Serious allergies

Ummmm, where to start?

The biggie one is nuts, they're the highest risk coz even tiny, tiny, tiny fragments can be really dangerous, I keep a peanut free house, but that's not practical if you don't have anyone with allergies living in the house, and only have occasional "allergic" visitors. With that one, I'd ust recommend not giving the kids peanut butter or nutella sammies when Ella's visting, or peanut brownies etc.

With dairy etc. Ella would *probably* be okay playing with toys your kids have touched with unwashed hands, as the traces wouldn't really transfer and dairy allergies aren't *usually* that sensitive, unless their hands were gooey, or they slobbered over it (ie. if one of the kids has a biscuit, then puts a rattle in their mouth) but washing hands after eating is still good practise just in case. In saying that tho, I used * as there are (very)few people who's dairy allergy IS that severe.

One thing some of my friends did that worked when Maya was smaller was use lunchboxes when we were visiting, that way they could make sure the lunchboxes were kept closed when mealtimes were over so that Maya's lil sticky explorer fingers could get in there. We did have one accident at Playcentre where she ate a tiny fragment of Cameo Creme that she'd picked up off the floor and came out in hives and had to have Zyrtec.

Another thing that helps is to have set times for eating, but that's tricky with wee ones who like to graze over the course of the day.

And there are always 'safe' snacks that aren't special things you'd have to go out of your way/expense to buy - rice crackers, fruit, veges etc. And I have some great allergy friendly recipes if you're keen to try your hand at baking.

Hope this helps somewhat? I have some posters from AllergyNZ on keeping kids safe when they have allergies, I can send you one if you like, and if you contact Allergy NZ direct they can send you an info pack with resources on educating your preschoolers on the dangers of allergies that are age appropriate.

The vacuuming one is a good idea, didn't think of that!

I never found jealousy was much of a problem with Maya, she didn't seem bothered that what she had was different to what others had, and by age two she could repeat by rote "no milk, no eggs, no peanuts, no soy". Cute in a sad kinda way.

One thing I did (and still do) find frustrating tho is that some people insist on calling their kids intolerances 'allergies'. There is a big difference between a kid who gets a bit of exczema or a bit of a sicky tummy from having milk and a kid like Maya or Ella (and I suspect Mercedes) where a little bit of milk can be life threatening. True allergies are an immune system reaction, the whole body shuts down, and it's really hard to get that across to people. I remember my dad giving Maya his teaspoon to lick after he'd been eating icecream and minutes later she was covered in hives - he never, ever doubted me again where food was concerned.

I think it's awesome that you are so interested in making things easier for Andie, Teresa!

My niece and nephew are allergic to nuts and dairy. We don't see them that often (as they live in Tauranga) so we spend lots of time with them when we are in the same area. Nat and I have taught Kiya (and are in the process of teaching Josiah) to check with us or Aunty Sarah/Uncle Mike before sharing with Michal or Kiel. Kiya understands that some things in different foods will make her cousins very very sick, and is really good about asking first.

Maya wrote: and by age two she (Maya) could repeat by rote "no milk, no eggs, no peanuts, no soy". Cute in a sad kinda way.

Michal can do this too, and Kiel is just starting to. Last Christmas, the kindy that Michal and Kiel went to bought some soy icecream just for them at the christmas party so that they didn't miss out. The kids are so used to not being allowed (dairy-based) icecream that they refused to eat the soy one! Sarah (SIL) said that they kept saying it would make them sick and that nothing anyone said would change their minds!

peachy wrote: Sorry to butt into this conversation, but do they (as in the scientific type people) know where or how allergy problems stem from? Or is it just luck (or unlucky) of the draw??

Not really. Food allergy is more common in babies with family history of atopia (exczema/asthma/hayfever/food allergies) but some kids get them even without any family history. I didn't really think about it with Maya, it wasn't till I rang the Nutricia Advisory service about something completely unrelated and mentioned that Maya's mouth was covered in spots after her bottle that they said "stop! It's an allergy!" After she was "officially" diagnosed with multiple allergies I got talking to Mum and it turns out both of my brothers had intolerances to dairy, and me and my sister both had problems with exczema as kids, and one of my brothers has anaphalaxis (life threatening allergy) to pineapple.

There are some things specialists recommend you can to to try and prevent allergies, but nothing is set in stone, Maya's paed Dr Liang explained to me that for some babies it's just in their genetic coding. I wrote a whole long post about the prevention course I did with him during pregnancy over on EBB, I can drag it up and copy it here if you're interested?

