What
do you think of when I say, “Food allergies”?
Maybe
you think they are like seasonal allergies, where there is discomfort, a
stomach ache, and maybe some coughing and sneezing.
Maybe
you think about how your child or grandchild can no longer bring a peanut
butter sandwich to school, and how that seems to be an overly cautious response
to a very rare circumstance.
Maybe
you think, ‘No one used to have these allergies. It must be a case of over reacting parents.’
You
have probably heard the horror stories of a child having a life threatening
response to food, or even dying, but that seems to be the rarest of
occurrences.
These
would all be very common responses. A
few years ago, I would have agreed with you.
Now
I am the “Food Allergy Parent.” This was
not a label I even considered when planning on having a family. Food allergies seemed to be this unfortunate
thing that happened to a few people that I didn’t know. A problem I knew
existed, but somewhere else, to other people.
Our
son was pretty much a perfect baby. He
wasn’t the greatest sleeper, but he was a calm and happy baby. The kind of baby people marveled at in
restaurants and stores for being so good natured. But we noticed his skin was always irritated,
and some flare ups would come seemingly out of nowhere. He was scratching at these angry, red patches
day and night, and he would even wake himself up scratching. We kept going to
the doctor and trying different creams, but nothing was working. Then, one day, my husband said, “I bet it’s
allergies.”
For
some reason this had never occurred to me, but once he said it, I knew he was
right. The doctor recommended
eliminating dairy from his diet, and that helped immensely, but he kept having
flare ups. We continued to eliminate
foods like eggs and peanuts until we got an appointment with an allergist. Skin and blood tests confirmed our fears:
multiple food allergies.
We
were given epi-pens and shown by nurses how to use them, and we were scared and
overwhelmed by this new responsibility. We were sad that our boy couldn’t have
the normal experiences of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese,
macaroni and cheese, and other childhood staples. Our whole family would need
to relearn how to eat.
Maybe
that seems like overkill. He had the
allergies, not us. And for the first
year after the diagnosis, I think most of our family and friends thought we
were being a little overprotective.
Reading every label. Asking a
million questions at restaurants. Asking
people to wash their hands after eating foods that he was allergic to. Even we started to wonder, maybe we are the
lucky ones! Maybe he will just have a
rash as a reaction, or other mild symptoms, but he wasn’t one of those kids
that needed that epi-pen we were given. Maybe we could relax a little.
Then
he went into anaphylaxis.
Nothing
prepares you to see your child gasping for breath. Turning blue.
Passing out.
He
was only 1 ½ years old the first time, and we didn’t understand what was
happening until he was in serious distress.
We raced to the hospital, and had to epi him in the car. It is remarkable how fast the medicine
works. He was breathing and his normal
pink self before we reached the ER. But
that night changed everything.
We
do not keep the foods he is allergic to in our house. We do not eat them when he is around. We bring our own food everywhere, and eat out
at only a few trusted places. We read
every label, every time.
Even
though we are super careful, he has gone into anaphylaxis three more times. We
can’t even count the numerous times he had gotten hives or a rash. He is not
even three, and we have had to save his life with those epi-pens four times
now.
We
are not special. An estimated 15 million people
have food allergies. Food allergies affect 1
in every 13 children in the U.S. Every 3
minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the ER.
Even trace amounts of a food allergen can cause a reaction.
Cross contamination, meaning a food is somehow contaminated with an allergen in
processing, cooking, or handling, can cause anaphylaxis, too. So telling a person to just not eat the food
they are allergic to doesn’t work. If
you use the same spatula to make eggs and home fries, and an egg allergic
person eats those home fries, there will be a reaction. If a wheat bread is
baked in a facility that also bakes an apple walnut bread, a nut allergic
person could become ill.
When it comes to small children, it is not enough to just expect
their families to keep them in a bubble.
I may pack a snack for him when he goes to the park, and that may be the
only thing he eats, but if another child has just had a peanut butter sandwich
and gets peanut butter on the slide, my child could have a reaction. He could just get a rash. Or he could touch it, and not realize, and
five minutes later he rubs his eyes, or puts a finger in his mouth. Now there is a risk for anaphylaxis. As his parent, I tried to scope everything
out. I always have safe foods. I even try to
wash surfaces, like tables and chairs, in public to make extra sure he
is safe. I am never not thinking about
these issues.
Families need to educate themselves and their communities to
keep themselves safe. Some books I have
found useful as a parent are: Food
Allergies: A Complete Guide for Eating When Your Life Depends on It by Scott H.
Sicherer, The Allergy Book by Robert Sears, and Another Person’s Poison: A
History of Food Allergy by Matthew Smith.
There are also many organizations that offer support, such as Kids with
Food Allergies (from Boston Children’s Hospital), Asthma and Allergy Foundation
of America, and FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education).
Children
also need to be educated. If they have
an allergy, they need to feel empowered to be out in the world with information
that keeps them safe. These books may help you talk about allergies with your
kids, whether they be the one with the allergy, or just to help them understand
what their friends are going through. I suggest Peanut and Other Food Allergies
by Caitie McAneney and Food Allergies by Christine Taylor-Butler, which are
factual books. The Bugabees by Amy Recob
and No Biggie Bunch by Heather Mehra use stories kids can relate to (like going
to a birthday party or ‘trick or treating’) and give great ideas on how to
handle different situations.
I
hope you never have to see your child or a loved one get seriously ill from a
food allergy. But if you are one of the
millions of families who do, know you are not alone and there are resources out
there to help.
Facts
and Statistics from FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) https://www.foodallergy.org/facts-and-stats
