Food Allergy Help . org

Welcome all to 2010!  I began this year with the hopes that we would begin to see a decline in our allergy/asthma/eczema issues...not so much.  I'm not complaining; however, as we have managed to make it through all the holidays reaction-free, which is a HUGE DEAL!!!  It seems that we have discovered an allergy to the cold in my 3 yr old son.

We made chocolate chip cookies for my son's 5th Birthday party.  An activity we have enjoyed doing for several years now.  He chooses the kind of cookie, and we make it together.  Because my oldest son only (I use the world "only" here in relation to his brother's multiple food allergies, not to minimize anyone else's food allergies) has a mild egg, milk and wheat allergy, he is able to consume those foods in moderate amounts and still be just fine.  Until I have a brain-fart (for lack of a better word), and decide to let him eat raw cookie dough.

Soooo....turns out my 20 month old son has a sulfa allergy.  How did we find this out you might ask?  Because of the pink eye medication!  Poor little guy can't seem to catch a break!  A swollen face wasn't really the look I was going for.

You heard me right!  My boys were able to acquire MORE sickness, as if having had H1N1 and para-influenza wasn't enough already, right?!  After my oldest son was finally able to return to school, he managed to get pink eye the day of his 5th Birthday party (not his actual birthday).  As if that wasn't enough, on his actual birthday, he managed to come down with a temp of 102.5, strep throat and an ear infection.  Happy Birthday to him...

Not yet a week after we had all recovered from the H1N1 ordeal, my oldest son somehow managed to get sick again.  We're not sure exactly what he picked up, or where, but he was out of school for another week....bringing his grand total to missed school days to 13!  Thank goodness he is only in preschool, but oh.my.gosh!

I apologize for being absent from the site for a month now...my boys have been sick for almost 5 wks straight, and then my husband and I got sick.  All of our happenings for the month of October are listed under the October heading, but will have November dates as the posted date.  I will get them posted as soon as possible...before I forget!  Thanks for your understanding!

Here's the low-down on our trip to the peditrician's office today to re-check the boys since their ordeal with H1N1 and pnumonia.

You guessed it....we ended up with influenza this year!  Not only that, but because none of the other strains of influenza are out yet for this season, we managed to get the dreaded H1N1 (swine flu).  How lucky are we?!  We are on the upswing now (I pray), but here is a recount of the events of the last few days.

 

I've heard that saying before, but in the realm of food allergies, that takes on a new meaning!  In our house, we need to take that to heart because sharing spit in any form can be dangerous!  Many people wouldn't think twice before they gave their child a kiss on the cheek, or took a bite of some food their child wanted to share.  I also have to watch that our oldest son doesn't stick out his tongue and "spit" or blow "raspberries" on his brothers because this can be more than an annoying behavorial issue when food allergies are involved.  I'm assuming this was the reason for our last reaction...

I finally received information back from the allergist today.  I am still processing it, and am, quite frankly, not sure what to make of it all.  I will have a better idea after I read, and re-read, what was sent.  Some of it was what I expected and some others, not so much.  I feel like I have had my one glimmer of hope extinguished like a flame that has run out of oxygen.  I'm pretty much left with 2 options, the way I see it right now.

Frustration, frustration, frustration.  That about sums it up for me right now.  I've tried several times to get an e-mail to my Allergist that just will not go through their system.  I initially sent the e-mail on July 27th that was asking for answers to numerous questions I've had swirling around in my head for some time now.  I waited 2.5 wks to see if they would respond....nothing.  I didn't really think anything of if because they had taken so long just getting my test results back to us from our appointment there on June 23rd, that I figured they were just taking their sweet time with the whole thing.  I finally got fed up with having not heard a peep, so I called, only to find out that they hadn't received the e-mail in the first place.  Grrrr.....

 

It's been quite some time since I last posted...for many reasons.  One, quite frankly, I've been exhausted.  Having 3 boys under the age of 5 is just plain tiring to say the least.  Add food allergy complications on top of that, and you have exponential exhaustion some days.  And that never ends, as they always have to eat!  We also managed to have a round of hand-foot-and-mouth surge through my household recently, leaving myself and my 3 yr old the only ones to escape it's grasp (yes, my husband also got it!).  I tell ya, trying to feed a child with food allergies and blisters in his mouth was not an easy task!  One I pray I never have to repeat!!!  We also haven't had many food allergy-related issues recently, which, is good.  I'm always pleased when we can go for quite some time with few reactions....it doesn't happen often that we can go almost a month without something occur.  This past month hasn't gone completely without incident, there was one minor problem.  The story goes something like this...

