same time I don't want that kind of casual attitude to put my daughter at risk. Still trying to work it all out.

Laurensmom,
My husband was also a little hesitant to rid the house of all allergens. Both of my daughters were diagnosed on the same day. Oldest to peanuts and nuts and youngest to milk and eggs. We instantly removed all nuts and eggs from the house.

Milk was a difficult decision. Prior to her severe reaction, she had been around milk for a year, and even tried cookies containing milk and cream of mushroom soup and was on nestle good start formula (broken down milk protein ) with no obvious reactions. ( I felt pressured to introduce milk and eggs so that she could eat yogurt, have a birthday cake and her one year needle, which apparently makes no difference if you are allergic to eggs or not. ) I assumed this meant she was not allergic to milk. Then one day ( her first birthday ) she had a bit of vanilla ice cream and her face swelled, she was covered in hives and taken to the er.

Since that day, her sensitivity level increased greatly. I immediately put her on soy formula. Cross contamination became a big issue, and so was skin contact. She began reacting to the toys in the house and kisses from mom, dad, and sister. This was something that did not happen before her diagnosis. One day my then three year old spilled a glass of milk on the floor and it splashed everywhere. I felt like I was cleaning up a level 4 bio-hazard. Thats the day I decided it had to go.

It was the best decision for me. I enjoy that I do not need to feel constant stress over worries of cross contamination or accidental injestion.
With the recent discovery of her reacting to chicken and beef, I have not cooked them in the house for about two weeks. A lot of her constant eczema has cleared with only glaxal base being applied. She didn't like meat so had never really eaten it, but I wonder if being around it and smelling it cooking was aggrivating the eczema.

My husband has gotten used to the banning of all nuts, milk, eggs, chicken, beef. He knows how stressed I would be if they were in the house, and for good reason. I'm sure yours will come around on the nuts.

My youngest is now 2 1/2 and really sensitive to milk. She has had contact reactions to a shopping cart , toys and the equiptment at gymnastics. Quite a change from the little girl who once ate cream of mushroom soup without a reaction.

Saskmommyof2,

How scary. I've been allergic to eggs and milk all my life but never to that extent. With milk I just get congested and with eggs only with skin contact I break out. I'm allergic to everything environmental too but just get congested with that too. I realize now how lucky I have been. After reading your last reply, I also realize how careful I have to be with my daughter. Thanks for your input.

Laurensmom, I've just been rereading thru all the posts in answer to your original post. You are so lucky to have found this forum at this point in your daughter's life. You will be able to handle your daughter's condition with strength and knowledge - something that many of us lacked with an initial diagnosis.

In terms of the wait to see your allergist, I just wanted to share our story with you. When our son was only 9 months old and had his first major allergic reaction (he'd had smaller reactions prior to this), our family doctor referred us to an allergist. Our original wait was about 6 months. Our family doctor was not satisified with this and felt his appointment should be expedited. I called the allergists office, and they were able to bring the wait to about 3 months. Are you seeing an allergist at McMaster? Our son's allergist is Dr. Susan Waserman at McMaster, and we think she's amazing - extremely knowledgeable and compassionate. Actually, she's one of the consulting allergists with Allergic Living, and was a speaker at the Allergy Expo in Toronto this past May.

Also, I wanted to add my comments regarding the need for caution in feeding your daughter foods that "may contain" the specific allergen you are avoiding (peanuts in this case). In the beginning, when our son was initially diagnosed, we did not realise how extremely careful we needed to be. We weren't as careful as we should have been, and he had several more major allergic reactions. My husband and I were just sick about it. Now we are extremely careful. Our son has multiple food allergies, so it's quite complicated. We don't eat out anywhere, I make all our own bread and baked goods (our son has a sesame allergy; therefore, finding baked goods that do not contain, or "may contain" sesame is very difficult these days), we don't buy any prepared foods - everything is made from scratch. You may not have to face all this with a peanut allergy, but avoiding foods that "may contain" peanut is a warning that your allergist will recommend that you heed - at least our allergist did.

Best of luck to you and your family. Honestly, I think our family (and many others on this forum will agree), living with allergies forces you to eat a very healthy diet! So, there are positives in living life with food allergies!

Julie,

Our appointment in Februay is with Dr. Wasserman as well. She was the allergist we took my son to a few years ago and I myself had Dr. Wasserman 5+ years ago when I was diagnosed with asthma. My experiences with her though were brief...so I'm glad to hear you think highly of her. Hopefully, I can get in sooner as I have so many questions. Thank you for sharing your story with me.

I agree with 'Youngvader'

Laurensmom, I hope your daughter's appt goes well in February. Our son's annual allergist appts take about 2 - 2.5 hours (in total), but actual time spent one-on-one with the doctor is only approx. 20 minutes or so. But we found we were pointed in the right direction, were given good guidance, told about local support groups, suggested reading materials, and followup questions could be answered over the phone by the nurse (she will consult with the doctor if need be). Our son's original allergist did not provide this kind of support, so it was a relief to find Dr. Waserman. (I hope it's okay to be mentioning an allergist by name, but I guess it's okay if I only have positive things to say!)

All that said, I have found the information provided by the Allergic Living magazine and forum to be enormously helpful. As well, some reading material I have found to be particularly helpful are : (this book has already been mentioned, and I thought it was great too ... "The Complete Kid's Allergy and Asthma Guide" Dr. Milton Gold of The Hospital for Sick Children and "Caring for Your Child with Severe Food Allergies" by Lisa Cipriano Collins.

Julie,

Does the 2 - 2.5 hour appointment include asthma tests as well as allergy tests? My daughter had the basic environmental allergy tests when she went to see the pediatrician who specializes in respiratory issues. Is the testing involved at an 'allergy' appointment more extensive?

Thanks for the book references.

Hi Laurensmom, In answer to your question, our son does not have asthma, therefore, the 2 - 2.5 hour appt was for food allergy testing only. Some of that time is spent waiting the 20 minutes after the skin tests have been conducted. Because our son has multiple food allergies, and because of his age, with the exception of egg which is tested annually (egg is more likely outgrown than the others on his list), the remaining allergens on his list are tested on alternate years. He has very high positives for most of his list, so his allergist feels testing on alternate years is sufficient. I can't remember if I posted under this subject heading what my son's list of allergens are? If so, I apologize for repeating myself; his allergens are: peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, egg, fish, green peas, mustard seed, pineapple. We must also avoid shellfish, all beans and lentils. Of his list, the food we've found the most challenging to deal with is sesame seed because it is either present, or may be present in virtually all breads and other baked goods. We strictly avoid all breads and baked goods, and only prepare them at home. As well, many crackers and potato chips are now made with sunflower oil, so we avoid most of them as well.