Diary of Isabella’s Food Allergies – Part 1

I have been meaning to write this for some time. Partially so I don’t forget (I’m sure I have forgotten some details already), partially for those who are going through the same stuff, to know you are not alone and, most importantly, so that Isabella has a record of what she endured as a kid.Isabella was born on the 8th of June ‘99. The pregnancy and birth were reasonably uneventful, although she was very overdue and I ended up having an emergency C-section after a long enduced labour.

Isabella would not attach to the breast during her first few days and my milk did not come in. She was given supplementary feeds using cows milk formula during those first few days, with no apparent ill effect. I persevered with the breastfeeding and after about 3 weeks, my milk finally arrived. From then on Bella was completely breastfed.

When Bella was about 6 weeks old she began to develop excema. At first she appeared to have the “six week spots” that babies often develop as a reaction to the hormonal changes in the mothers body and hence milk. It soon became pretty evident that it was eczema and so off I trotted tot he GP to have her checked out. My GP was not concerned. She gave me some mild cortisone cream to clear up her face and sent us home.

The cream seemed to help a little, but no sooner did I stop the cream that the excema would re-appear. I went back to the GP, who was still unconcerned and I went home reassured that I was not doing anything wrong. This cycle continued for sometime. Each time Bella’s excema was getting worse and worse. I look back at some home video footage of her at about four-five months and I find it quite heartbreaking to see her poor skin.

Her face and body were covered in excema by this time. I was concerned about the cortisone use in terms of the effects on her little body and also the possibility of her face scaring. We went back to the GP. This time she prescribed an oral steroid. This did an amazing job. Bella’s face cleared up brilliantly and very quickly. I kept up with the moisturisers and was always careful what I used to wash her and her clothes.

The treatment cleared her face beautifully for our trip to Tassie. Peter and I were attending the wedding of our good friends Jon and Sue, and decided to make a weekend of it. At the wedding I ate all the wonderful wedding food, smoked salmon, rich cakes, cheese, yum yum – all the things that it turns out Bella is allergic to.

The day after the wedding I breast-fed Bella as usual. As I watched her feed, I swear I could see the excema reappearing on her face. The words of my mother were echoing in my head, “Maybe it’s what you are eating that’s affecting Bella”. My GP had debunked this theory… but here I was seeing virtual evidence before my eyes… or was it my imagination?? I sent Peter off to get formula, bottles and a breast-pump and set about giving Bella something other than my seemingly poisonous breast-milk.

I popped the bottle filled with cows-milk formula into her mouth and she started to feed. No sooner had she done this than she spat the bottle out of her mouth and started to howl. Really scream. It was awful. I mopped up the milk she spat out as it dribbled down her neck. As I mopped I noticed the redness, welts and swelling developing on her neck. I called to Peter – I didn’t like to look of it at all. She threw up very violently. I insisted something was wrong and we grabbed her baby capsule and ran down to the foyer of the hotel to ask for directions to the nearest hospital.

We dashed to the hospital, which fortunately was close, and since we were in Hobart on a Sunday – so there was virtually no traffic. There was no-one waiting in emergency and we were seen straight away.

By this stage Bella was starting to get a blue tinge around her mouth. They whisked her off while I paced the floor. I couldn’t bring myself to be in the emergency room, I couldn’t bear to watch what happened. I must admit that the experience was all a bit of a blur, I’m not the best performer in stressful situations.

Of course, fortunately for us, this story has a happy ending. She was fine and is fine. We were transferred to the children’s section of the Hobart Hospital. I sat with Bella through the night and all was good, except she wouldn’t sleep!! We were in a ward with kids who were really, really sick, and it made me appreciate how lucky we were to have such a manageable health issue.

After that little episode, we saw an allergy specialist, although not without a considerable wait. During the wait we were not allowed to used any sort of anti-histamines or cortisone creams and her excema got incredibly bad (see the photos). The weather was heating up for summer and she scratched all night – so we tried splints on her little arms. She used the splints to scratch her face. It was awful. I found her with blood all over the splints… she has a little scar on her cheek from that event. I thought she would be horrendously scarred forever! But as you can see from her recent photos – that is in no way the case!! After the failed splints, I slept on the couch with Bella. Her scratching would wake me so I could sooth her and stop her form making her face worse than it already was.

