Where the hell did Food Allergies come from?
I had never heard of them… well at least my RAS was not on. Then I had a baby and 6 months later I knew all about them – in detail!!
My 5 month old daughter, an excema sufferer from 6 weeks of age, had an anaphylactic reaction to cows milk based formula whilst we were having a weekend away in Tassie. The photo right shows the severe case of excema she developed afterward.
It turns out she is allergic to Milk, Eggs and Fish.
I am planning to post the background and story about her and her condition.
But the questions remain… Why? Why? Why?
Why do some children have allergic reactions to “harmless food”?
Why are we seeing an increasing number of cases in recent times?
Why?
- Did children suffering from this type of condition in times gone by simply die?
- Is processed food to blame?
- Is Darwin’s theory going to pot because of medical science?
- Is it purely genes?
I am keen to collate some information about others in the same position to understand some of the background factors. I do not have a medical background, and although I have a science and engineering degrees, I would not suggest that I am well versed in research methods. However, I’m not going to let that stop me from trying to gain an understanding for myself.
If you are keen to provide some data about your child for the sake of learning, please complete my survey.
I will happily provide information back to you once I have a reasonable database of information. (I have set up a results page now.) I don’t care about collecting personal details as I do this purely for my own and other parent’s education.
Kylie's Blog 
March 30th, 2006 at 10:34 am
I have 2 boys both peanut/nut allergic let me know if you would like any information.
April 2nd, 2006 at 9:33 am
Hi Gaylene,
I will let you know when I finally get my questionnaire up and running. If you input to it – that would be great.
Where do you live? How old are your boys?
Thanks for your interest.
April 5th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
I have a little grandson (19 mos) who is severely allergic to peanuts and other nuts. In addition he has less severe allergies to eggs, cows milk and soy. My daughter in Oregon is desperate to find receipes with foods he can eat. Any suggestions, please send them along to me and I will copy all to her. Thx…B
April 30th, 2006 at 9:55 pm
I really believe it is due to technology. All our food has been bio-engineered and the incidences of contamination from the genetic level through to the manufacturing and distribution level has gone through the roof.
Our definition of “what is food” needs to change, because Darwin Schmarwin, our definition of what is acceptable for our children is what counts, you know?
I hate when people act like my kids are some kind of genetic freaks because they have food allergies. One woman outright called kids w/ food allergies “weaklings” and it made me want to punch her in the nose.
Anyway, send me your survey, I’ll fill it out! 🙂
June 24th, 2006 at 11:48 am
A had an extremely close call last year with an undiagnosed capsicum allergy.
I was at a diner with some friends after a night of drinking. My girlfriend and some other people we knew had vanished without a trace a few hours prior. We had been fighting and I was feeling bad, wondering if I should continue to search for her or just phone her later. Confused and angry, I just kept drinking.
Some people we were with suggested we all go out for midnight breakfast. I was glad they decided to include me. To make matters worse, I had the ringer was broken on my cell phone so even if my girlfriend wanted to call my number, she couldn’t phone me.
So half drunk and all the way upset, I ordered a big breakfast that turned out to be really bland. Without thinking I doused my eggs and potatoes with Tabasco Sauce (something I never do). I was halfway through the meal when my friends all lookup and say the wish I could reverse that course of action, aware that I can’t really handle contact with hot sauce.
About a minute later as I try to click the number to my girlfriend’s cell phone into my phone, the voice in my head calling me an idiot suddenly became clear. Eating that sauce was not a good call. I tried to get the waitress’s attention to bring me some water, but she was busy loudly searching for the address and phone number of the corporate office.
Things started get blurry and I was breathing heavy and sweating. People around you need to have information on your situation—those around me did not. After the incident I decided to lookup information on my condition and print some pages of info out and keep them in my car.
I started feeling worse and worse and began to feel concerned about my labored breathing. When I put the car in reverse and lookup at the mirror, everything was pretty fuzzy. I search for a place to focus on and eventually find one. My friends convince me that I shouldn’t drive and they take me to the pharmacy. As we enter the business, I start to feel like I’m caught in a web. The pharmacist explained that there was nothing they could give me without a prescription. I knew I had to have some medication fast and I didn’t want to give my information at the emergency room and wait there for three hours, gasping for breath.
My doctor had written his cell phone number on one of his cards, but he didn’t answer the phone. We searched for a business phone number that might forward to him, or an address, but could find nothing. People were starting to enter the store and lookup at my breathing. They were frightened at the site of me. Things were getting worse.
Finally I called my sister, a researcher who can search business phone information. She ordered a reverse lookup search from http://cellulartrace.com on the doctor’s cell phone number. The lookup search obtained his address. My friend helped me enter the car and we drove to the address the search provided. My doctor called the business phone of the pharmacy and gave them my prescription information. He even escorted us back to the drug store to make sure they were able to lookup the right medicine.
I don’t know what would have happened without the reverse lookup information from the cell phone number. Fortunately, everything turned out ok and I keep medicine in my car.
Knowing about your allergies can save your life. I guess so can a helpful doctor and a reverse lookup search.
October 3rd, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Kylie; I am a young nurse that has long suffered from savere deadly food allergies, in cluding eggs, milk (+all other dairy products) all forms of perfume, peanuts. tamato’s and tamato sauces ect.I come from a family of eight children and dispite my very helthy parents four of us were born with this array of allergy’s and health problems including savere asthma, exeama, bowel irritation, and so on. My parents as apart of religious standards NEVER drank (not even socially or for a special occation), smoked, and my mother was always home cooking meals high in plant products. Persurvearence drove them to find the best answers and treatments around (sadly, sometimes, this can only work for high economic standing individules… the poor get left behind to suffer) anyway to get to the point one of my brothers works in biochemical research, my mother reseaches as a natropathic practitioner on inflamitory disease, I married a doctor and am my self reseaching this very subject. If you are still searching for answers please email me some specific questions and I will be glad to explane all the recent medical findings on the escellating isseu.
