Allergy Update

The kids had their yearly allergy testing a few weeks ago so I'm doing my update to see what changes occur throughout the years.

Both kids are allergic to pretty much everything in the environment and animals. For whatever reason, their immune systems are on overdrive. 

Elizabeth continues to be allergic to peanuts, sunflower seeds, and hazelnuts. 

Nathan's had a rough year allergy wise. He missed 5 days of school last year due to sickness, and we were thinking his sickness had to do with allergies but we couldn't figure out what since we were avoiding everything we knew he was allergic to. He seemed convinced bananas and pumpkin were a problem. We spent a few weeks keeping track of what he ate and sure enough, whenever he ate one of those two foods, he would have gastrointestinal problems. No hives or anything anaphylaxis related.

He's also had a rough time saying that when he eats certain foods, his mouth and tongue itch.

Now, Jeremy has a condition called Oral Allergy Syndrome. It means he is allergic to the pollen that is in or on the food somehow. He got to the point where we couldn't eat most fresh fruits and vegetables. The allergist had him do allergy shots and it has really helped him. He seems to be able to eat more of the fresh fruits and vegetables.

 This may be something Nathan has to do someday but the shots are painful and he would have to go 2 times per week and miss a lot of school to do the shots. Apparently, this condition runs in the family as Jeremy and his grandpa and an uncle all have this. 

So, on to Nathan's allergies. 

He continues to be severely allergic to dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and kiwi. These will cause hives or anaphylaxis. 

This year, we discovered that he is intolerant or has a mild allergy to banana, pumpkin, zucchini and probably all the squash family. He used to be able to eat all these foods fine, but now gets terrible stomach cramps and other issues when he eats them. 

He says he has oral allergy syndrome now and will not eat the following fresh foods because they make his mouth itch: Carrots, peas, grapes, peaches, nectarines, pears, cantaloupe, watermelon, plums, tomatoes, 

We are running out of things to feed him. His immune system seems to be getting worse as he gets older which is opposite of what traditional allergy issues are supposed to do. 

 Banana was a really hard one to take. Bananas are such an easy, clean snack and I always used to make banana bread. We also used to make him smoothies all the time with banana. Pumpkins seeds are another hard one to take. He used to eat these all the time for protein since his protein sources are so, so limited. I also used to make pumpkin bread and zucchini bread and he loved them. More foods he cannot eat. 

It's getting to the point where the only food groups he will have left to eat are meat and breads/pasta and some cooked vegetables. 

This was the first allergist appointment I didn't cry when we got home. I think it's because before I always had hope that someday the allergies would get better and every year I was devastated when I found out that things were never better. Sometime over the last year, I've given up all hope that things will ever change or improve. Things just keep getting worse. I guess giving up that hope makes it easier to deal with. I've just accepted that things will always be very hard. 

Nathan's Allergy Update

Nathan had his yearly allergy testing today. 

There was only one piece of good news. He's grown 3 inches in the last year! Even though he's unable to eat an entire food group, he's still growing normally. It's a lot of work to make all his food from scratch  for every meal, but it's working. He's growing! Plus, we managed to go another year without a serious reaction. It takes a LOT of work and diligence to keep him away from his allergens, but there's really no other choice. It's kind of like a part time job that's been forced upon me. 

The bad news is that nothing has changed or improved. The doctor actually made me cry when he confirmed what I've already suspected. But to hear the doctor say that Nathan will never outgrow the milk and egg because his allergy is so severe is just so heartbreaking. He said 80% of kids outgrow egg and milk by age 5 and Nathan is nearly 8 with no signs of improvement. He will be one of the 20% that never outgrow.  We can live pretty easily without peanuts and tree nuts. It's just incredibly hard to live a "normal" life without being able to eat anything with milk or eggs. 

His food allergies remain the same for documentation. Milk, eggs, peanuts, cashews, hazelnuts, and pistachios. All are serious enough that they could produce an anaphylactic reaction. 