When we finally saw the specialist, Isabella was diagnosed with food allergies to Milk, Eggs and Wheat. I was placed on a very restricted diet and we were prescribed some very effective creams for her face and body. Bella looked better within days, and, in terms of her excema, we haven’t looked back since.

We’ve subsequently had a couple of dramas with her allergies and trips to emergency due to undiagnosed allergies… but I’ll leave those stories for another “part”.

Pictures below (Click on them to make them larger):

Left: Isabella aged approx 6 months. This picture was taken at the allergy specialist. The nurse advised me to take a photo. She assured me I would not remember the extent of Bella’s excema in time, which I could not believe, but took a photo anyway. The photos stayed tucked away for a year or two, and sure enough, when I pulled them out I was shocked at how awful it was!

Right: Isabella aged 6.5. This picture was taken just before Christmas 2005. Excema and scar free!! Well, she actually has one small (unnoticeable) scar on her cheek which is the result of the splints we tried (mentioned above). 

Egg Free Dairy Free Doughnuts (Donuts)

I recently realised that my 7 year old had never had the joy of eating Doughnuts!! Warm Cinnamon Doughnuts would have to be one of my favorites. So hunting around and experiementing a little, here’s a recipe which worked quite well. I am planning some variations, so will report back with those.

One good aspect about recipe is that the Doughnuts are baked and not fried…. which makes them lower in fat and a “healthier alternative”. However, the baking makes it harder for the sugar and cinnamon to stick to the outside!!

I used mini-muffin tins – the doughnuts can’t be too large, or they won’t cook through. Pete thinks he knows where he can get some donut “molds” - so I’m gonna try that out… will keep you posted!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups Plain Flour
• 2 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup Soy Butter
• 1/3 cup Caster Sugar
• 1 egg substitute (I used Organics Egg replacer)
• 2/3 cup Soymilk

Topping

• 2 Tablespoons Caster Sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 180C.

Sift flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt together (or whisk if you don’t have a seive).

In a separate bowl, use beaters to cream the soy butter and sugar. I found the soy butter wouldn’t “cream” well, so I added some soy milk till it “creamed”. (This was in addition to the 2/3 cup in the ingredients.)

Add egg substitute, and mix well.  Add 1/4 to 1/3 of flour mix; stir until smooth.  Add some soy milk; stir again until smooth. Repeat until all ingredients are combined. The dough is quite dense and tacky.

Spoon dough into miniature muffin tins.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.  Roll doughnuts in sugar mix.

I found the sugar didn’t stick well – so sprayed with a little olive oil spray to help the process.

Makes about 30-35 mini-muffin doughnuts.

Bella thought they were awesome and scoffed 3 or 4 for dessert.

Peter thought they were pretty good too and ate them for breakfast!!

I’ve got to say I was surprised that they were as good as they were. Not as good as the fatty sugary things hot off the doughnut cooker, but pretty good none-the-less.

Do you have a child with food allergies?

Please add your data to the Food Allergy Survey

Allergies in the News

This is an article from the Melbourne “Age” newspaper on Saturday the 13th of May, which talks about the unnecessary death from anaphylaxis of a four year old in childcare. The adjacent article, talked about the lack of training and focus provided in the early learning environment.

Our personal experience with child-care, kinder and school has been reasonably good, though not so for a couple of our friends with food allergy kids. 

Bella attended two different kinders (pre-schools) for 3yo and 4yo, and now attends school. Three year old kinder was a joy. Bella had a delightful teacher who was caring, compassionate and went to lengths well over and above the “norm” to ensure Bella abd the other two kids in her class with severe food allergies were cared for and managed appropriately. This was especially noted during Easter, were she had special presents in place of eggs and changed the egg blowing/decorating activities for “safer” alternatives. Nuts were banned altogether and children were not to bring cakes and other foods to celebrate their birthday. I felt confident and at ease with the situation in general.