-Heidi
October 14th, 2006 at 12:11 am
Hi to everybody!
I just would ask you a comment on a site that threat food allergy in children, especially milk allergy. There, I saw some pictures like your daugther. Can it be useful for you?
Here is something I found there on Cow Milk Allergy:
“In some children the ingestion of milk can trigger the body into launching an inappropriate immune response to the proteins in milk resulting in an allergic reaction: the Cow Milk Allergy. Cow milk allergy (CMA) is as an immunologically mediated adverse reaction to one or more cow’s milk proteins. Milk allergy is the most common food allergy, affecting somewhere between 2% and 3% of infants. Around 0.5% of exclusively breast fed infants react to cow’s milk protein in human milk.
Cow milk allergy generally affects children less than three years: the mean age of onset is reported as between 3 months and 5 months. Children with immediate reaction following milk ingestion usually present earlier. Recent evidence shows that cow’s milk sensitive enteropathy (CMSE) may persist or manifest itself initially in children of school age.
The principle symptoms of Cow Milk Allergy are gastrointestinal, dermatological and respiratory, and are associated with skin rash, wheezing, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation and distress.The symptoms may occur within a few minutes after exposure (immediate reactions) or after 1 hour and in some cases after several days (delayed reactions).
For other information, visit Act Against Allergy , a global interactive communication program designed to increase the awareness of childhood milk allergy :
Symptoms of Cow Milk Allergy
Diagnosis of Cow Milk Allergy
Treatment of Cow Milk Allergy
Useful tool: Clinical Diary , Ask the Expert
Source: Act Against Allergy
http://www.actagainstallergy.com/
December 9th, 2006 at 8:29 am
My 21-year old son was just hospitalized with an inflamed bowel. He was breast fed exclusively for 6 months, and weaned at 20 months. When he started on foods at 6 months, that’s when he developed excema and asthma. As he got older and choose a lot of junk in his diet (pizza, burgers, fries, etc.) he developed constipation. I don’t accept that he has Crohn’s. He was sent home with the doom of steroids forever, which I am weaning him off of. He is on all liquids and is recovering. Does anyone have any suggestions for natural supplements?
October 24th, 2015 at 3:07 am
Coconut kefir, probiotics and sauer kraut (a teaspoon with the juice of it in every meal). Check the Body Ecology diet website. Eliminate dairy complete and gluten to begin with. You may need to eliminate grains completely to begin with – GAPs diet. Make bone broth soup with vegetables and meat (no grains) and feed him that. I have saved my son. It did not take more than a few weeks. Don’t get scared that he will need to have a super restricted diet for years or for live. But for now, yes, absolutely yes!
March 17th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I know many children with that. It’s very sad, really.
July 31st, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Hello.
My son is having an episode just like your daughters at the moment. One eye completely closed and the other half closed. Very red and itchy. He also had rashes on head (behind ears and around hairline and over face which was made up of what looked like little bites, but then vanished and came up elsewhere within 1/2 hour. I took him to doctors who gave him a Predmix for 2 days and Phenergan. However we don’t know what the reaction was from, so we’re anxious about repeat sessions. Any advice? We’d appreciate hearing what you’ve done. Thanks
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Hi Emma,
Thanks for your comment. I am not a medical expert, so naturally I cannot give you any medical advice.
As one parent to another, one suggestion that might be worth considering is getting a referral from your GP to an allergy specialist. The specialist (who you will probably have a fair wait to see), can do skin-prick tests to identify allergies. These are a necessary evil to identify allergens. The test can be quite traumatic, depending on your son’s age… so you have to weigh up your concerns about potential future reactions with the trauma of the prick test. If your son is very young and has not commenced eating solids, I’d be careful when introducing new foods, especially the usual culprits, eggs, dairy, nuts. You can use the methods described in food challenges to introduce new foods. If he is already eating without reaction, then I guess the reaction he had was more likely caused by bites, or something airborne.
It’s very frustrating not knowing what caused the problem. I can sympathise with you there.
Good luck with your investigation. If you get time, let us know how you go.
Kylie
August 14th, 2007 at 5:54 am
I am very interested in your investigation. I am the mother of a todler with multiple food protein allergies. Though my expertise is in science and engineering research, I had a tough battle to do my own research on allergies and to get my child’s pediatricians/specialists to understand, accept and be convinced that he is food allergic. Luckily, we finally found a great pediatric allergist and a sympathetic pediatrician who has 2 children with food allergies herself.
I feel for you, and if it comforts you any to know, my child has outgrown one of his allergies very recently.
August 15th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Kylie, we’ve had a major success (with pics) by working inside out. Applying crèmes and ointments is only a Band-Aid therapy for the outside yet the body is not healed. There are vitamin deficiencies which the body will show you on the outside. Experimenting with the right doses at the right times will clear this up so fast, it will leave you wondering where you were till now. You can call me toll-free at your convenience 1-877-248-8191 thank you, have a healthy day!
November 17th, 2007 at 11:28 am
I also interested in your investigations, I have two sons, Harry 5 years had anaphylaxis to dairy and eggs as a baby which he can now tolerate, eczema, and has recently developed mild allergy to shellfish – just hives. He has high spt result with dustmites, we see a wonderful allergist that has help us avoid asthma to date.
