Before I had my youngest son I knew of food allergies but had never even knew anyone with food allergies. We didn't find out he had food allergies until he was over a year old. He was breastfeed for the first 2 and half months exclusively. When we finally started him on formula he started having terrible rashes on his face, stomach, elbows, and knees. I took him to the doctor and she said simply was baby acne and that it would go away. But it didn't. As he got older we saw his races get worse and worse. His face look like raw hamburger meat at times. He would incessantly scratch and scratch. We tried creams and everything. We went back to doctor she said it was simply a rash and would go away. Well, fast forward til he was a lil over a year old. We began noticing that after eating certain foods he would become violently ill. He would have projectile vomit and terrible diarrhea. It was only then did I realize something was wrong. We had also made a few trips to the ER when he would seem to not be breathing right and would almost be gasping for air, but by the time we would get to ER and be seen, he would be ok. I swear they thought I was crazy...
So I finally had a not so nice discussion with my doctor and she FINALLY referred us to an allergy and immunology doctor. So after waiting six months for an appointment, we finally find out that our son has food allergies that are potentially life threatening, as well as eczema, and asthma. We are advised on how to adapt our lifestyle to his needs and that this will probably be a lifelong diagnosis for him. We were taught how to administer meds, although in a jam I am not sure Dad would be able to jam a inch long needle into said son's thigh, but I know I will if it ever comes to it.
Adapting to a lifestyle for a child with food allergies seems very difficult to many, and to me as well at first. But we have figured it out, we just do things differently than most. we don't have peanut butter, nuts or anything like that in our house. We do have eggs, he can eat them as long as they are cooked into something, like a cake or cookies, but not boiled eggs. We still have our big family breakfast on Sunday mornings he just doesn't get eggs.
We have also drilled all five of our kids as to what their brother can and can't have. He will ask if someone gives him something before he even takes it, if it has nuts. He refuses to eat anything with eggs in it, potato salad, mayonnaise, etc. He also has a necklace he wears to let everyone know he has food allergies.
In our home and around family he is safe, but I am scared to death to send him to school next year. I have seen several stories lately of kids older than him coming in contact with nuts and stop breathing, and even ending up in comas. I know its my job as a parent to educate my child as to what he can and can't eat and I am not worried about him, its others. I mean he will be in Kindergarten and not all children know about food allergies. I will notify whoever I have to notify about his allergies and pray everyday when I send him to school that some kid doesn't eat a pb&j for lunch and then wanna play with him. We haven't had any major attacks but there's always a chance.
He was retested late last year to determine if had outgrown any of his allergies.
They did a skin test for eggs, because they really wanted him to have a flu shot, but the results were fast and huge, itchy, welts on my baby's back only seconds after having the eggs applied to his skin. (This reminds me of an incident when he was about three, an egg had fallen out of the fridge door onto the floor and he attempted to pick it up. After I rushed over to stop him, I quickly washed him up.In only the few minutes it took me to wash his hands,his entire face was swollen. His eyes were almost swollen shut. Scared me to death!! Benadryl was given and he was fine later. This also happened when he had tubes put in his ears and had an ear pit removed. He had anesthesia and I didn't even recognize him when he came out of surgery.) We were informed that he may never outgrow these allergies. But there's always hope and always may be a cure so to speak.
Last year I walked with FAAN (The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network) here in Houston and although it liked to have killed me, it was terribly hot and humid, I will be doing it again this year!! I walk in hope that one day there will be a cure so to speak and that more research can be done, so if not my child can be healed of this maybe other children can be spared... Here's my team info for this years walk if you'd like to join me to walk or donate. Team Booky (his nickname) ...
http://www.foodallergywalk.org/site/TR?team_id=63470&fr_id=1954&pg=team
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