My last post was all about questions we get asked about the fact that we have triplets (and things not to say). The other thing we get a lot of questions about is Noah's food allergies. Despite the fact that food allergies are on the rise many people are still in the dark about them. I can honestly say I didn't understand much about food allergies until I had a child with one. We have learned an awful lot over the past 9 months and I'm sure we have much more to learn.
1. How did you know? Noah's first reaction was to his first exposure to peanut butter. He had an asthma attack, then started swelling and itching and eventually had hives.
2. Will he outgrow it? Most likely not. His allergy is considered severe. Peanut allergies are the allergy that people are least likely to outgrow. He had an anaphylactic reaction so our allergerist would never put him in a desensitization study (where they expose a person to an allergen a little bit at a time). He wouldn't even do a skin prick test for nuts on Noah because of the severity of his first reaction. He only tested his blood. Typically the first reaction is the most mild.
3. What happens if he gets exposed? That is really anyone's guess. Our allergist told us that next time we will only have minutes to respond. Frankly, it's terrifying every time he starts coughing, itching his eyes or breaking out in hives. I contantly recite my plan of action. First we give the epipen, then we call 9-1-1. Then we watch him like a hawk and give the 2nd epipen if the first one isn't working.
4. Can't you just give him some Benadryl for a reaction? No. It only controls the itching and symptoms of a reaction. The Epipen is basically adrenaline and that is what interferes with the reaction. Even after using the Epipen he would need emergency attention because the reaction can continue and further medications could be needed.
5. So, does he just need to avoid peanuts? He actually has a mild tree nut (think almonds, cashews, etc.) as well. We need to avoid all nuts and sesame seeds (they have some sort of cross-reaction and the body responds to them like peanuts sometimes..I'm not sure I get it, we were just avoid them). This also means that we have to read every single food item we purchase. If it says contains, may contain, processed on the same equipment, processed in the same facility as or anything else similar to that we can't buy it. I have made mistakes and not realized until I got home that I was so used to buying something that I forgot to check. I bought Nestle chocolate chips last week and realized as I was opening them that I didn't check them. I looked and sure enough they are processed right along with a product with peanuts. They will be leaving our house immediately.
6. Why do so many kids have allergies now? I have no idea. If anyone claims they know, they're wrong. There is no clear answer. There are many theories..from vaccines (our allergist said that's "rubbish"-he's British) to the hygiene theory (we're too clean and take too many antibiotics) and the way our food is modified and processed. No one knows, but they are clearly on the rise. I read that 1 in 13 kids has a food allergy. That's about 2 kids per classroom. Scary stuff!
We don't put Noah in the church nursery, we skip events because it's just too risky and we constantly worry about when we'll need to respond. I watched a video that was posted on facebook about a person who had a reaction to a wasp sting and continued to react for hours and nearly died. Noah was standing near me and I looked at him and cried. How is it that something as innocent as peanuts could kill him so quickly? It's not fair. It's makes me angry. But I know it's just something that we have to get over and deal with. It's not the end of the world, just a roadblock. We have to find ways around it and move on.
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