Living With Food Allergies

Sam was around 1 year old and at that time we were still living in the UK (now live in Australia - lot warmer). We were out and about shopping at a supermarket - Tesco. I am normally a fairly organised person, but this particular day when Sam started to cry around lunch time, I realised that I had forgotten his food. I thought, I would improvise - I was in the best place to get him some lunch anyway.

Sam was at the finger food stage, so I decided on some fresh bread and humus. Sam went crazy for it - I had never seen him eat so hungrily before, so I thought great, this is good - I now have another food to feed Sam. However, my happy feeling soon disappeared because within a couple of minutes Sam's lips started to swell and he had a rash around his them. A minute later his whole face started to swell up - you could hardly see his eyes. We went straight to the hospital, it was only about 5 minutes away. On the way there Sam's breathing started to get shallower and he went to sleep - he was exhausted. I tried to wake him but couldn't.

We were so scared and Harry was with us aswell so we tried to play it down a bit. When we got to the hospital we found out that Sam had experienced an allergic anaphylaxis reaction. It had to be something in the bread or humus. Then came the questions was - which one was it?what else was he allergic to that we didn't know about ?

We were told that the waiting list to test for food allergies on the NHS was a big one and that we would be waiting for a year, at least. Well, this was not possible because I had no idea what had caused the reaction or what else may cause a reaction. (Thanks for nothing NHS). I went to see a allergist privately with Sam who tested him with a RAST test - this is when blood is taken and then tested to find out what allergies are present. After the initial blood test we had to wait a week for the results.

Since Sam's reaction I had been spending a lot of time on the internet trying to find out information on anaphylaxis allergies and what children are allergic to. I was hoping that the RAST test didn't discover a peanut or sesame allergy because these are the 2 that are more likely to be lifetime allergies. Well, the results confirmed that Sam was allergic to both peanuts and sesame, along with eggs.

When we got the news, I cried for days which now I feel quite silly about, but at the time I was in bits. To be honest, it wasn't really having to deal with the allergies it was more about what the outcome could be. An anaphylaxis reaction could be fatal. I could loose my child all because of a peanut ! Sounds mad doesn't it ?

After I had stopped crying and basically feeling sorry for myself and Sam, I switched to 'deal with it' mode. This is kind of how I do things, I sulk and worry for a while and then something clicks with me an I start actually tackling the issue. I am a doer not a thinker. My husbands the thinker - the balance works well.

Well, I was in 'tackle it' mode but what did we all eat now ? I started to go through the foods in our pantry - almost everything had 'produced in a factory that handles nuts' or 'may contain sesame seeds' ! I spent the next few weeks getting used to reading labels on everything that we bought and also learning a lot more about cooking and baking on the way. It takes a long, long time to get used to what products you can buy and what you can't.

Once we HAD got used to what we could and couldn't eat it started to get easier. I learnt that I could not leave the house without food for Sam - if he got hungry I couldn't just buy him something easily. I had to be prepared - it made me a much more organised Mom, that's for sure.

We moved from the UK to Australia in 2007 so then we had to again get used to what foods we could and couldn't eat - back to reading labels !

We made it clear to our families and friends that if we were coming around there must be no peanuts etc out - of course everyone was fine about this. Our families are great in supporting us in any of life's little mishaps - what would we do without family ?

It was new to both my side of the family and my husbands - until it happened none of us (myself included) knew that food allergies on this scale existed. I had heard about food allergies in general, yes, but, to be perfectly honest, I just thought that it was people being over fussy - that sounds so terrible now, I know. I had never even heard of anaphylaxis allergies - my head must have been buried in the sand or something.

We all just seemed to not crave the same foods anymore. My Dad used to have a bowl of peanuts next to his chair and eat some whilst watching the news, before dinner. When he found out about Sam he stopped eating them all together. I used to love sesame seed buns, but suddenly they didn't seem as attractive anymore - I think when you are aware that it can harm your children you simply 'go off' the food yourself.

This was when were living in Australia. We were all having our dinner one night and Sam was in his high chair. I was doing the usual Mom thing - trying to get the kids to eat more fruit. I had been out and bought a few 'different' fruits (different being that the boys hadn't tried them before). I had bought strawberries, blueberries, kiwi fruit and mango. I cut them all up on a couple of plates - even making a face on one of the plates to encourage them.

Harry did eat half of a strawberry but then said he would leave the other half until tomorrow. This is his code for I don't like it. I gave Sam some Kiwi fruit to try. He loved it - he started munching away - well at least it had worked on 1 out of 2 ! But, then he started to develop a rash around his face - just red spots - they were raised red spots !

Straight away this time we knew what it was and we were prepared. We had the epipen on hand ready, but because it wasn't affecting his breathing (not yet anyway) we gave him some antihistamine first - 5ml. We were handling it as per the direction on his action plan. We threw all the kiwi fruit away - wrapped up in the bin outside and cleared up any traces. Within 15 minutes or so the rash dissappeared and it hadn't caused any swelling or breathing difficulties. We kept a close eye on Sam for the next 12 hours or so. He slept with us that night.

So, that was another food to avoid and one that I would have to check out with his allergist.

The allergist we were refered to in Australia was based in Brisbane which is about an hour and a half drive from where we live, but he comes up to the Sunshine Coast once a month. When I telephoned his secretary she told me that rather than wait until Sam's next reccommended test time which was in another year, the allergist would prefer to test Sam now. You see, I was told that the RAST test that Sam had been given in the UK was not as accurate as the skin prick test, that they did here in Australia. Maybe they had got Sam's allergies wrong - maybe he wasn't really allergic to eggs and peanuts, just sesame ?

No such luck, Sam's allergy testing results were the same with the skin prick test as they had been with the RAST test in the UK. It did bring up one thing though, we tested Sam for his allergy to Kiwi and that came up with almost the same strength as his peanut allergy. That's 4 allergies we are up to now - Peanuts, Sesame, Egg and Kiwi.

The allergist told us to return again in 2 years, which would be the end of 2009 to see how Sam's allergies were developing. We did return and Sam was tested again whilst we crossed everything that the severity of his allergies had decreased - we got our wish with the egg, but the others were the same. The severity of Sam's egg allergy had decreased by 50% over the 2 years which is really good. The good news is that at least the other 3 have not got any worse. We are to carry on the same as before and then return at the end of 2011.

In Cambridge in the UK there have been exciting results with previous trials. The most recent trial involved giving tiny amounts of peanut flour to children, increasing the dosage regularly. The end result is that now 20 children can eat 30 peanuts a day without having a reaction. This is amazing ! No more worrying about whether your child will have an anaphylaxis reaction that day when you wave them off to school.

It's all really exciting. Anyway, they are now getting ready to begin a new trial which will be on a much larger scale and will involve 100 children between 7 and 15 years of age. Again, they will be given tiny amounts of peanut flour mixed in yogurt and the amount given will be increased every 2 weeks. It is expected that at the end of 3 months the children will be able to eat 5 peanuts a day !

The trial will last 3 years and if it is successful will result in a cure for peanut allergy becoming available. I am praying for it to be success, but it does sound really positive - fingers crossed !

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