I finally received letters from our Allergist regarding the test results from our last visit.  I have updated the blog entry "And The Results Are In..." with the few extra tests that we were having run for my 3 yr old and my 1 yr old, so feel free to go back and refresh your memory on the final list as of July '09.  Now I will reveal what the Allergist had to say about each of our boys' results.

Phew!  It's been busy around here lately, I've hardly gotten a chance to catch my breath, let alone, write on the site.  I feel this might be a bit of a hodge-podge of a blog tonight, but I'll try to sum up the last few weeks events that relate to food allergies.

I thought for a change, I'd post a good experience we had while out and about in this wonderful weather!  It wasn't totally void of any reactions, however, they were minor and didn't negatively impact our zoo experience.  On Friday, I took my boys to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines, Iowa.  We had a terrific time...or rather...a Zoo-rrific time!!

Confusion, dismay, shock, anger, disbelief....these are just a few words to describe my feelings after receiving my son's allergy testing results.  Here is the results, then I will talk about what this may or may not mean, as I'm still waiting to hear from the Allergist as to what I need to do from here on out (I'll explain that one later).  Just for reference, the scale is listed below.  It goes from negative (not allergic) to class VI (increasing IgE antibody concentration found in the blood) looking at concentrations of IU/ml.

Starting tomorrow morning, we head up to Wisconsin to have all 3 of our boys tested/re-tested for their allergies.  Every 6 months we make the 4 hr trek up to Allergy Associates of LaCrosse, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin to see Dr. Mary Morris, our wonderful allergist!  We go much more often than most people with allergies, due to the severity of our food allergies.  My oldest son will be getting tested for the first time during this trip.  The other 2 boys will be re-tested for many food allergens and have several new food allergens tested.

I just wanted to write a quick note for everyone, to let you know that I will be taking a hiatius from my blogging (unless something of importance comes up) in order to work on the content portion of the site.  I feel like I have so much information that still needs to be posted that is of great importance to the site, so I will plan to use my evenings to work on that, instead of the blog.  Again, if there is an event that I feel constitutes a post, I will do so, but I want to concentrate my efforts on the critical information that is still absent from my site for now.  Thanks so much again for your interest in my site and please continue to check back for new content!

Hello to all my fellow Iowan's!  I am looking into bringing the first Food Allergy Walk to the state.  I am contacting the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network to see if we can possibly get a walk scheduled in Iowa.  I am hopeful that we could get a terrific turnout from people all around the state.  But....I need your HELP!

Once again, I have to apologize for the lack of posts as of late...I had a vein stripped out of my right leg, and have been recovering while taking care of my kids (I know...how does that work...let's just say it doesn't very well!).  I am mostly recovered now, so I'm back on the task at hand!

My newest adventure involves charting all of my boy's reactions (or possible reactions) and making a list to take to our allergist in late June.  Many of them are nicely posted in my blog already, saving me time!  Hooray for something being easy!!  I certainly don't get many instances where I can say that with respect to allergies.

It's been a CRAZY couple of days!  I have been busy getting my house in shape, as it has been strewn with boxes since our move in October.  I finally got fed up with the clutter and have been on a cleaning spree ever since!  On Friday, we had a few people over to our home (so I was glad it was clean) for a visit.  I had made sugar cookies with M&M's in them with my oldest son earlier that day.  These cookies contained, wheat, egg, milk and possibly peanuts (as M&M's have a "may contain peanuts" warning on the package), all to which my son is allergic.  After dinner that evening, I had given my 4 yr old son one of our cookies and I gave my 2 yr old one of his "special" cookies.  I explained that the cookies with the colored spots in them were NOT for him and that they would make him sick if he ate one, that was why Mommy had given him his special chocolate cookie.  He happily ate his special cookie and we went about our evening as usual.

So we tried spinach, peas and squash again with my 1 yr old son....I am again saddened to report that I believe that we may have lost all 3.  Within a few bites of the spinach, my son had itched his chin so it was bleeding and red and inflamed.  That was at lunch time.  For dinner I tried the peas with him and he seemed to react, but that could have been due to the already irritated skin on his chin and hands....so that one is still under investigation.  Once his skin is better we will have to try that one again...it could be awhile before it's healed up well enough, though.

This week, May 10th-16th has been named National Food Allergy Awareness Week!  I am planning to speak at my son's preschool on Monday (a week late, but Costa Rica put a snag in my original plan).  I hope to educate his classmates about food allergies, what the top 8 food allergens are, what a reaction could look like (without being scary about it--although I know all to well how scary it can be), and most importantly, how they can help keep their food-allergic friends safe!

It's official....we've lost garlic.  I can see some of your faces now looking a bit confused....garlic....really?!  And the depressing answer is YES.  My all-time favorite spice is no longer tolerated by my 2 yr old son.  I'm heartbroken....and now a bit more bland too.

