wheat

Meryl (@merylottenstein1 – 18+ years old)

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

I had a reaction to nuts when I was 2 yr’s old. I saw many doctors as back then allergies were not very common. I was tested and was allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, and tomatoes. I also have asthma and oral allergy syndrome. I was on different medications and basically made sure not to eat anything with nuts in it. As I’ve gotten older my allergies have increased and I am now ana to eggs and allergic to wheat and many additives. I make sure to read all labels and have started cooking more. It can be very anxiety provoking and I am learning to do meditation and yoga. If I am in social situations where there is food I do not eat it if I feel uncomfortable. Many people don’t understand but I have to put myself first. We need to be our own best advocates. I use Flovent, Proventil, and Singulair medications.

I use FARE for information and many Instagram accounts that provide recipes and support. I believe in research and advocacy and hope that there will be a cure soon. Many more people have allergies today and it seems that there have been a lot of good changes. Social media is very helpful as well as the apps for eating out. It’s important to find a good doctor and always pay attention to symptoms. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to speak up about it.

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!

Elias (1 year old)

October 13, 2022 / , , , , , , , , , ,

We were dealing with eczema since he was 3 mo that old and at times it was so bad he’d scratch and bleed. We went to the pediatrician 4 or 5 times and tried so many ointments. Lots of wrong diagnosis led to my frustration. Then someone suggested seeing an allergist. We learned he was allergic to eggs and dairy from when he consumed them directly because he broke out in hives. Through breast milk it was presenting as eczema. Once he tried wheat he also had hives from that. I had to remove those confirmed allergens from my diet and he was prescribed epipens. I have suspicions of other foods that he is sensitive to but not necessarily breaking out in hives. Those include beef, soy, tomatoes and strawberries.

Primarily diagnosed through seeing hives and then skin and blood test confirmed it. I knew something was wrong from the beginning because he used to cry so much and had such bad colic and gas. He also used to spit up significantly almost every feeding. Once allergens we’re removed form both of our diets his eczema cleared, he was a happier baby, and the gas issues also seemed to resolve.

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.

Lauren (18+ years old)

January 5, 2022 / , , ,

From when I was a baby I was able to eat all foods and was able to have everything. I had no issues with food until my late teens when it all started. In 2017/18 I noticed that I would become unwell soon after eating meals/snacks and first thought that it could have been a bug but then noticed it was happening more regularly and only after I had certain foods which had dairy in them. This then lead me to think that I could be dairy intolerant, so I spoke to the doctor and after a discussion with them I was referred to the dietitian. Before my appointment I had to keep a food diary to track what I was eating and what reaction I was having after it, when I went to my appointment we discussed my symptoms and after our discussion it was decided that I was to avoid dairy completely from my diet. Then a couple years later I began to start becoming unwell again after meals/snacks and thought like I did with the dairy, is it a bug? But no it turned out that I was becoming unwell with egg, then a few months later I was becoming unwell again and because I had already taken dairy and egg out of my diet, the only other allergen I had eaten was gluten/wheat! So I then spoke to the doctor and got another referral to the dietitians; I had to do another food diary, when I spoke to them I discussed about how I was becoming unwell after having egg and gluten/wheat and that it just seems to be one thing after another I am now not able to have. So they said that I should remove them completely from my diet and to start taking multivitamins daily to help make sure I am still getting the nutrients. I’ve also had allergic reactions to vegan cheese as well where my neck and lips become really itchy and my throat and tongue become tingly, so I avoid this too! I’m still currently avoiding all dairy, egg and gluten/wheat and all vegan cheeses. But sometime not in the near future I might reintroduced these one by one in small amounts. I used the NHS website a lot when figuring out symptoms, and google in general. I also got good leaflets from my couple of appointments from the dietitians as well.

Ava Grace Goff (1 year old)

February 8, 2021 / , , , , , , , , , ,

Blood tests from the hospital my babies skin was inflamed from 4 weeks old started with spots all over her face and head from 3 weeks It was so severe she has so many tests was in hospital a lot she looked as though she had been in a fire she was riddled with histamine to the point she couldn’t sleep drink properly or do anything but wriggle. Her allergies are dog (severe) wheat, soya, milk, egg, peanuts, hazelnuts and mould. We took Clarithromycin plus ceterezine and neocate formula.

Stephanie (7 years old)

February 8, 2021 / , , , ,

He had a reaction at 7months old which led to testing. He tested positive for wheat, milk, egg. Since then he is now tolerating baked milk for 3 years now. At 4 years old he had a reaction to cashews. He is now tolerating cashews but the subsequent testing revealed an almond allergy. He takes Flovent for maintenance of his asthma. I mostly use websites for recipes as I try to keep up with his allergist on what testing and interventions are available and appropriate for my son.