Our Food Allergy Experience - So Far

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By Beth F.

My son, Drew, is now 6 1/2 years old. He is allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, green beans, peas, and possibly strawberries.

At four months of age, Drew starting getting eczema on his chest, belly, and back. When he was six months of age he had a reaction to something -- we don’t know what -- that caused the giant hives/welts all over his body that lasted a few days. His doctor ordered blood tests and we soon found out Drew was allergic to milk, peanuts, dog, and cockroaches.

From that moment on, we protected Drew from everything he was allergic to. It was such a learning process. It seemed no one at that time had kids with food allergies and I felt I was alone.

At 16 months of age, Drew tested positive to many things. Every time I'd feed him something we'd just wait for a reaction. One evening I shared my green beans and peas with him. Drew started wheezing, throwing up, and had hives around his mouth. We gave him an antihistamine, but that didn’t stop it. We then took him to the emergency room, where they weren't really sure what he was allergic to, but they gave us the prescription for an epinephrine auto-injector and really didn't explain how to use it.

About two weeks later, I gave Drew lunch. My husband was outside talking to a neighbor when he heard me yelling for him from the kitchen window. The eggs I had fed my son were causing a bad reaction. The hives around his mouth started right away, then he was throwing up, and had watery eyes, runny nose, diarrhea, and he was wheezing. I called his doctor and was told to give him antihistamine, which we did as soon as the reaction started. The doctor also suggested an oatmeal bath to calm his skin, but it made it more red and swollen. We decided to take him to the ER, and I'm not sure why we waited so long. As I was putting him in his car seat, I looked at his face. What did I see? Drew's face turned white, his lips turned blue, and he was starting to fall asleep. That is an image I can never, ever forget. I yelled for my husband to call 911.

The ambulance staff was wonderful, I had the chance to thank them shortly after this incident when I saw them in my neighborhood a week or so later. I cannot thank them enough for their help and educating me on food allergies.

The doctor told me he didn't believe it was a food allergy and that it was a viral infection, even though I assured him we were just there a couple weeks before with a reaction like this one and were given a prescription for an epinephrine auto-injector. They monitored him for a very short time.

I contacted an allergist and we had testing for Drew. He tested positive to milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, peas, green beans, turkey, chicken, and cod. I was so overwhelmed! During this time I found a new allergist, the third one we had been to. Every year, we get Drew tested for his food allergies, and every year we are heartbroken that he has yet to outgrow anything, except for the turkey, cod, and chicken which he outgrew the next year. To this day, he doesn't care to eat any of those things.

We are starting a new school year -- first grade! I am as terrified as I was last year. However, his school is wonderful with his food allergies and his kindergarten teacher even walked with our "Drew Safe" team last year at the FAAN Walk for Food Allergy. But of course there is always that fear that something will happen. But, I do trust Drew with his food allergies; he knows what is "Drew safe" and what is not and he doesn’t eat something without asking me or his teacher. My son is very smart and I think that is for a reason, for a very good reason!

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