Child with food Allergies

[hogpark7430]

Here is the story of my 7 year olds medical history and how I have neared my last straw.

As I said my son is 7 here is his med history:

1. Before birth he was diagnosed with Gastroskisis (sp) (this is when there is a hole in the stomach where part of the intestines end up on the outside of the body)

2. At 2 months he caught a virus called resulting which scared up his lungs so bad that he has been diagnosed with severe asthma. This has sent him to the hospital numerous times each year and he spend a week or 2 each year on oxygen

3. Around 3 he ate 1/4 of cashew and the resulting allergy attack almost killed him. So now we carry an epee pen (shot) with him at all times.

4. He had a scratch test that showed severe allergies to tree nuts, dogs, cats, grass, trees, and more.

5. Last week we had Salmon for dinner (big Mistake) he had a reaction and it was time for a shot and off to the hospital we went. On a side note he entertained the hospital staff with Phantom of the opera songs.

6. Here is the part that is pushing me over the edge. Today we took him to be tested for more food allergies and almost all fish are on the list but the big problem is he had a strong reaction to eggs. So what am I going to feed the little guy? No Eggs or products with Eggs. It was bad enough just looking out for nuts in things.

I am just frustrated and worried what will happen next.That is the end of my rant for now.

Chase
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/hogpark7430/boys%20fun%20photos/3.jpg

[dc]

Your poor little guy!:( I know my nephew is allergic to life as I call it also. They ate very little canned products, reading the labels is confusing for sure. He's now 25, fairly healthy and lives on a limited food list. You can get eggless noodles, so that gives you a large variety of dishes. Spaghetti, mac and cheese. I think health food stores have special needs cookbooks. Good luck, I know it gets easier once you get in the swing of it. Also you always have to read labels, just because it wasn't there last time, doesn't mean it won't be next time. I knew a gal who was a diabetic and allergic to flour. She lived on chicken tacos basically.

[catdoc]

A little girl in my twins' class at daycare has severe allergies like your son. Her mom actually brought handouts for the other parents so we'd understand the seriousness of her allergies, I think hearing from her mother was very important for the other parents to experience. I don't know what to tell you, but I imagine there are whole web forums where you could talk with other parents who completely understand what you're dealing with.

Good luck with your adorable little boy. (Love the Indiana Jones look!)

[Josh125]

I feel for your son. I had extremely bad allgeries/asthma as a child as well. I didn't eat katchup or strawberries until I was out of high school. I also couldn't play outside in the summer and do most things my friends did b/c I was allgeric to things like grass, tree pollen, just about anything.

It's a tough thing, thankfully after years of allgery shots I outgrew them but have been left with ashtma that I control with a variety of meds.

Good luck again, just keep praying he outgrows them!

[Muttling]

One of my son's class mates has similar problems. He's allergic to almost everything. Him and my son have been together in day care since they were 6 months old and both are now 5 years old.

His mom has her work cut out for her, but it's not insurmountable. She meets with his teachers every time he moves up into the next class and gives them a list then goes through their class room looking for stuff he's allergic to.

She knows the stuff that he's severely allergic to and is sure to put that on a seperate list as well as to emphasize those items. He's allergic to so much that he still gets some exposures and she just can't keep him seperated from absolutely everything he's allergic to, but she's learned to manage it and he lives a pretty normal life with his class mates.

It's a lot of work and a lot of worry, but you can deal with it and he can lead pretty normal life despite the allergies.

[Wolverine]

Has he been eating eggs before this without difficulty?

One thing you should know about scratch tests for food allergies in kids is that the false positive rates (meaning the test says he's allergic when he really isn't) and the false negative rates (the test says he's not allergic and he really is) are each in the 10-15% or more range (depending on who you ask). We found this out when I was tested as a kid.
I tested positive for eggs and a few other things that I'd been eating several times a week (and continue to eat to this day), so my parents decided the tests weren't really valid. The allergy doctor where I was a medical student refused to do these tests on children (they're slightly more reliable in adults) for this reason.

That said, now you're in a tough situation because you have a test that says he's allergic to something, and it's tough to justify "testing" him with it.

I've known a few families that have taken the approach where they take the kids to the full gluten-free diet, which pretty much leaves them eating rice-cakes, and then test one food at a time adding it back until they have a reasonable diet.

Unfortunately there's no easy answer. You have to be strong. If you're going to be realistic, you're going to have more worry than most parents have to deal with; there's a fair amount of literature about the stress level differences between parents who have sick kids and those who don't, which you would sort of expect. You may feel like you're at your last straw now, but there are undoubtedly many more to come. I'm sure that deep down you know that, but you have to be mentally prepared to deal with it (yeah, I know, easy for me to say, since I'm not the one doing it).

Just remember what Winston Churchill said (and Theodore Roosevelt also):
"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."

Dave

[hogpark7430]

Thanks for the responses we were a little down today but we always bounce back. They also took some blood from him to get a more reliable measurement on the eggs and such, he has been eating things with eggs in them. So I guess we will wait before we make major changes.

thanks again

[Sk8r]

One thing that will help a young child: teach him to cook. This is one way of knowing what tends to be in things. I started learning my way around the kitchen range when I was 5-6. I was allergic to a lot of things, more then than now by a long shot---and by the time I was in junior high I knew from doing that meringue is egg and there can be hazelnut paste in a cake icing.
He is, should you need any confirmation, destined to break no few hearts with those looks.

[Johnsteph10]

I fully agree with Dave - allergy tests are incredibly unreliable so don't base everything off of them!

[crzy4reefs]

When i was young and uptill the age of 14.......i was highly allergic to every food item you can imagine and i was lactose intollerant, my mom said growing up was extreamly difficult.......my food allergies lessoned (sp) the older i got.

Now i'm just highly allergic to bee's (which can kill me)


Good luck with the lil guy though.

[Raki04]

The best way to know exactly what is in a "dish" is to make it your self...
When my son was about 5 we found that he had severe behavioral reactions to sugars I started making EVERYTHING from scratch. it's a little more time consuming but actually cheaper that buying prepared foods and MUCH MUCH healthier