Patrick 3 years had no ezcema as a baby and was wonderful healthy infant, but 1 month ago climbed up in the food cupboard and help himself to some cashews and had an severe anaphylaxic reation. We are off to the allergist in 2 week time. Like you would like to know more. Good luck with you investigations.
Jen
December 19th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Wow you have some great pictures of that rash. My daughter had it as an infant, she’s now 5, andI have tried so may times times to describe it but I never took pictures back then (too busy crying most likely). I have to comment here also that your site is very impressive. I JUST started my own here on wordpress, also about food allergies and my daughters. It is my first attempt ever at this sort of thing and I’m kind of wandering aimlessly right now. I hope you don’t mind but I am going to browse around here just to get a feel of the format. Thank you!
December 26th, 2007 at 5:07 am
We recently found out our infant son was allergic to milk when he, too, had an anaphylactic reaction to his first bottle of formula. After allergy testing, we know his also allergic to egg yolk and egg whites.
There are no allergies in our family that we know of so this was a complete shock to us. My husband and I were at a funeral 1.5 hours away when he was given the formula so I never saw the reaction myself. My MIL put him on an ambulance to the ER and by the time we arrived the swelling was gone and all that remained was little red dots all over his body.
I’m still nursing and have gone dairy free. When I do splurge on something dairy my son’s eczema flairs.
I am excited to have stumbled upon your blog and look forward to reading more.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Hi Becky,
My one caution for you… they can’t test for everything. With little ones, always be careful when introducing new food.
We discovered Bella was very allergic to Salmon, after she ate it and we had another emergency trip to hospital. Her fish skin prick test (they use cod) showed a negative result. She had been eating tuna and fish fingers without any apparent effect.
Bella is still allergic to fish. Cod and tuna now show a result – but salmon is still the highest.
Good luck on your journey, and I hope you son grows out of his allergies.
Regards
Kylie
December 31st, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Hey,
I like reading your blog. I have a food allergy myself and always had a problem with what to eat so I created a useful document with…….10000 food products…I thought your visitors might find it useful. Feel free to post it up on your website. Perhaps you like to write a news article about it so that people can easily find this usefull information. You can dowload the pdf document here : http://www.4shared.com/file/33377341/56d342c7/Food-allergy-list.html
Regards,
Rik
January 12th, 2008 at 7:43 am
AWWWW…THIS BABY IS SO CUTE!i have exema to so i know how she feels its really hard to deal with.im 12 years old and hate when kids come up to me and point to my infected skin and say things like “OMG!what the heck happened to your leg” or “ewww your skin is all red and dry!”. its hard to handle but i use ontiment every night and i take a pill for it. im also elerject to cabbage!whenever i eat it accidently eat it my face swells and looks like her face. i get real itchy too (its not fun).but the docters say i will grow out of my ezema,food allergy,asma,and allergies. if i can grow out of them then so can this little baby!I HOPE SHE FEELS BETTER!!!!
February 11th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Hi Kylie,
I share your pain and constant wondering of WHY? My son (now 3.5) is anaphylactic to milk (and all proteins)and peanuts along with the whole nut family in addition to egg, dander, dust, shell fish and the list goes on. Which he was diagnosed with at 3 months, since cashew, cheese and crackers were my favorite things to eat and I was nursing. Quickly explained the flared up red skin, swollen face and constant wails of agony. We just did his annual testing and thankfully wheat fell off the list, but all other allergies remain strong. Finding daycare solutions have been stressful and leaving him under anyones care but my own is nerve wrecking considering I don’t even catch everything. No one in our family has food allergies but we all have eczema and my daughter and I have asthma, which my son has shown signs of. We just recently finished and eczema study linking eczema and asthma together…final conclusion won’t be available for many years to come. Anyways, our allergist who is an active researcher for food allergies rambled off a couple of possible causes as to why there are more cases of food allergies than previously seen and within the US which was basically chalked up to western civilization life. So many of our foods are processed and loaded with GMOs. Even allergies were shown to meats, at very low levels…well guess what -they pump regular store bought meat with low traces of allergens, so much of our meat purchased is non organic just to minimize our little guys comfort. While it costs more, to keep him happy, sane, non itching and not in pain, it’s worth it.
I stumbled across your site looking for a pancake recipe and am eager to make heart shaped pancakes on Valentines Day.
I wish you (and many others) luck and that research progresses enough to isolate the cause as well as the solution. And that our children outgrow many of these nuisances.
~ Stacey
February 13th, 2008 at 3:34 am
Hi,
My daughter is 3.5 yrs old and is allergic to most of the food including egg, wheat, oats, cows milk, fish, chicken etc. She has been on soy and restricted food since she was 1.5 yrs old. Right now she is having a severe flare up of eczema and is on antibiotics.
I have always cried to my husband telling “why only our child”, but recently I have been hearing more and more cases of eczema and food allergies. I can understand what every parent is going through.
Every year I have been waiting for her to grow out of her allergies. Still keeping my fingers crossed.
