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Allergies are as much a part of my life as my brown hair or my love of spicy foods. I cannot remember a time when I didn't have asthma or hay fever, and I knew it was a possibility that my children would have allergy issues, as well.
What I didn't realize was that being genetically predisposed to allergies could and would mean any sort of allergy. I had no idea that my kids would have food allergies, which was something I'd never experienced. But along came my youngest, my son, and he wasn't even out of infancy before his multiple health issues led us down the path of allergy testing again and again.
First, he was anaphylactic to peanuts. We dealt with that -- made our home peanut-free and read labels religiously -- and still he had random reactions and various problems. Our next round of allergy testing proclaimed him allergic to a plethora of common foods, including eggs, citrus, and a variety of meats. We took him off the additional foods and forged ahead. When he continued with health concerns, we were referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist who scared me half to death by telling me he probably had either celiac or leukemia (um, what??), and he turned out to have neither.
Over the years, my son outgrew all of his food allergies. That's right -- he even outgrew his peanut allergy (only 20% of those diagnosed with a peanut allergy will outgrow it, so he was one of the lucky ones), although to this day he hates even the mere smell of peanuts.
I thought we were home free, at long last.
Last year, my daughter came down with a skin condition at the ripe old (young) age of 10. She was misdiagnosed as having Molloscum Contagiosum, then referred to a dermatologist who told us it was a food allergy, and finally to an allergist who did some scratch testing. The diagnosis? Allergic to peanuts.
Oh. Hello there, irony. Come on in!
We removed peanuts from her diet and her skin cleared.
About a month ago I tired of some chronic skin issues I've been having, and I went on an elimination diet to try to determine if maybe I have a food allergy or sensitivity that's irritating my skin. Several hungry weeks later, all signs point to wheat. If I don't eat wheat, my skin seems to be okay. Why I have developed this allergy or sensitivity now is kind of a mystery, and I do still dream of bread, but whatever. Not a huge deal.
But here's the kicker: A week ago, roughly a year after last year's drama, my daughter broke out in the same bumpy, scaly, fast-spreading rash she had last year. Only she's still not eating peanuts. So what gives?
She asked me if she could try going wheat-free with me, while we waited for her appointment with the allergist. Great idea, except that she's also a vegetarian, which means that the elimination of wheat restricts her diet a lot more than it does mine. (Veggie burgers? Full of wheat. Boca crumbles? Wheat. Most tofu-containing foods? Bound with wheat!) But we went ahead and took her off wheat and her skin started to clear.
The allergist agreed to test her for a wheat allergy, but said he thinks it's more likely that she just has "seasonal eczema" and this will come down to managing her skin symptoms. In the meantime, my kid is miserable and we have no idea why. I've been here before, but it doesn't get any easier. Ever. Allergies are tricky and insidious and crazy-making. I just want my child to feel better. And all I can do now is... wait a week for the test results, and continue slathering on the creams that help with the itch. (And dreaming of bread. I don't suppose that helps, strictly speaking, but I'm doing it anyway.)
Plenty of my fellow moms know this particular frustration all too well:
LN of Local Nourishment is a mom to 6 who's been battling allergic eczema in her kids for years. She has some great suggestions on food and food supplements, including the fact that apples contain a component that fights inflammation (perhaps the root of the "apple a day keeps the doctor away" saying).
Robyn writes at Peanut Allergy Kid and (obviously) knows her son has a peanut allergy, but she describes the frustration of the "mystery reaction" so well, I could remember back to when similar things happened with my son.