Relaxation...I don't know that I've actually been able to fully relax since my second son was born almost 3 yrs ago.  That is when our allergy nightmare began, and still continues today (along with our third son).  My children managed to have NO REACTIONS during our entire trip in Costa Rica!  If this isn't huge news in our "world", then I don't know what is!

I apologize for not blogging for a couple of days.  My husband and I are getting ready for a trip to Costa Rica and as you might imagine prepping for someone else to watch our food-allergic children for 6 days is no easy task.  On that same note, I will not have access to a computer or internet while on my trip, so my next blog might not be for a week.  I hope to come back rejuvinated and ready to tackle the website content hard-core!  I'm so overjoyed that I won't have to make 3 separate allergy-friendly meals for nearly a week, that I almost can't think straight---it should be a great opportunity for my husband and I to focus on US for a change!

First, my son is doing much better now.  The mystery, however, has not been solved!  We still are not sure what caused the reaction, but I'm convinced that it was a food-related incident.  The fact that he got better and stayed better after receiving the steroids leads me to believe that it was definately a reaction...and the timing of the incident strongly suggests a food-realated reaction to-boot.

It's obvious I didn't blog yesterday....and here's why.  The story goes a little something like this...

Tuesday evening my sons were playing outside while my husband cleaned out his work car.  Nothing out-of-the-ordinary.  They came in and got ready for bed.  Again, normal.  My oldest son, who "doesn't" (you'll see why I state it this way later) have any food allergies woke up during the  night complaining of a stuffy nose.  I got him back to sleep and the remainder of the night went as normal.

So, I changed the diaper of my one-year old tonight and noticed, yet again, that there was something that was obviously bothering his now red, inflamed bottom.  I've noticed that over the past few weeks, that when I feed him squash, carrots and quinoa that we seem to get itchy while we are eating it.  Now, that having been said, he does have significant eczema, so sometimes it's very hard to tell if it's just him being itchy in general, or if it's the food that's causing a reaction.  I must say, having eczema has drastically complicated the whole food allergy issue--drastically!  He's always itching at his skin, he always has sores that may, or may not, be oozing, bleeding, crusty, red and/or inflamed.  The only time he's 100% clear is when he's on oral steroids for some other issue....which, incidentally, is when we have our children's pictures taken! ;-)

The phone rings.  I answer.  It's my friend who has just returned from a trip, so I assume she's calling to update me on the fun I missed.  I couldn't be more wrong.  Her voice changes to that tone that instantly makes your heart drop...I hold my breath and ask "what's wrong?"  She informs me that a mutal friend's son had anaphylaxis this evening.  I immediately get sweaty palms and my heart begins to race.  "How is he doing?"  I ask.  He's at the hospital after an injection of Epi (epinephrine) at home.  As I write this, I still do not know his current status, but I can only sit and pray that he is doing better and will make a complete recovery.

Mysterious, red, annoying itchies!  Hives, to be more exact, but we're not sure why.  I've discovered that when you have children with allergies (of any kind), and especially those kids with excema as well, that there are bound to be days when they are all red and itchy without any apparent reason.  As horribly annoying as this is, it is an inevitibility.  There will be mysteries to which we will never find the root cause.  Many times I just accept this and move on, but there are times when I just get SO FRUSTRATED!

Tonight we ventured out to the local elementary school carnival with my two oldest sons.  Now, it's been a few years since I last attended a school carnival, just a few.  Of course, this involved the ever popular "cake walk" (which I remember as a child participating in myself).   Here a slew of baked goods are placed on several tables surrounding children who are already eating pizza, cookies, and other food items for sale to help raise money for the school.  I fully understand the appeal of this to children and adults alike, however, "OH MY GOSH THERE IS POISION ALL AROUND US" is the only thing that came to my mind.

What do the two have in common, you might ask....the answer, nothing!  They are actually two separate stories that happened last night when I was with my boys.

First, the broccoli.  My oldest son (who is 4) has become a notoriously picky eater over the last year or so, despite his ability to eat without restrictions (for now...that is a whole other story).  I usually try to make some portion of our dinner a food that everyone can have.  Yesterday, it was broccoli as the side.  I have made broccoli countless times before...steamed, raw, baked in casseroles, and boiled.  This time, I chose to roast the broccoli with a little salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.  Nothing that struck me as "oh my gosh, he's gonna gobble this up", but tasty none-the-less.  Boy was I wrong!  Here he was, my picky eater, chowing down on the broccoli!!  He turnes to me and says "Mommy, how did you get the broccoli to taste so good this time?"  All I can say is:  When you have lemons, make lemon-broccoli....it works!