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:01 am
My 27 mos. old son was diagnosed with milk and egg white allergies after his 2 yr. check up. I brest-fed exclusively for six months. He was very gassy at times and spitting up alot, so my doctor reccomended I try drinking lactose free milk, which I did. At around 6 mos. old I began supplementing occasionally with lactose-free formula. I breast fed until he was 10 mos. old and I became pregnant with my daughter. At that time we weaned him completely to the lactose-free formula and after several weeks, noticed he seemed itchy and was developing a rough patch on his back thighs. We didn’t connect it to the formula because it was such a gradual, mild reaction. At one year-old we followed our doctor’s reccomendation ans introduced him to lactose-free milk and eggs. We saw no drastic changes and continued to blame the itchiness on the fact that it was winter and dry. I ran humidifiers and tried creams but nothing helped completely. At his 18. mos. check-up we discussed it again, and he was diagnosed with mild eczema. At close to 2 he developed a rash around his mouth. Again, it was now winter and he was teething and liked to have things in his mouth, so at first I thought he was just chapped and irritated. I faithfully applied the best cream but after it didn’t improve, back to the doctor. I suggested a milk allergy and we decided to try going to soy milk for now and then testing for food allergies at his 2 yr. check up. That showed an allergy to egg whites and milk. I immediately eliminated both from his diet and his symptoms improved right away. I understand the recomendation to wait until 2 yrs. old to test, but it is upsetting to know that I fed him these things for almost a year. I have tried to be very conscience of things, from the moment I became pregnant; whole grains, organic and so on, and yet, my son suffered with rashes and diahrrea, and waking up in the middle of the night itching because of what I was feeding him.
I’m told he may grow out of it, but my doctor seemed to not know much, when I asked about what foods to substitute, so she sent us to a nutritionist, but she offered little in the way of suggestions, and focused more on my sons small size. (He’s always been in the lower percentile on the growth charts) I have several questions no one has answered. Maybe someone here can share their learned knowledge or just their experience. Do kids usually outgrow this? Does exposure to your food allergies make it worse? Does elliminating the foods make you react stronger if you are exposed? I have had asthma all my life but never had a food allergy until I was pregnant with Parker. What I thought was just typical pregnancy heartburn, turned into my throat feeling like I couldn’t swallow after eating chicken. After that, I noticed it everytime I ate chicken, and the reaction became worse at times. Other times I would just get heartburn. I was tested and confirmed allergic to chicken, and less severely to turkey. A big downer, as I love chicken and Thanksgiving Turkey is my all-time favorite meal. A few times I’ve ate it and tolerated the heartburn, but recently I had a severe reaction to one bite of chinese food, (sweet and sour pork)that was not sopposed to have chicken in it. My throat immediately went shut and I could barely breath for several minutes. As quickly as it happened it began to clear up. Has anyone else ever heard of being allergic to chicken or had a reaction like that to food? I’m wondering if I’ve now developed another allergy to something in the chinese food. Sorry for the long post, I guess this is all bugging me more than I thought.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Hi, I discovered that I was allergic to Milk Protein as a young adult (I’m now 55). All through childhood I loved drinking milk, and eating all milk products. But as I entered puberty I began to have chronic catarrh and eczema and acne like symptoms on the face and scalp. My face and scalp were often very itchy. It didn’t improve in my 20’s until I found the cause. I was in the army at the time and we would go on 2 or 3 week exercises in the bush and live on ration packs. The packs had little dairy content, and to simplify things instead of having milk in my tea I would have it black. I noticed an improvement in my condition as the exercises progressed and then a rapid deterioration when I got back to civilisation. So I tried eating less dairy products and things improved again. At the time I could still eat a little dairy product without any bad effect but as I got older it got worse and now I have to avoid it entirely. Fing ‘safe’ food can be difficult, especially when eating in restaurants as few people seem to understand what ‘dairy’ means these days. They seem to think that eggs come from a dairy and milk comes from a supermarket.
I also am sensitive to the capsicum family, which aggravate spinal arthritis. Otherwise I am very healthy and probably fitter than many people half my age.
March 6th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Re: Momma Kat
I’m the same with Chicken and Turkey. Exactly the same symptoms as you describe. It’s odd as I used to adore Chicken as a child, but from about 16 onwards (I’m now 27)the reaction progressively got worse. My throat also swells up and I find it hard to breathe.
I can eat a little bit of Turkey leg (the read meat) without mush of a reaction.
Recently Cod has also been causing a similar reaction for me, though Salmon is fine so it’s not a general reaction to fish, just white meat again.
Anyone know anything that Turkey, Chicken and Cod have in common that might explain the allergy?
March 18th, 2008 at 9:59 am
i want to know what medicine did your daughter took to have excema gone. please reply asap my son is suffering on severe exceme like youre daughter…
thank you
March 18th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Hi Wella,
We changed Bella’s diet – as she was allergic to many foods – so these were eliminated from my diet (I was breast feeding her).
We used Elicon on her face and Celestone on her body – which are both cortisone creams prescribed by the doctor. This helped clear up the excema – which didn’t reoccur once the food she was allergic to was off the menu.
We also used moisturisers all over to assist with the healing.
Kylie
March 19th, 2008 at 4:30 am
Hi Kylie, thank you so much for your response, its good to know that youve been educating parents like me with your website. My son had a food allergy test and it turns out that he is not allergic to any food, but he was diagnosed with excema dermatitis and steph infection, but my sons face is the same with your daughter the only thing is he has some rawness and there is some moist thats coming out from it, like little spots of water or sweat. Is the medicine Elicone a topical or a liquid? I would probably ask my sons dermatologist if i can have this medication. Again thank you very much.
God Bless You,
Wella
March 19th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Hi Wella,
Elicon and Celestone are cortisone creams. They may have different names in other countries though??
K
May 17th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I have tested for egg, wheat, scallop (mollusks, etc), yeast IgG.
I have recently noted a reaction post eating chicken.