Copied over from EBB:

Allen Liang (in Auckland) does an antenatal allergy awareness programme for parents with family history. I saw him when I was at the end of second tri with the twins and he recommended:
*Probiotics during pregnancy
*Avoiding antibiotics unless absolutely neccessary for both mum and baby
*Avoiding carbon emissions (like diesel fumes) and cigarette smoke
*No peanuts during pregnancy
*Breastfeeding to at least 6 mths, preferable exclusively
*Delaying the introduction of solids to 6 mths
And specifically because my DD had egg and milk allergy
*Reducing my dairy intake during my 3rd trimester
*No dairy during breastfeeding (and I have since learned no egg either)
*If baby (or in our case babies) need formula to go straight to Neocate, and he supplied me with a starter tin (it cost me $86 as at that stage the babies weren't born so didn't have a HFA#) in case they needed it.

He did say tho that siblings of allergy children have up to an 80% chance of developing allergies. Apparently the tendency exists before birth, but you can short-circuit the process by avoiding potential triggers until baby's immune system is more mature. He recommends allergy testing at 9 mths if baby shows no signs of symptoms and 6 mths if baby exhibits any potential allergy symptoms.

I wish I had listened to the dairy thing. I stubbornly thought that because my DD wasn't affected by dairy thru my breastmilk until 4 or so months that the twins would be OK. I am now on a strict dairy free diet as it seems that one of the twins has reflux that is exacerbated by dairy and we are waiting on RAST results.

Hope this helps. I would definitely recommend seeing him if you live in/near Auckland as I found it very worthwhile.

I don't *think* Sienna is allergic to anything either, we won't know 100% till she's tested and we start introducing foods but so far she's had none of the symptoms that Mercedes and Maya had. I am quietly hopeful of at least one of them avoiding it!

Yeah, I'll hop onto this topic train....Connor poos blood if he has egg. He went into anaphylwhatever shock at 4 days when he had a bottle of formula. We've got another appt with Jan Sinclair at Starship on Wednesday to see if there is any other food group that will scare the crap out of his parents. I never realised you could be afraid of food...I've always had such a great love affair with food (too much of one in fact). In any case, we have seperate eating areas for the toddle at the moment so that all of the thrown overboard egg, cheese etc is limited to places where the roaming baby isn't (the kitchen). I suppose that cleaning up after him straight away or vacuuming would be good too...I'll write that down somewhere and see if I remember...

So I finally stumble onto OhBaby this weekend.....

Thanks for opening up the topic, Teresa  - let's say that you more than beat me to it!  That day at the creche room I was a little too close to suddenly freaking out, as I imagined all the wee ones munching away on all manner of foods and the toys getting covered while Ella tries to shove every toy she can into her mouth... I just panicked at the thought!  It's great to read your advice, Emma and Aimee.  I'll contact AllergyNZ about those posters, too. 

What really suprises me is that I've received far more information from food manufacturers than I have from the health system.  I'll be seeing the Paed with a long list of questions this week (that I'll have written down so I don't forget most of them like last time!)    But there's still so much more to find out.  I'm with ya's (Emma & Aimee) on the whole wanting to strangle anyone who calls an intolerance an allergy, thing! 

I was saying to DH today that now that the weather's caved in, I'm not getting any exercise and have realised that I have some pies around my middle that I could do with shaking off.  I used to grab the stroller and go walkies.  Now a gym would be a good idea (for winter) but truth be told, I'm terrified of leaving Ella in a gym creche where they might just accidentally let her get her hands on some of the wrong foods.  How have other mum's got around the daycare/creche/kindy issues? 

...And Maree.... HOLY COW what did I miss back when Connor was so wee?!???  That's terrible - I know how terrifying it was when Ella went into 'anaphylwhatever' (he he... love the new name BTW!) but must've been even scarier with such a brand brand new baby - my gosh my heart goes out to you. 

We were lucky with daycare too, as Maya's allergies first started becoming apparent after she had already started daycare so they saw first-hand how sick she got and how much weight she lost. Jan did up an Allergy Action Plan with a photo of Maya on it and a step-by-step "what to do" if Maya did have a reaction or ingest something dangerous. We never had a single issue in the whole 2 1/2 years that she was there. I did used to bake cakes/muffins for her and they kept them in the freezer so that when the other kids had their morning/afternoon teas she had something she could eat as well.

I found Playcentre much harder as they had a bring a lunchbox arrangement and I found it really difficult to get across to the other parents how important it was for them to keep their kids lunchboxes closed when they weren't eating so that Maya couldn't help herself. She had one reaction where she ate a piece of Cameo Creme that she'd picked up off the ground, and another close call when she helped herself to another boy's sandwich, but luckily it had hummus instead of butter on it.

I think all you can do is keep saying over and over again "you MUST do this, otherwise my daughter will get really sick." Sometimes it feels like you're talking to simpletons coz people who haven't lived with allergy generally don't get how serious it is, but the more you say it the more they seem to understand.

Good luck at the hospital on Wed Maree! I'm counting down till the gremlins appt, 5 weeks on Tues, and hoping for some answers...