Fortunately we moved Bella to another Kinder for the 4 year old class. The other two allergy kids stayed on to the 4yo class, with a different teacher to 3yo. The new teacher quite literally persecuted these poor kids. They were excluded from activities, being made to sit on chairs away from the other children – as if being punished; they were publicly ridiculed by the teacher, who encourage the other children to redicule the “allergy kids”; the children felt generally harrassed and did not want to go to kinder anymore; activities involving food continuted and the “allergy kids” excluded, cakes were brought to class and instead of sending the parents home with the cakes (as they were banned), she allowed them to be eaten (she didn’t want to upset the parent who has cooked!!); they were generally made to feel unwelcome. (It still makes me furious to think about it!)

When parents raised their concerns, they were not addressed. The teacher, upset that the parents had taken their issues to a higher level, then sent threatening letters to the parents and things spiralled out of control from there. Naturally the parents removed their children from the kinder.

Eventually goverment department stepped in, and the teacher was banned from working with children again. I guess this scenario could be viewed as a “bad egg” situation, rather than an allergy specific situation, but it made us think twice about things with Bella.

Another friend’s child-care centre fed her egg & nut allergic boy quiche. She arrived to pick him up after work, obviously ill and covered in hives. When she quizzed them about what they had fed him they said, “No, we definitely did not feed him egg, he ate quiche for lunch.” HELLO!!!!

Compared with her early years, school has been more of a challenge in some ways and less in others. Stressing the importance of the situation and creating the focus with teachers has taken time and effort on behalf of Peter. I’m sure sometimes we may be viewed of over-protective overly-cautious parents – which we are – but I believe understandably so. Bella now has a better understanding and can self-manage better each day. I don’t look forward to her teenage years… though with any luck, her allergies may have dissapated somewhat by then.

For every occassion were Bella has been left out because of fear or uncertainty about her allergies, there has been another occasion where poeple have gone out their way to accomodate her condition.

It still concerns me that the message about how serious this type of condition can be rests with the parents of the kids, and that the government has not stepped in and provided guidelines, training and information to our child-care and education work-force.

Food allergies appear to be on the rise. We need to protect our kids, give them a safe environment in which to learn, and the freedom to explore, experiement and gain their indepenence safely. To do that, teachers, carers and the general community need to be aware.

When parents say no to lollies – sometimes they are not being mean. Sometimes one little lolly will hurt.

Australian Stats: 

• One in three Australian children are affected by allergy disorders.

• Eight foods cause 90 per cent of food allergies: cow’s milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, soybeans, nuts, fish and shellfish.
• Egg allergy is the most common food allergy in Australia, affecting 3 per cent of children. However, the most common allergy documented at the Royal Children’s Hospital is to nuts.

Countdown

No – not the tv show! The countdown has begun to my fortieth birthday. Forty. 40. Foe tea. Four-tee. The zero's get you – it means you leave your old numbers behind and enter a new decade. Welcome to baldness, erectile dysfunction, slowing matabolism, raging hormones, cognitive decline, hmmmm.

It is also the time you are supposed to gain wisdom. So in 19 days – I will let you know if that is true. Seriously though, in ancient China positions of political power were reserved for men over 40, as it was assumed that maturity and judgement were attained at this age.

If your thirties is the time you become responsible (though I think I suffer from eldest child syndrome and hence been responsible for ever), then what are your 40s? Maybe mine will be my decade of rebellion instead of the decade of wisdom. My rebellions to date have been somewhat small and insignificant! I saw a young women on the train with lime green hair and have been wondering whether that would suit me, and how tolerant my conservative work place would be. I know there are dress guidelines – but I'm not sure they extend to hair colour…. yet Hair is such a minor rebellion too, perhaps I will quit my job and live on a commune, or is that simply a lifestyle choice?

On Thursday, I realised my countdown to 40 had started in earnest. I felt a rough patch on one of my back teeth – and stuck a finger in my mouth to investigate. As I ran my fingernail up against the "rough" on my tooth, a piece of enamel lifted and broke off!!! Arrrrgh! I guess 30 odd year old teeth don't hack the pace of life the way young teeth do. Ever since having children, my teeth have been awful. I must have spent over $10K on them in the past 5 years! And shortly that figure will increase…..