All affected may benenfit from a rotation diet – Change your foods every 24 hours. This helps to achieve a balanced nutrition intake and allows the immune system a time to heal, and become less reactive.
Strengthen the immune system by using probiotic supplements – organic yogurt, Kefir, probiotic powders for those who cannot do dairy.
June 15th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Thanks for this website, Kylie!
My story with my daughter is almost the same. She’s 2 months younger than Bella, and she scratched and bled just like Bella (I get a pit in my stomach just remembering that). We, too, were repeatedly assured it was not allergies. Now we know, thanks to an excellent allergist (which it took a while to find)–but we also have nuts, soy and seafood.
I’ll recommend your blog to other moms w/allergic kids!
June 18th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Hi Katie,
Thanks for the feedback. It’s much appreciated.
Kylie
June 25th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Kylie,
I know how you feel. I have boy/girl twins that will be a year old on the 28th. My little boy started with the rash on his face about 5 months old. They treated him with medicine at the peds. office 3 times. Finally my husband and I requested to be sent to a determologist. She diagnosed with exama caused by allergies. So we went to an allergist and he was diagnosed with Nuts, Milk, Eggs, Wheat, Soy, Dogs, strawberris, tomatoes and insects. So we cut all of the foods out and started with the Nutram. formula and his face didn’t get any better. We just recently found out that he is allergic to steriods(cream) which is what we have been treating his face with. Great!!!
I think we finally got everything under control.
If you have any suggestions on a cake or cookie that I could make for his 1st birthday it would be great.
Mom in need of help.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Hi Mom in need of help,
Check these https://kylie.wordpress.com/category/food-allergies/allergy-recipes/
Also Pig in the Kitchen – her link is in my Blog Roll in the right hand menu.
Oh – and especially this one
Good luck
Kylie
August 19th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Hi Kylie.
I have an 18 month old baby girl who has allergic reactions to tomatoes. I have been unable to find very little information on this. could you please tell me something about tomato allergies. You would be suprised how hard it is to replace tomatoes in our diet. I also have nine and eleven year old boys I believed tomatoes play a huge role in their dietry needs. I need help and more info on this food allergy. Even tomato powder gives her a huge reaction, are there other food i should watch out for.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Concerned parent Mel.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Hi Mel,
You’re the first parent I can recall who has reported a tomato allergy on my blog, and I know nothing about it.
I suggest you read up information at the following sites.
http://www.sch.edu.au/health/factsheets/joint/?fruit_and_vegetable_allergy.htm
http://www.allergy.org.au/
http://www.allergyfacts.org.au/
October 14th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I am with you, WHY are so many infants and children developing this disease now? I have a 5 yr old granddaughter and we fight it EVERY single day of her little life. Allgeric to milk and milk products,such as WHEY, cheese, peanuts,egges, soy, CORN..We have become very educated about the foods we eat. SHe is just now relizing she has something diffferent. I did find a choclate cake recipe without milk,eggs or butter, which she loves, I do buy a lot of Organic foods for her. I make a lot of her foods from scratch, like I have found a sour dough bread that HEB makes with only 6 or 7 ingreds. and not a lot of stabilers. which she loves toasted with jelly, no butter.
Anyway, we did started allergy shots 3 or 4 months ago, and they do seem to help some,with her envirnomental allergys but we do believe a lot of mckeenas is stress. Her allergist had me purchse a book and that phys.author) swears that foods have nothing to do with the outbreaks, but we are not convinced. thanks for letting vent. jodi
October 15th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Vent away! It’s all very frustrating.
I wou;dn’t be convinced about food not causing outbreaks – sorry I’ve seen it happen first hand – and I know food can cause it!
I was told many times that Bella was not getting sick from my breast milk… but she was. I changed my diet and her skin improved dramatically.
Books are often filled with generalities, and Drs can only help you if they are up to date or have seen it before.
There – that’s my vent for the day 🙂
Good luck Jodi
Kylie
November 7th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I totally understand the frustration and the anger that a mom feels seeing their baby go through all this. My son is allergic to eggs milk soy wheat fish peanut strawberries and beef. he wasn’t diagnosed til he was 2. we had to deal with the same picture of your baby girl. his cheeks bled and all of his arm and crevices, it was horrible. the docs said he had severe eczema and that he would grow out of it, but is soo hard to see him bleeding on his cheeks and scratching his legs like crazy. He has to use medicine to put him to sleep. he also lost a lot of weight and stayed at 20 pounds. now we know how to control it but i totally agree with your questions. what is causing this break outs and all these allergies?? best wishes for u and your little one, i don’t believe is generic, it is more than that. no one in my family is allergic to ANYTHING he just came with an extra package 🙂
December 10th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Hi there, thank you so much for a great website.
My son was confirmed allergic (skin prick test) to dustmite dander, peanuts, treenuts at two years old. I suspect he is also allergic to shellfish and weed pollen.
It’s only since he turned four, this August, that his sinus and excema problems have got considerably worse.
The Immunologist and Doctors just keep saying “he’ll grow out of it” and give us phenergan, singulair and cortisone creams. They say he has “atopic excema” not a food allergy that causes his nocturnal itchings. The past few months he has been on so many different medications and nothing helps his itching. I hate giving him all these medications but need to aid his pain. We do all the suggested things to eliminate his allergens.
I have booked my son in to see a Naturopath this week so will be happy to let you know how that goes. I may also see a dermatologist.
Asthma, Excema, Hayfever are all related and in my research (library and the web) its often quoted that this is a hereditry thing. I have hayfever, but no food allergies.
