pea

Landon (1 years old)

October 17, 2022 / , , ,

I learned about my son’s food allergies when he was only 6 months old. What was supposed to be a fun milestone (baby’s first food!) turned into a very scary situation, where he had an anaphylactic reaction to pureed peas. After he saw an allergist, they ran some blood work and he tested positive to eggs, peas, peanuts, and a handful of tree nuts. Since then, while slowly introducing new foods, we have unfortunately discovered more allergens.

We used FARE. Also a lot of blogs from other food allergy moms, Facebook groups, and social media.

Daveigh Bea (1 year old)

October 14, 2022 / , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When we first started introducing solids to little miss we noticed small hives and redness with eggs and milk products as well as an increase in her eczema. At first we did not think much about it and I kept exposing her to milk and eggs thinking she would get use to it but instead she kept getting redness, hives and runny noses. All this would improve with a bath and dose of zyrtec. I had bought some peanut butter banana food pouches and we had given them to her with what I thought was no reactions but one afternoon I came home to my husband freaking out and showed me the baby and she was covered head to toe in welts and hives, he told me all he gave her was the banana peanut butter about 10 minutes prior. She then proceeded to vomit multiple times, now at this point I am still not educated on food allergies or reactions but knew something was wrong so we took her to urgent care by the time we got there the benedryl had kicked in and she was doing better so urgent care pretty much dismissed us. Looking back I realized that she had been having small delayed reactions to peanut butter as she had been vomiting randomly but each time I had given her peanut butter I just did not correlate the two. Currently I am waiting to get into see an allergist as I have had to educate and advocate for ourselves. Our pediatrician did the blood allergy test and gave us an EpiPen and said she was too young for an allergist. Right now her allergies are peanut, eggs, dairy, wheat, oats and peas. We have excluded those foods and have had no reactions and her eczema is gone. We are hoping to try some food challenges once speaking to an allergist. She is now 15 months old still breastfeeding and we have found many safe foods and she is happy and thriving!

I found the websites FARE, The Food Allergy Counselor, and joined some food allergy groups on Facebook. I took it up on myself to learn about food allergies and symptoms of anaphylaxis. I am a mental health therapist and realized I was having increased anxiety around feeding her which let me to the Food Allergy Counselor social media and website where I educated myself on how to help others parents with the same anxious feelings I was having. I educated myself enough to become one of the therapist on their directory for my state I knew if I as a therapist was having these anxious thoughts and feelings there had to be more parents out there that may need an allergy informed therapist!

 Cameron (10 years old)

October 5, 2022 / , , , , , , , , ,

Our son was 13 months when he was diagnosed with his first allergy. I fed him mashed peas and he started coughing, then choking a bit and developing hives. His coughing was persistent and he started vomiting as well. It was really scary and I remember feeling helpless. I called 911 and was alone at the time. Before that incident, our son had vomited regularly after eating some foods and we attributed it to reflux. He also had terrible eczema and we just thought he had overly sensitive skin. After an upper GI and swallow study, a few different medications and other specialists evaluating his immunology responses, we finally looked at food allergies as a test. It felt like the most non-linear maze until we got to the pea reaction…and then we followed up with blood work and a skin scratch test. The tests confirmed that our son was anaphylactic to peanuts, most tree nuts, eggs, most legumes (including peas), mustard, sesame and soy protein. He is currently 10.5 years old as of 2022 and has not outgrown any of his food allergens yet.

Once diagnosed, we found FARE, Kids with Food Allergies and FAACT to be the most informative and helpful for creating allergy plans, what to include in an allergy bag and how to understand the basics (reading labels, understanding and preventing cross-contact, and understanding emergency signs and symptoms of a reaction). For every day living, I found several blogs with tips and tricks, recipes and people steps ahead on the journey who could detail tools for navigating this forward-facing health condition! Each meal requires careful planning and we had to reorient our thinking to anchor our plans in safety while also having fun. I was also finding that the Facebook groups brought together families out of trauma (after reactions) and fears (of future reactions) and as a caregiver I didn’t want to raise my kids with extra anxiety. I ended up creating Feedyourcan.com (when some foods you just can’t) as an empowering way to use the struggle as the teacher to help our kids build lasting life skills that will serve them well in food AND non-food challenging situations.