We had him tested for environmental allergies for the first time. We could always  tell he was allergic to things. He gets hives from grass sometimes. When we visit homes with pets, he always comes out sniffy and his eyes are a bit puffy. We just got confirmation today. The doctor tested for the 10 most common environmental allergies and he is allergic to 9 of them! 

He is super allergic to many things! Cats, dogs, birch, cottonwood, grass, kochia, and russian thistle. He's less allergic to sagebrush and mold. The one thing he's not allergic to is dust mites. Woohoo. 

For us, environmental allergies are the least of our worries. They pale in comparison to dealing with the food. 

One last piece of good news. He still shows no signs of asthma. There is usually a  pretty clear 3 part pattern with people with allergies. It starts with eczema, progresses to food/envrionmental allergies and eventually asthma. Asthma is the last piece of the puzzle and Nathan still doesn't have it. The doctor said the most important thing we can do is keep him away from pets as being around pets too much could start to cause more stuffiness and breathing problems and we do not want to get started down the road to asthma if we can help it! 

Considering Jeremy had asthma (outgrown) , and Grandma Jane has asthma, the genetics are not looking good no matter how hard we try. We'll just continue to keep our fingers crossed that we'll get lucky in ONE aspect of this horrible disease. We already have such horrible bouts with eczema (Elizabeth)  and the food allergies with both kids. The doctor told us that 90% of the kids that die from food allergies also have asthma. So until the kids get the asthma diagnosis, maybe I should try to worry a little less. 

Safety and Allergies

While at the bike safety fair at school, they kids had a funny conversation with a Sgt. with our local police department. We had told them their Dad was a police officer so he said he had a few questions for them that he was SURE cops' kids would know the answers to.

Here was the conversation.

Sgt: "What would you say if someone asked you to get in their car?"
Nathan: "What's the password?"
Sgt: "Excellent! I knew you would know!"

Sgt: "What would you say if someone tried to offer you candy?"
Nathan: "Does that have peanuts in it?"
Elizabeth: "No label, NO thanks."

Sgt: "Um, yes, well that will work very well!"

One plus side to having all kinds of severe food allergies. The kids will never take candy from strangers!! I never realized this!

We have a few mottos in this house that they have to follow.

1. "No label, no thanks." With as many severe allergies as the kids have, if we can't read every ingredient of what's in the food, they know they can't eat it safely.

2. "No Epi, no eat." If there is no Epi-pen or Auvi-Q nearby, they are not allowed to take a bite of anything!

At the Safety fair, there was also a booth about poisons and how medication can look like candy and how cleaning supplies could look like juice. There's something else I never have to worry about. My kids won't eat or drink something unless they've read the label! They can die from a peanut or sunflower seed, but I'm sure they won't die from accidentally eating or drinking medications or cleaning supplies!

Checking out the fire truck

Elizabeth being graded riding in between the lines. 

Nathan being graded on his braking ability. 

Checking off his list of activities. 

Some new food allergies

We've added some new foods to our food allergy repertoire. I sure wish we could take some away, but that  doesn't seem to happen for us.

Nathan's been eating kiwi his whole life! Today, he ate a kiwi and immediately afterward said his mouth and hands itched. Over the course of 5 minutes, he got about 9 nice itchy hives all over his chin. We didn't panic or freak out. Our doctor has said if the only real symptom is hives around the mouth to keep an eye on it. If the symptoms progress or another sympton starts, then epi and call 911. Luckily after about 10 minutes (and wiping his chin) the hives went away. I'd like to think he's only sensitive to the juice but I doubt that's the case. We will be staying away from kiwi with him and when we see the allergy doctor in June for his yearly checkup, we'll look into this!

Elizabeth had her yearly checkup with the allergy doctor last week. Still allergic to peanuts and sunflower seeds. She also seems to have oral allergy syndrome as when she eats cantaloupe and watermelon in late summer/fall, she gets a rash around her mouth.