January 24th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
hello I am a 50 year old woman who has had eczema since I was born I also have had food allergies since birth. As a child I had eczema behind the crease of my legs and in the crease of my arms and behind my ears. Now its moved to my face and hands.Some times my hands are so bad my fingers split and I can’t even do a button up.My allergies have changed also I’m now allergic to eggs seafood mushrooms barley wheat and malt. I’m always trying to find new receipes without eggs. I have been to numerous doctors and had many creams.I believe that food allergies and eczema go hand in hand even though doctors say no. Please send me your survey
January 27th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I’m a new mum with a 7.5 month baby who has some issues, but nothing has been worked out. I have irritable bowel and can’t eat a varity of stuff. i get excema but not that bad. We had issues at birth (another annoying story) and was put down to the fact that he was throwing up bile the next day. he now has reflux and finds it hard to eat a lot at once. Well we can handle that. He wasn;t getting enough nutrients while breastfeeding so we started solids early. He has always had rashes but not that lumpy.
Then all of a sudden he has a bad rash and wont eat.. We have also gone to formula for two reasons, one cause he was having eating issues again and cause we thought we will try for another baby (i’m 32 ! tick tick. But also my dad is in hospital for Golden Staph after surgery on his hand and has had lots of contact. As soon as i mentioned this to the doctor, he defended the golden staph as if I was insulting him. (he had nothing to do with my dad’s surgery). He does have a throat infection and was given anti-biotics. But does that really explain the throwing up and exczma getting worse ?? He wouldn’t answer that..
So all upset i called the health hotline run by the government. Got some cranky old guy who claimed that doctors are always correct and just do what he says… well he might be correct that he has a sore throat causing him to not eat and throw up, and excezma coming bad at the same time, but I have no advise on any of it !!
But that wasn’t my normal doctor so I go back tomorrow and I get checked as well (im sick and so is dog) at least this dr specialises in babies and nicely advised that theres nothing to worry about and explains it and doesn’t tell you off.
Ok maybe I have gone off the subject, but it could be possible he’s having issues with the formula s-26 AR (refulx)
March 6th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
My daughter has suffered from excema since birth despite being breastfeed until about 14 months, which I chose because of the benefit of prevention of allergies, asthma, and protection from other childhood diseases. I am a Chiropractic intern and recently through a Ob/Gyn class discovered the possible reason for my daughters misfortune–epidural and IV pain medications. I received both during her birth as well as being induced with pitocin. Epidural has been linked to an increased susceptibly to asthma, excema, and allergies. Early exposure to solid foods also can triggers food allergies. I am currently seeking a Chiropractor who specializes in children (yes there is such a thing). Check icpa4kids.org for doctors in your area, they can offer a more natural approach to treatment. My daughter has had a prescription for topical steroids almost since birth but the side effect for those include, tissue break down, decrease in immunue function, blood vessel laxity, thinning of skin, etc., as well as they do not treat cause but only the symptoms of redness and swelling.So I am looking for something better I have tried some essential oils that helped for a short period of time but nothing long lasting.(jojoba, almond, and apricot).
August 14th, 2009 at 5:14 am
Hi- do you have any other info on epidurals link to food allergies? My sister was given 3 or 4 because they wouldn’t take.. My nephew has severe excema and severe food allergies to milk, eggs, corn, soy, peanuts, etc.. everything but wheat. I have often wondered if the epidural had anything to do with it because no one in our family- both immediate and extended, have any of these issues.
Thanks!
September 7th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Hello, I am also another one with 2 children, 1 with triple A’s (Allergies, Asthma, and Allergic Dermatitis or Eczema). The 2nd child, has triple A’s as well, his allergies were at 1st chicken, beef, shrimp, peas and peanuts. Anaphylactic with Peanuts of course, but vomiting with all of the others. It took us months of very difficult to deal with doctors to figure out what was wrong with him and it was only an allergy test away. He was only 6 mo-18 mo at the time and they would only test him for about 5 things or so. The GI MD actually threatened to turn me in for not feeding my child. I said “i’m coming to you for help, but you wont help me!” Needless to say I did not go back. We moved to NC, probably one of the best things we’ve ever done. The MD’s here were wonderful. Found the allergies, we avoided the foods, it was like a full 180 degree turn. No more vomiting, he’s growing, gaining weight now! So I definitely have a lot of experience with this, if you need any info, let me know! By the way, we almost lost him 2x because the daycare was so neglectful about the peanuts. Then they decided not to feed him anything but applesauce because they were scared to feed him anything else~ Go figure~
January 15th, 2010 at 11:30 am
WOW! Poor little baby! I can’t even imagine. I remember when my DS had an anaphylactic reaction to peanut butter…it’s one of the worst feelings in the world as a mother to see your precious child like that. I’m so sorry!
I am the local Chair for the Tempe, Arizona Walk for Food Allergy. I’m just trying to get the word out…would you mind blogging/posting on it…there are locations all across the US with walks in 2010 http://foodallergywalk.org and if there is not one near you…you can start one – I did! We are also on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/2010-Walk-for-Food-Allergy-Tempe-Arizona/288084990619
The more I search the internet…the more I find great sites like yours…what a great community of support we have – and good news is we are growing and helping one another!! Thanks for your posts!
Lisa
February 17th, 2010 at 8:35 am
OMGosh – I feel for you, I really do. I feel so bad for these little ones who suffer from Eczema. I HAVE TO share our story with you because it is HUGE and a miracle and just maybe it will help your baby too.
