Posted by: lakeswimr
« on: November 09, 2013, 08:50:38 PM »I can understand not wanting to appear high maintenance but if you had, say, high blood pressure, you probably would not think twice about saying so in public. Somehow food allergies get a bad rap. I used to be so embarrassed to ask for things my child *needs* to stay safe and have come to be able to just state those things as matters of fact. It is hard, though.
You said your reactions start a certain way. My son's reactions were always almost the exact same for 4 years and then since that time have been different every time for the next almost 8 years now. So, I was caught very off guard and didn't realize he was having a reaction at first some of those times until things got pretty bad off since I had it in my head that my son's reactions are always the same. His allergist said that reactions can and do change and it just depends on where the protein goes in the body once it is absorbed into the blood. Once it is in the blood it can go anywhere and so can affect people in a variety of ways each time. So, I would not trust that in the future you will have the early warnings you have had with itchiness. That may or may not happen in the future.
Do you have a written emergency plan that tells you went to epi? Here is a sample one in case you do not yet.
http://www.foodallergy.org/document.doc?id=234
If you are taking antibiotics those can cause chronic yeast infections. Are you taking probiotics to counter the antibiotics? If I don't take them after I have antibiotics I get various intestinal issues and tend toward yeast infections.
Does your son have an allergist? How as your son diagnosed with those foods? Was your son having reactions to all of them? I am not sure if you know but testing has an extremely high false positive rate. Recent studies have found that 86% and in another study *90%* of people diagnosed as allergic to particular food based only on test results were NOT allergic to those foods! Testing is a good way to help figure out what might be the cause of a reaction if there are a couple suspect foods. Allergists have guidelines now that recommend against widespread testing because of the super high false positive rate. If your child has not had a for sure reaction to all of those foods some could easily be false positives. I hope so because that is a really long and difficult list of foods to avoid. I am struck by you saying you are not sure of all of his allergens. I recommend carry them on a card with you because otherwise you won't be able to label read when you shop. I hear you that you make things from scratch but even basic ingredients can have cross contamination with things.
You said your reactions start a certain way. My son's reactions were always almost the exact same for 4 years and then since that time have been different every time for the next almost 8 years now. So, I was caught very off guard and didn't realize he was having a reaction at first some of those times until things got pretty bad off since I had it in my head that my son's reactions are always the same. His allergist said that reactions can and do change and it just depends on where the protein goes in the body once it is absorbed into the blood. Once it is in the blood it can go anywhere and so can affect people in a variety of ways each time. So, I would not trust that in the future you will have the early warnings you have had with itchiness. That may or may not happen in the future.
Do you have a written emergency plan that tells you went to epi? Here is a sample one in case you do not yet.
http://www.foodallergy.org/document.doc?id=234
If you are taking antibiotics those can cause chronic yeast infections. Are you taking probiotics to counter the antibiotics? If I don't take them after I have antibiotics I get various intestinal issues and tend toward yeast infections.
Does your son have an allergist? How as your son diagnosed with those foods? Was your son having reactions to all of them? I am not sure if you know but testing has an extremely high false positive rate. Recent studies have found that 86% and in another study *90%* of people diagnosed as allergic to particular food based only on test results were NOT allergic to those foods! Testing is a good way to help figure out what might be the cause of a reaction if there are a couple suspect foods. Allergists have guidelines now that recommend against widespread testing because of the super high false positive rate. If your child has not had a for sure reaction to all of those foods some could easily be false positives. I hope so because that is a really long and difficult list of foods to avoid. I am struck by you saying you are not sure of all of his allergens. I recommend carry them on a card with you because otherwise you won't be able to label read when you shop. I hear you that you make things from scratch but even basic ingredients can have cross contamination with things.