I look back through the past 3 decades – well 4, but I must say I don't remember much of the first, I realise I have done quite a lot. Probably no more than most, and certainly less than some over-achievers out there. Is it enough? Has it made a difference? Does anyone care?  

Although I am not a habitual list maker (I am a strong "P" in Myers-Briggs terminology), I thought I'd make myself a little list for myself for the next decade and beyond:

Things to do this decade

• travel overseas with the kids
• drive through Paris in a convertable
• Go on all the rides at Disney Land
• Stay in Tuscany and have cooking lessons
• write a book
• go to Cannes and/or Sundance film festivals
• play Moonlight Sonata once more
• Eat at Tetsuya's

The list will be longer – but requires more consideration (and I'm late for a get together) – and suggestions, so let me know what you think!

Myers-Briggs Type

I love doing personality analysis "tests". Myers-Briggs is particularly good one, based on Jungian theory.

You can do a free online test to find out your type. I don't think it is quite as accurate as the "real" Myers-Briggs test – however it's reasonably close.

I am an "ENTP".  My I/E are very close to neutral and my T/F are close too. I think the result can depend on my mood and mode of operation of the day I take the test. My "N" or intuitive has always been high. My "P" score has been high in the past – but has fallen off a little of late – I suspect because I live with a bigger P than myself and find myself acting as the "J"… which is essential to functioning in life – ie. making decisions and getting organised….

Broadly the aspects the test determine are:

• Extrovert/Introvert – where you draw your energy – through people or alone
• iNtuitive/Sensing – whether you observe the world through concepts or details
• Thinking/Feeling – does logic drive your decisions or emotion
• Judging/Perceiving – structured, decisive, organised vs flexible, easy-going, adaptive

Your type indicates you preferred way of operating. It does not mean you can't be easy-going and organised, just that your relaxed/preferred approach would be to take things as they come, rather than plan everything to the Nth degree. This site does a good job of describing the aspects and what they indicate.

Anyway try it out and let me know what your type is… 

Milk & Egg in all their guises

When you first start dealing with food allergies, buying food can be a bit of a trial. As time goes on, you grow used to reading labels carefully (even those you have read before) and the brands and products that are safe become familiar, as does the terminology used on the ingredients lists. 

The following are "code words" in ingredient listings that mean milk or dairy products are included:

• Butter
• Butter Oil
• Calcium Caseinate
• Casein
• Caseinate 
• Cheese
• Cheese powder 
• Cream
• Curds
• Lactalbumin
• Lactose
• Light cream
• Milk
• Milk by-products
• Milk solids
• Non-fat milk solids
• Skim Milk Powder
• Sour Cream 
• Whey
• Whey solids
• Whey powder
• Yogurt

The next list are the "code words" that translate to egg:

• Albumen 
• Albumin
• Conalbumin
• Egg
• Egg oil
• Egg powder
• Egg white
• Egg yolk
• Ovalbumin
• Yolk

  If you know of others let me know and I will add it to the lists.

Survey Response

I have had two responses to my survey! Hooray!!
Results will follow shortly.

Self-Basting Chickens

Today Peter asked me to pick up a chook on my way home. I stopped at Coles and went to the meat section and selected myself a huge Corn-feed chook… mmm roast chook, its a family favorite!

When I got home Peter pulled it out of the shopping bag and asked why I had bought a "Self-Basting" chicken. I had no idea what I had bought. After all -you go to the meat section and select your meat - you don't need to check the ingredients – or do you….  After all – shouldn't a chook contain 100% chicken?

Well not in this case. Along with a collection of icky additives (mmm) was MILK!!

So off I scooted, back to Coles, (who refunded my money- no questions) and purchased a free-range chook – just chook.

Just when I though I had it all under control, what to buy, what to check, where the traps were, I was blind sided by the marketing of a raw chicken. What are "they" thinking?

Lucky Pete is on the ball, otherwise we would have had a fun night tonight!

The free-range chook was yummy by the way