Our son developed Eczema when he was about 6 weeks old and it was so bad that he was unable to sleep at night, he itched until he bled, and he was miserable. We took him to allergists, dermatologists, chiropractors, holistic health centers, you name it. No one could offer us any help! The doctors just told us that he was a “gray” area and that all we could do was to treat it with potent meds and creams. The allergist continued to increase his dose of oral steroids which was making him weak and ill and we were so afraid. One Sunday, when he was two, we took him to the ER because of how lethargic he seemed to be. They transferred him to a larger nearby hospital to stay the night for testing bc his white blood count was elevated. It was there that we met another GREAT doc who told us to get him OFF THE STEROIDS NOW!!!
They released him the next day and we took him to a children’s hospital a few hours away where we met with three specialists who did testing on him and began weaning him off the steroids. He was only able to eat chicken, peas and rice because we kept trying to do a food elim diet w him too – but every time we tried a new food, he would flare terribly! We were at such a loss.
Our miracle came when, after a few months of healing from the steroid dependence, my step-dad told us about Belly Boost probiotics.
We tried it. It was an absolute miracle because within just a few days he began to look and feel better! We could not believe it and did not want to get our hopes up but then – a few weeks went by and he looked better and better than we could have imagined! We began giving him new foods and he continued to get better. He even acted like a totally different child! He was so energetic and happy 🙂
He has been on Belly Boost for a year now and hardly has any traces of Eczema and eats lots of food!!! I so highly recommend this to anyone who will listen. I feel like it has been an answer to our prayers and now it is my mission to share our story! Have you tried probiotics yet? There is a lot of info out there on how they are being linked to allergies and Eczema. Do you use creams? Creams always seemed to burn him so we always just give him a bath in baking soda and then rub pure olive oil on for great and non-irritating moisture! Wow – sorry to have written soooo much here!
I hope our story will help your little one! Here are some links for Belly Boost, our story on my blog, and a FOX news segment featuring our story! Let me know if you have any questions 🙂 This is a journey I love to share as it has been a source of inspiration in becoming a green and natural family.
Our son’s skin was so so terrible too and I really believe that because of his change from his probiotics, that there has to be a connection…please let me know if this interests you, if you have any questions, or if you just need some support with this. I have been through this – our whole family has and I know how hard it is. Here are some links for you.
http://www.zorbee.com/
Please come to my blog or email me anytime!
April 16th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Hi there, I too have a young boy with ezcema. He is allergic to nuts, cats, dustmites, pollens, etc. We do everything to minimise his triggers but his ezcema flare-ups just get worse and worse. We get palmed off by Doctors and immunologists who just say ‘ he will grow out of it ‘ but each year it gets worse and they don’t take it further, we can’t believe they just shrug it off and prescribe more steriod cream and anti-histamines. Phenegan knocks my son sideways but sometimes it’s all we can give him just to stop him itching and bleeding. We too used pro-biotics and it made him quite gastric with no improvement at all. But I’m about to try a new product , a capsule probiotic that is specifically for excema sufferers. None of the natural stuff works which I suspect is because he has so many natural allergies. Our chemist bill for skin products that he almost always hates, is through the roof. He hates wearing clothes! Can’t stand anything on his skin. He gets hives too, all the time. It is a horrible situation to be in and I get depressed that my son is in so much pain and nothing can fix it or cure it. As soon as one bad case of ezcema goes away – bang – within days he’s flared up and his skin starts cracking again – this is despite emoliants, steriods sometimes – anti-histamines every day. he is five years old. He tells me he likes his ezcema and when it flares up he says ” my ezcema is having a party “. It breaks my heart my little boy has put up with this pain since he was one.
June 30th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Hi there. My four yr old was diagnosed with allergies to egg (analphalactic), peanuts, cashew nuts,milk, cats and dogs when he was 2. He has also always suffered with respiritory problems and was diagnosed with asthma when he was 3. He is on a steroid puffer morning and night. While in the UK he developed severe hayfever which no antihistimine seemed to help. The doctor put him on Singulair which worked really well, however he suffered severe side effects which only became apparent after a few months. These included uncontrollable rages & violent outbursts, facial tics, nightmares, dark thoughts (a 3 yr old telling you he wants to kill himself is not good). We took him off it in Jan 10 and his behaviour has improved however his allergy related asthma has got alot worse. I have been giving him lactose free milk but I am thinking that if he is allergic to milk than maybe thats not the best option? Should I change to Soy milk? also, his behaviour did improve once off the singulair but we still have behavioural issues that i have recently realised could be caused by the milk allergy. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has noticed similar symptoms in their child.
September 22nd, 2010 at 12:26 pm
There is also eosinophilic disorders which have a delayed response, and affect as well as damage tissue like the esophagus. Food Allergies are REALLY crazy! Very sad for these little ones who need to deal with them! My son is 7 and WE just had biopsies which concluded Eosinophilc disorder. Little symptoms like a chronic cough may be more than just simple allergies.
October 6th, 2010 at 7:42 am
My daughter has severe food allergies Dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, berries, wheat, beef, chicken, fish, and shell fish. All the doctors can tell us is that it just happens sometimes. The doctors said that she might out grow some of the allergies I really hope so
January 3rd, 2011 at 5:41 am
[…] Food Allergies February 2006 50 comments 3 […]
April 24th, 2012 at 10:25 am
I am 16. I was diagnosed with a severe peanut allergy when I was two. It was the first time I was exposed. Later on, when I was 8, I was diagnosed with a tree nut allergy during a routine testing. That allergy is much milder than the peanut allergy, but can still be harmful. Over the years I have faced bullying from classmates. I have had students threaten to shove peanut butter down my throat, and have had peanuts shoved right under my nose while a boy told me to eat them. Currently I am in a battle with my principals and school board because they are allowing a teacher to toss peanut shells onto the floor while I can either miss class or endure a reaction. I am also looking to find new ways of educating people on the issue of food allergies. I am currently running a blog on tumblr, and once I get it up and running I plan to draw attention to it, so people can become more educated on the real-life issues of food allergies.
