rash

Emma & Emmett (@VanessaCutting – 16 years old)

October 14, 2022 / , , , , , ,

My daughter was a little less than a year maybe 9 months old and started breaking out in these horrible rashes. I took her to the pediatrician but they blamed it on me taking her flying at such a young age (but my family lived in Fl and I lived in Baltimore so I wasn’t not going to visit them it didn’t make sense), the pediatrician then blamed it on the fact that I didn’t breast feed my daughter and that is why she had a rash. So needless to say I switched Dr ‘s and instantly they had us allergy test. My son I had a feeling since birth but he was a NICU baby so he was a little more on the complicated side but none the less I had him tested as soon as he came home from the hospital. Call it a Mother’s Gut feeling I just knew. But yet again another Dr this time they said he has cystic fibrosis but i knew it was food allergies. My son would projectile vomit and diarrhea constantly.

No websites used, I did not but in 2006 there wasn’t much info out there. I mean I had to have a DR’s note and notarized to carry an epi-pen on a plane. They were not common. And in 2010 there was some info out but not a lot and I did a lot of research on mom blogs since Pinterest was just coming out. But besides that this journey has been trail and error and me never giving up for my kids sake and for their food allergies.

Olivia (>1 year old)

August 21, 2022 / , , , , ,

Olivia was a really settled baby for the first 2 weeks of her life and then all of a sudden spent weeks screaming, wouldn’t be put down, had dry rash skin, reflux and lose mucus stools that often contained blood… I thought she was just a ‘fussy’ baby as id read it was unlikely for a breastfed baby to have a milk allergy… I’d got so used to it but I soon realized there was more to it, I took her straight to the doctors and she was put on nutramigen which did not help at all (being breastfed babies are usually put straight on an amino acid based milk as they are highly sensitive due to reacting through breast milk where it’s quite broken down) so we ended up on neocate LCP and she soon became a different baby in every way! Smiling, settled and happy! Her reflux also settled! We are now weaning and so far it’s going well… we had a reaction which we believe was due to fish but I’m yet to introduce it again to check for a second reaction and we have cut out soya now just as a precaution as she’s had bad nappies but we believe they are down to teething! We hope to start the milk ladder in the future. I did a lot of research on the internet… I found out a lot of information on the NHS website but mainly through Facebook support groups about CMPA! They have been a life saver seeing other real peoples experiences as well as being able to ask similar parents/caters questions!

Amanda (18+ years old)

March 8, 2021 / , , , , , , ,

I was born with rashes, leaving my mom to suspect I suffered from food allergies since my first day. However, I was not properly diagnosed until I was 4 years old. My mom was taking me in and out of doctors who couldn’t figure out why the rashes were starting. Most just gave her creams to help them go away but that never helps. It took until one doctor finally suggested an allergist and we learned I was allergic to dairy, shellfish, and red meat. I never grew out of my allergies. They expanded instead. Today, I am allergic to dairy, soy, corn, gluten, shellfish, nightshades, and coconut.

We kept up with the trends of FARE. Recently, we discovered Spokin to help us find new food allergy brands.

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.