Food Allergy 101

Just a warning, this is a lengthy post, but please, please read it!



Finally, after today's appointment, we feel we have correctly identified the majority, if not all, of Dylan's food allergies. The final list is: Cow's milk and all dairy, eggs, peanuts, and coconut. While the dairy and egg make life a little tougher, we were relieved when the doctor gave us the A-okay to give D soy.



After two months of searching for answers, I have learned a lot about food allergies, but at the same time learned very little. However, the one thing that I have learned is how uneducated society is about food allergies (doctors and parents included). Because I really want people to be educated on the subject, I'm going to offer my rudimentary knowledge to all our friends and family who read the blog and come into contact with my kids in the hopes that you will learn something and educate someone else, and so on.



A food allergy is an immune system response to a food protein. This response could be life- threatening. There are a couple differences between an intolerance and an allergy that I want people to understand because they are often confused. An intolerance is a gastrointestinal response to a sugar (in many cases lactose). You may end up with an upset tummy or diarrhea. An allergy is an immune system response to the protein. So, in the case of milk, Dylan is allergic to casein, the protein in milk, not the sugar or lactose. In the last couple of weeks, you would not believe the number of people who tell me "Oh, I don't handle milk well either." With a food allergy, it's not a matter of Dylan handling milk well or not, his only choice is to avoid it completely.



The testing for food allergies is done through blood tests and scratch tests. With Reagan, the blood draw told us enough that we didn't need to do a scratch test. Dylan's blood test showed dairy, egg and peanut as positive for food allergies and we did the scratch test today to confirm all those foods that tested negative. The scratch test consisted of two control "scratches" and the other five foods we were testing. The doctor was looking for the skin's response. So although he tested negative for coconut in the blood draw, his coconut "scratch" reaction was larger than the histamine control (the one that was supposed to cause a reaction).



A normal person has less than 0.35 kU/L antibodies to any food allergen in their blood. All of the foods that Dylan tested positive to were less than 1, but still more than 0.35 kU/L. The good news is his levels are closer to zero! To give you some perspective, Reagan's peanut allergy blood test came back with 12.2 kU/L. The chances of Dylan growing out of the food allergies (except peanut) are about 80% by age 5. The chance of Reagan and Dylan growing out of the peanut allergy is about 20% in their lifetime.



In our house, we have seen a range of reactions between Dylan and Reagan. At her worst, Reagan has thrown up from eating or touching peanuts/peanut butter. She also has gotten itchy eyes and a rash around her mouth. Dylan's worst reaction was when his lips and ears swelled up. More common reactions that Dylan has had were rashes around his mouth and face and pulling at his throat (we don't know if it's itchy or swelling when he does that). Thankfully, we haven't had to use our epipens or make any trips to the emergency room, but we've come close.



Anaphylaxis is a serious allergic reaction that can occur with in minutes, even seconds, of eating an allergen and can cause death. Food allergies are the leading cause of anaphylaxis, with peanut allergy as the leading threat. And although John and I haven't been as vigilant with milk, we have to remind ourselves that it is also a top cause of anaphylaxis.



Of course, learning all this information has taken me all over the internet trying to find peanut/dairy/egg free foods and blogs by other mother's challenged with raising food allergic children. Not everything I've seen has been helpful, however. I ran across one blog where the author talked about how she rolls her eyes at the increasing talk of food allergies on the news. And comments to many posts and articles about food allergies talk about parents making the food allergies up and overreacting. It's very disheartening to read. I would give anything to be able to make Reagan or Dylan a peanut butter sandwich and LOVE it. Or to be able to go trick or treating without worrying about how I am going to take all the candy away from them after we get home.



My first thought when either child was diagnosed was "How are we going to live without (insert food, mostly peanut M&Ms)?" But we have so far and we will. One of the big things in the food allergy news is a proposal from the Dept of Transportation, in its most extreme option, ban peanuts from airlines. While this is horrible for the peanut industry, think about this. If a passenger accidentally comes into contact on their seat, or where ever, with a peanut left behind from a flight and has a severe reaction, they would need to give themselves an epinephrine shot. That gives them 20 minutes before it wears off. If they have their second shot with them, that will give them another 20 minutes at most. Can a plane make an emergency landing in just 40 minutes? I don't think it can (but I might be wrong). Kind of makes me terrified of flying with my kids. While someone could die having peanuts on the airplane, I can guarantee that everyone else on that plane can live without them for a few hours.



Also disheartening is the lack of knowledge about what causes food allergies. One minute we should avoid giving kids potential allergens until their 3 years old, then we shouldn't avoid giving them allergens at all because avoiding may be causing the problem. One person says it's because we are too clean these days (which I know I'm not) and then another person says it's because the kids come from an unclean and unhealthy home (which I know I'm not either). Food allergies aren't believed to be entirely genetic either. It leaves a mother to wonder what I did during my pregnancy or what do I have in my house or what did I feed them or bathe my kids in that is causing the allergies. It's hard to just say it is what it is and I'll probably still search for answers, at least until the new-ness wears off and it just becomes our life.



So, with all this in mind, we are extremely grateful to our friends and family who have been so supportive over the last few months with Reagan's peanut allergy and now Dylan's. I can't tell you how much I appreciate people emailing or calling with menus so that I can plan accordingly for our kids. If we are at your house and I ask you to put a particular food away, please don't be offended. I'm just following my motherly instinct to protect my children. Our culture has so many traditions that are just steeped in food that it's going to be tricky to shift our focus, but with all your support we'll get there.



My final thought is to please just educate one person about food allergies, whether it's your husband, wife, mother, father, 2 year old or coworker. Thanks for reading all the way to the end!