Maria Alexander (@allergy.with.me04 – 18+ years old)

October 5, 2022 / , , , , ,

When I was a baby, I had terrible rashes all over my skin and would itch constantly. I would not keep food down, so when I was around 6 months old I had gotten allergy tested. My blood test showed up with dairy, wheat/gluten, chicken, turkey, egg, shellfish, peanut, tree nut, oat, barley, pea. I have single grown out of a few allergens, but I still have a majority of them.

A lot of the information that my mom and dad used was from FARE and some different books.

Emily (@allergyandwe – 18+ years old)

August 24, 2022 / , , , , , , , , , ,

I was born with extreme eczema especially in the face. After getting breast milk I always reacted. My parents took me immediately to our doc and special allergist. They figured out during my first weeks and months that I have many allergies. I did overcome a lot while growing up. Now I’m still allergic to peanut, egg, soy, peas, lentils, beans and kiwi. I’m also lactose and histamine intolerant but I manage to have it on a normal basis in discussion with my natural practitioner.

My parents mostly reached out to the best docs and allergists in Germany. Since two years I go to a natural practitioner who works on a scientific basis and starts with the roots (gut health and immune system). I really do recommend looking for one working scientifically and visiting on a regular basis.

Ham (1 year old)

November 13, 2020 / , , , , , , , , , ,

I knew from birth since he was born with a weird rash all over his face and body. I knew that allergies would play a part in these skin issues since I myself have skin issues related to foods and so does my other daughter. Months go by and we start experiencing worsening eczema and vomiting… although my breast milk was 100% dairy free, he was still having severe reactions after drinking breast milk so I decided to find a formula option that might help him. I switched to a soy formula so I could allow dairy to completely leave his body which cleared up the vomiting issues we were having but the eczema still persisted especially around his eyes, arms and legs. At 4 months we were able to get a scratch test done which proved a dairy allergy and a severe egg allergy as well. I was cooking and consuming eggs daily in our home and he was exposed to them via breast milk and through skin contact. That day we became a complete egg free home and much of his eczema started healing. From then on we have been on the allergy journey slowly introducing foods one at a time mostly with negative results but luckily we have a handful of good safe foods. We fight allergies and eczema daily in our home and continue on our journey figuring out what this little one can and cannot be around. Currently he is allergic to eggs, dairy, peas, dogs, clover, bananas, and other fruits and veggies that we suspect could be a form of oral allergy syndrome. We hope our journey can help spread knowledge and awareness about how people living with allergies face life everyday from birth and beyond.We use topical steroids, Benadryl when needed, and an EpiPen prescription.

@foodallergyinspiration – 5 years old

November 13, 2020 / , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My little girl has been allergic since birth. She had a hard time gaining weight and would react to anything I ate when I would nurse her. She had eczema all over and stomach issues. Finally around 4 months we got referred to allergy. We found she had a dairy allergy so I eliminated dairy from my diet and finally found her a formula she could tolerate. As we introduced new foods we would notice she would react to them. Before she was a year old we had her tested and confirmed allergies to eggs, soy, peaches, carrots, celery, peas, avocado, bananas, watermelon, and peanut. As time went on the list grew to include coconut, sunflower, figs, nuts, and beef. Most of these items were because of reactions she would have when eating them and then skin and/or blood testing to confirm she was allergic. Over time she has been able tolerate carrots, celery, watermelon, banana, and soy! We are hoping to get even more items off the list! 

 

We carry an EpiPen everywhere we go, as well as Benadryl, a syringe, and hydrocortisone ointment. We also use Zyrtec and steroid creams as needed. She used to get hives and itchy hands all the time but that has gotten better as she’s gotten older. Someone gave us a subscription to Allergic Living magazine and that was very helpful! We also used a lot of info from FARE and Kids with Food Allergies. Recently, we joined instagram and there is a whole community of allergy families with lots of info and tips to share!