Anaphylaxis is a scary word to anyone whether it involves a baby, toddler, child, teen or adult. As a baby my parents figured out that I was "allergic" to peas. I put "allergic" because I was never tested back then in the stone age. I guess they noticed that every time I had peas as a baby I would throw up. They put 2 and 2 together and stopped giving me peas....wahlah....no throw up. I grew up never eating peas because I would ALWAYS throw up. Sweet, I got out of eating those nasty lil green balls. Fast forward 30 years and I have our youngest kiddo.
Our youngest kiddo who was born at 38 weeks 1-2 days (that's a story for another time)....ok she was born at 12:01am but the nurse didn't look at the clock right away so in reality she could have been born at 11:59pm the day before, 12:00am or 12:01am....we'll never know. Anyways, Emmalyn was our food intolerant kiddo. We tried every formula on the market ( powdered and liquid) and different bottles (we spent a TON of cash on bottles alone) but she was always ANGRY. Her older siblings named her angry baby because nothing settled her belly. She projectile vomited daily. When she was 2 months old she turned blue after she ate. So naturally they admit her overnight for observation. Nothing happens when we stayed overnight except they put her on Zantac for reflux. Yeah, didn't really help and the taste was horrible. On one of the local social media groups someone was giving away Neocate formula. Having had watch my best friend 6 years earlier go through this same thing, I messaged the person and said I'd love to pick it up. Sweet, lets see if this does the trick. Neocate is an amino based protein formula with no dairy or soy.
Holy Crap.......After a day of feeding Neocate we didn't have an angry baby. We had a HAPPY baby! I thought great! I can't wait to tell her doctor about it and get a prescription for it for insurance to cover. We all know formula in general is expensive but Neocate runs about $46/can. NOT something we could afford either as a can would last maybe 2-3 days. At the time we were also on WIC but they wouldn't cover it until we got an insurance denial then they would make us sign up for Medi-Cal and try that way to get it. We'd get approved for Medi-Cal no problem back then. I make an appointment with her doctor at the Naval Hospital and told her what I found out after trying out the Neocate. She straight up told me that it wouldn't be approved because TriCare has denied her other GI patients who actually need the formula. I had the what the fuck look on my face. My child according to her thoughts was fine and healthy and this was just a play to get insurance to cover formula. I told her off and said look, if your not going to submit the request then I'll apply for Medi-Cal explain to them how you refused to put the request in and I'll get Medi-Cal and or WIC to cover it. She finally agreed to put the request in and said don't be surprised if its denied.
A week later, I call for a follow up on the request and what do you know......it was approved. HALLELUJAH. We get set up with home care delivery for the formula. After we had it for a month we had such a happy, energetic baby until it was time to start solid foods. She became picky and we couldn't figure it out again. I asked for some allergy testing so we went from Camp Pendleton to San Diego. Nothing popped positive yet every time she ate certain things she'd get hives. In fact on the way home one time from the testing we had to stop at ER because she couldn't breathe. I started doing my own research about (food) allergies.
Food allergies can come and go at ANY point in your lifetime. Once you have a reaction, there's a big chance that it could be worse the next time you ingest that it could be anaphylactic. ACK! Scary thought there. So we did dairy free everything for us for a few years when we were advised by her doc to start slowly reintroducing those foods. Now at almost 6 years old I'd say shes more lactose intolerant because if she eats a ton of cheese or dairy she gets the farts (funny because she cracks jokes about them). While she eats dairy, I still try to limit it for her but won't deny it for her either because she so picky and shes learned if her belly hurts she won't eat it.
I'm now 36.5 years old with a few more allergies than just peas. February/March 2019 I grabbed my favorite candy - White Chocolate Peanut M&M's from Dollar Tree. I get home put everything away and get the kids settled and crack open my bag of M&M's. After about half a bag I realize that my throat was itchy, my body was itchy so I stopped eating them and took a Benadryl. I texted my hubby at work (over an hour away) that I was itchy and he said to keep him updated. A few hours passed and it was still itchy and the Benadryl wasn't working. I took another, texted the hubby and was like when you get home i'm going to bed. Benadryl knocks me into the next week when it comes to sleep.
He gets home, takes care of the kids and we go about out night and next day. Again, the next day I eat more M&M's because I thought the day prior was a fluke. HAHA jokes on me. It happened again.....not that I like pushing those buttons, but, I had never had an allergic reaction to peanuts before. Again took more Benadryl that I probably should have and then made an appointment with my doc to get a referral for Allergy testing. New patient appointments for allergy testing were 6 months out. HOLY FREAKIN CRAP 6 FREAKIN MONTHS! HOW IN THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW IF I'M ALLERGIC TO SOMETHING IF I CAN'T GET TESTED. I was advised to not eat peanuts anymore. A LOT EASIER SAID THAN DONE. I had been eating peanut products my whole 35.5 years of life with ZERO FREAKIN ISSUES and now I CAN'T have it.
You know what happens when your're told you can't have something....you crave it the most. That meant no more PB&J sammies, snickers, paydays, butterfingers,etc. But that also meant now were reading labels on EVERYTHING brought into this house.
FUN FACT: peanuts are in flouride.....the Fluoride that dentists use! I would have never thought of that at all.
