sesame

Iya (8 years old)

March 22, 2023 / , , , , , , , ,

When my daughter was about 9 months, her preschool teacher called to let me know she was fussy and was tugging on her ears. I recommended some Tylenol since it sounded like an oncoming ear infection. Five minutes later she called and said my daughter’s face was swelling and they had to call 911. This obviously was very terrifying. I worked about 25 minutes away, so called my husband who worked locally to head that way. Luckily, our daughter was breathing fine. We took her to urgent care and gave her benadryl which helped with the swelling and itching. We believe she ate eggs for the first time that morning. This prompted allergy testing where we found out she was allergic to peanut, tree nuts, eggs, sesame. We later found out she has an allergy to green peas. She can now have baked egg. We think we will be able to challenge egg and sesame soon. We use epinephrine and benadryl as needed.

At first, we relied on our allergist and pediatrician for resources. When she was younger, I used relevant FB groups to see how other parents navigated certain situations. I’ve used the Food Allergy Fund and FARE as a resource.

 Jaime (@triofudge – 6/4 years old)

October 17, 2022 / , , , , , , , ,

When my son was 10 months old he had an anaphylactic reaction to peanut butter. I didn’t know it at the time because that was our introduction into food allergies! Since then we have added some allergens to the list of ones we manage. Between our two children (ages 6 and 4) we manage: peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, egg, shellfish and banana. Peanuts, shellfish, egg, and banana were confirmed from having reactions, and then with annual follow-up skin and blood tests at our allergist’s office. Sesame and tree nuts are confirmed through testing only. Both children are currently undergoing SLIT treatment (SubLingual ImmoTherapy) at Allergenuity in North Carolina. We are hoping SLIT will protect against cross contact and hopefully lead to more free eating.

We use information from FARE to educate ourselves, family members, care takers, and school staff members on food allergies in general, how to recognize symptoms and reactions, how to administer epinephrine, and how to create an Emergency Action Plan that fits our family’s needs. We have used information from FAACT to develop 504 plans for public school.

 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.

@theallergyteen – 14 years old

August 11, 2021 / , , , , , , , ,

My sister had a dairy allergy, so I was invited to the LEAP food allergy study – this is where I was diagnosed with a dairy, egg, peanut, and sesame allergy. When I was younger, allergies were very much in the dark ages and eating out or buying allergy safe alternatives were simply not options! Because of this my mum (@lucysfriendlyfoods) decided to start baking and creating allergy friendly recipes. This really transformed my life and made me feel as though I was ‘normal’ and the same as all of my friends, who also enjoyed these baked goodies, and even said they were better then dairy and egg containing bakes!

Medications Taken: salbutamol (inhaler) for asthma and i carry antihistamine and epipens around as a precaution

Hannah (@letstalkfoodallergies – 18+ years old)

March 8, 2021 / , , , , ,

Hi, I’m Hannah and I have severe, potentially life-threatening allergies (“anaphylaxis”) to peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, and legumes/pulses. When I was a baby I reacted to peanut butter, and then when I was 5 years old (16 years ago!) I experienced an allergic reaction to a sesame seed roll while on a holiday in Portugal. After this reaction to sesame, I’ve had several tests done and now carry epipens with me wherever I go for use in the event of a reaction. I’ve been very cautious in the way that I live after these experiences, and have been very lucky not to have had any further reactions.

Florence (3 years old)

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

I found out Florence had allergies at 7 months old. She reacted to a bit of scrambled egg. Since then, she has gained 5 more allergies. These include peanuts, cashew nuts, pistachio, cherries, sesame and dust mites. She has overcome almond, coconut egg and tomato. I went to a general practitioner who referred us to an allergy doctor.