Also, we've added hazelnuts to her list of allergies. The bloodwork came back high enough to classify it an allergy. Nathan is already super allergic to hazelnuts-no denying it-so staying away from hazelnuts in our family will be no problem!

At the store today, I showed her a jar of Nutella and explained that this stuff wasn't just a chocolate frosting and that it actually contained hazelnuts. Another reason to not eat something she thinks is just chocolate without making sure to check the label. Or if someone ever used this as frosting on a cupcake. Yikes!!

Then, we walked by a big display that was just peanuts and sunflower seeds. Weird! Just her other two serious allergies. She said she was scared so we made a big wide circle around it.

Her class is planting sunflower seeds this week. Looks like she won't be dong that activity. Nathan's class is also planting stuff. I made sure to check the soil they used. No peanut shells in that brand...thank goodness! His class is having cupcakes again for a birthday celebration next week so I need to make sure I send something in that day.  This vigilance is just non-stop! I feel like being an "Allergy Mom" is practically a full time job. So much to watch out for constantly.

Nathan's severe allergies

For anyone that doesn't know, our little Nathan has severe food allergies. He is allergic to milk products, eggs, peanuts, and all other tree nuts. So far, he's had one anaphylactic reaction to a small amount of whey protein (milk byproduct) that was in a rice cereal. When this happened, he broke out in hives, his throat began swelling up, and he was struggling to breathe. Luckily, that was it. However, with each exposure to an allergen, the reaction will become worse and worse. Of course I have an epi-pen at all times.

Since he just turned 1 and has been home with me, it's been easy to keep him away from foods he can't have, and I haven't worried too much.

Things changed today, and I don't know how I'm going to handle the future.

We were at church in the cry room. There was another baby in there probably about 18 months old. He was eating Cheez-its and kept offering them to Nathan. Also, he and Nathan were kind of playing together and I knew this child's hands had cheez product all over them. From experience, my sister had cheese once on her hands and touched Nathan and he broke out in hives. If that is happening to the outside of his body, who knows what would happen if it was inside? I don't want to think about it.
Well, everything turned out ok, but Nathan is getting to an age where he likes to try everything.

Then, as we were leaving, I noticed he had his little fist clenched tightly around something. I opened up his hand and it was a cheerio. He must have found it under a pew or something and I didn't notice. I know this doesn't seem like a big deal, but what if that had been a peanut, or a peanut butter cracker? I wouldn't even have KNOWN he had it and could have possibly put it in his mouth.

Right now, I'm just feeling incredibly blessed that I'm able to stay home with him. At this point, I have decided that I will not be going back to work until he's in school. Yes, I miss teaching and I miss adult interaction, but it's not worth my child's life. Teaching will always be there, and if I'm not careful, my child might not always be. I don't want to take the chance of something happening at a daycare.


I was talking to another Mom and her son is allergic to milk and eggs. He had two severe reactions in a WEEK at daycare. Once, he grabbed the wrong sippy cup. The other time, another child sneaked him a cheeto. Luckily, he ended up being ok.

I don't want to have to be such an overprotective parent, but what choice do I have really? My child's LIFE is at risk here. I've talked to several Moms with kids with severe allergies, and they've said the same thing. You have to be a helicopter Mom...there's no other choice. It's a very strange position to be in.

I hope that by the time he's 6 and starting school, he'll be able to know not to take food from anyone and to never try anything without asking Mom or Dad first. I also hope that by that time he's outgrown the egg allergy at least. The milk and nuts he will probably never outgrow.

We have no idea how these allergies happened. Neither of us has any food allergies, and then BOOM! It's really hindered our lifestyle and we're just learning to deal with it. We can't eat out at any restauant. The possibility of contamination is too high. I have to take special food for Nathan everywhere we go. If we go to visit someone, I have to CONSTANTLY be watching him. They might have a spare cheeto or peanut on the floor or under the couch cushions. Who knows? He's so curious right now.

I wouldn't wish these severe allergies on my worst enemy. We just take it day by day.