So now, not only do I have to watch my food I have to watch everything else I use too. Depression hit big time after that one. I eventually get to my allergy testing and we do the back scratch of the "Top 8": dairy, shellfish, peanut, egg, tree nut, soy and wheat plus pea. We also do additional environmental testing like trees, animals, grass, etc. They prep my back for the test and administer a histamine and control scratch then continue with all the allergens. Now you wait 15 minutes for them to read it. Meanwhile, I have my 3 kids in the room because the husbands deployed and they're like mom that one is BIG! Gee thanks kid. 15 minutes go by and they come back in and start measuring. Food positives were pea. Environmental was fun...turns out i'm allergic to all grass, mold, dogs, cat and all trees BUT pine. DUDE! We had dogs and our front and backyards have grass....no wonder I was always sniffling. Same when we went camping. My face would blow up like an oompa loompa that no amount of Benadryl or OTC allergy medicine would help and my poor nose looked like Rudolph's because it was so red and leaking like a faucet.
Now my doc said we're going to do intradermal testing for the ones that scored really high. 10 more pin pricks. I cursed the nurse out because these were put under the top layer of skin in my arm and it stung so bad. Again, wait 15 minutes and results. This time the control and histamine popped positive so it was inconclusive. Time for lab work....14 vials of blood was drawn. It confirmed what I was allergic to and my doc prescribed me an Epi-Pen. YAY! Now I have to carry this with me everywhere I go along with my allergy action plan and liquid children's Zyrtec.
My epipen is carried in my bag now and generally in new settings of groups (girl scouts, therapy groups etc) I tell someone that I am allergic and I have an Epi-Pen in my bag. I pull it out and show them. Thankfully my Epi-Pen has a trainer so I can "train" them on what to do. Thank god it has voice prompts on what to do. My kids have also been trained on it as well as people who I'm around frequently. My friends and I joke if I was have a reaction while with them who gets to stab me first! Funny but not funny at the same time.
I've noticed certain foods make me feel queasy, achy, give me diarrhea and headachy so I consider them an intolerance if it happens more than a few times after its ingested and steer clear. It really sucks now because I had a vomit reaction to pineapple after a pineapple mimosa. So, pineapple is a no go 110% along with peas and peanuts. Do you know how frustrating it is to grocery shop for food while having to check labels. Companies word things like may contain peanuts or tree nuts or made in the same facility as peanuts or tree nuts. ANNOYING
FYI: PEANUTS ARE LEAGUMES NOT TREE NUTS. TREE NUTS ARE: ALMONDS, WALNUTS, PECANS, MACADAMIA, CASHEWS.
Now that I have to read labels everything is more expensive because I don't feel like taking the chance of ingesting an allergen. Like most BBQ sauce has pineapple juice in it. My favorite coleslaw recipe has pineapple in it. Most kid snacks and foods have peanut butter in them or have the above disclaimers. It sucks. It's like a never ending shitty mind game.
When I was at Loma Linda they served us some delicious tasting foods but they always had these delicious and HUGE cookies with lunch. The thing that got me was they NEVER labeled the type of cookie so I'd ask the Discovery 10 what flavor it was and go from there. About 1/2 way through my Loma Linda stint I started eating them. Also on wednesdays we had cheese enchiladas with rice. Whomever decided peas need to go in rice can seriously kiss my white ass. Mexican food is one of my favorites and I didn't want to chance an ER trip while I was dealing with the shit going on in my head. It's really hard now when I'm trying to lose weight on a Keto type diet and people are like make some peanut butter fat bombs or eat peanut butter for protein. I CAN'T. Almond, cashew, sun and wowbutter don't stand up to peanut butter. I miss that. On bad days its throws me in a depression spin that my own body screwed me over.
Allergy facts as found on www.kidswithfoodallergies.org
Allergic reactions can involve the skin, mouth, eyes, lungs, heart, gut and brain. Mild and severe symptoms can lead to a serious allergic reaction called anaphylaxis (anna-fih-LACK-sis). This reaction usually involves more than one part of the body and can worsen quickly. Anaphylaxis must be treated right away to provide the best chance for improvement and prevent serious, potentially life-threatening complications.Â
How Common Are Food Allergies?
About 32Â million people have food allergies in the U.S.
About 26 million U.S. adults have food allergies (10.8%).
About 5.6Â million (7.6%) of children have food allergies.
Food allergies are most common in young children.
Milk, egg, wheat and soy allergies are often outgrown. But most people do not outgrow peanut, tree nut, fish and shellfish allergies.
In 2017, 4.8Â million (6.5%) children under 18 years of age had food allergies over the previous 12 months.
Children with food allergies are two to four times more likely to have asthma or other allergic disease.
Food allergies occur at a lower rate in Hispanic children at 3.6%. Food allergies in non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black children are greater than 5 percent.
What Are the Most Frequent Food Allergens?
Eight foods cause 90 percent of most food allergy reactions:
Milk Egg
Peanut (legumes)
Tree nut (e.g., almonds, walnut, pecans, cashews, pistachios - not legumes)
Wheat
Soy
Fish (e.g., bass, flounder, cod)
Shellfish (e.g., crab, shrimp, scallop, clams)
Allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish tend to persist lifelong. Allergies to milk, egg, wheat and soy often disappear with age, but not always.
Ever notice around Halloween time you see Teal pumpkins out? That's for kids with food allergies so they can trick or treat too.
Teal Pumpkin means that there are non edible treats instead of candy.
Check out the Teal Pumpkin Project here: https://www.foodallergy.org/education-awareness/teal-pumpkin-project
Want to know more about food allergies follow this link: www.foodallergy.org