April 24th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Hi Adrielle,
I’m appalled at the behaviour at your school! What do you live?
had many issues with my daughter’s pre-school in the early years – but education of teachers and general community awareness has increased dramatically since then – at least here in Melbourne Australia.
Perhaps you could show this video at school…
http://allergicliving.com/sabrinas-story/presentation.html
Good luck with your project.
Kylie
September 19th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
I was curious if you ever thought of changing the layout of your website?
Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe
you could a little more in the waay of content so people could connect with
it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 pictures.
Maybe you could space it out better?
December 21st, 2013 at 8:41 pm
Very good blog рost. Ι absolutely love this
website. Continue the good work!
January 2nd, 2014 at 8:37 am
My son is 10 years old he has severe eczema and he also has server allergies. We have recently found out he is allergic to all nuts, soy, corn, oats, rice, onions,beef,pork, chicken, shrimp, tuna, and strawberries. Can anyone help me at all I need to know any suggestions on what I might could feed him . Please help me.
April 9th, 2014 at 4:39 pm
My son who is now 6 months has also suffered with eczema since being 6 weeks old just got my results back on allergy tests and hes allergic to eggs, cows milk, peanuts, cod, cat and dogs I’m absolutely gutted for him so upset been referred to a dietitian so just can’t wait to know more of what to do now 😔
July 21st, 2014 at 5:18 pm
I came across this article while trying to research my own food allergies – ones that I apparently have developed growing into adulthood. Not fun having to skip foods that once were delicious! I took your survey and passed it along to an allergist friend of mine. Good luck!
November 3rd, 2015 at 10:36 am
Kylie,
I found your blog most informative. I recently discovered that I may have a capsicum allergy. It has taken me years to isolate the cause of my occasional anaphylaxis reactions. It has become more serious over the last few years. I’m almost 70 and a few months ago I suffered a reaction to something that seriously swelled my tongue, gave me stomach cramps, diarrhea and also some facial swelling. My wife (who really takes very good care of me) took me to the local emergency care facility over my protests. It was a good thing as I was gasping for breath in the admitting area. They immediately took me in and gave me two shots, one on each cheek, below the waist, and in about an hour I was as “good as gold”. I had a regular twice a year appointments with my cardiologist and then my GP a week or so later. My cardiologist gave me a prescription for some EpiPens fearing it might be a reaction to the Meds I was on for colesterol or blood pressure. The my GP decided it might be the shrimp I had the night before at a restaurant. This was a real bummer as I love shellfish. I don’t believe it was either. That’s is a big part of the problem with allergies, it’s so difficult at times to determine the cause.
I’ve always loved spicy foods and shellfish. In addition, as the oldest of 12 children, I don’t know of anyone in the family who has an allergic reaction to anything. In the past, before the tongue swelling incident, I’d never experienced any reaction quite that violent. I would experience occasional diarrhea, that I would write off to other causes, or simple stomach cramps and occasionally facial swelling but I never associated them with my beloved jalapeños. In all the previous cases the symptoms disappeared in a day or so and I would write them off as just getting older. It wasn’t until I had a recent episode, yesterday, of three or four of the symptoms, that I stared to put it all together.
My wife set up a “trunk or treat” at her church and I was dutifully assigned to make my chili corn bread for the parents in attendance (it’s chili in a pan with corn bread over the top). I love it. It’s the end of the growing season out here and I picked two beautiful jalapeño’s, one red and the other green, to put in the mix for the chili. Even though we lived in Texas for ten years I try not to make it too HOT. That day I’d had nothing but pretty bland food but of course I had to sample the chili as I went along. The next day, after only a small bowl of the chili that night (that was all that was left), my system was in shock. That’s when I began to put it all together.
When I’d experienced the symptoms before it was always after a great meal at a local Mexican restaurant. It was always after meal starters like jalapeño “poppers”. The most serious problem was with the shrimp I had at the restaurant with sweet jalapeño sauce on them and then a day or so ago with the chili I made.
This is not a common allergy apparently. I hope others that may be experiencing these symptoms find solace in my story. I won’t be raising as many jalapeño plants next year in my garden. By the way if anyone wants the chili cornbread recipe fell free to pass on my email.
Take care,
Patrick Dougherty
November 24th, 2015 at 7:22 pm
Allergies starts when our body sees the protein from the food that we intake is a foreign invader where they send outs chemical that causes the symptoms of allergies. Usually kids develop it whiles they are still kid either because of environment or it’s on their genes. There are treatments that are proven and safe especially for your baby, by the way, she is adorable. Dr. Sundardas is a naturopathy expert who wants to help you and your daughter. He is using natural solutions in treating his patients. We hope Kylie that you can visit our website at naturaltherapies.com or email us enquiries@sundardasnaturopathy.com.
March 10th, 2016 at 11:30 pm
What our children are allergic to must be a quick response from the parents to justify. Negligence or delays in their allergy treatment can affect them in longer run too. Rather, teaching them how to handle it (with appropriate allergy awareness) can help our child to better cope. Enabling their fear-free and happily allergy-free life.