I had my first experience of witnessing a child having an allergic reaction to food a few months ago. A good work friend, Sally had invited us round for a barbecue and was in the process of weaning her little boy, William. He was 7 months old at this point and such a happy little baby.
Sally said that they had already discovered that he was allergic to egg because when he ate it, he came out in hives, vomited and even got a kiss-shaped mark on his face when his dad had eaten egg and kissed him on the cheek. Bless his little cotton socks. They were on high alert as Dad has an allergy to nuts, but were hoping William wouldn’t have any allergies.
I went to chat to Sally whilst she was feeding William salmon. He had had eaten this the night before and loved it. This time though, he started to get redder and redder in the face, started rubbing his eyes and became extremely irritable. We then noticed that his hands and arms were red and coming out in hives where the salmon had touched them. Sally and her husband understandably started to panic, so I suggested giving William some anti-histamine and getting him in the bath to wash off all the remnants of fish. Luckily, this worked a treat and after his bath he was almost back to his normal self. It is a really scary thing to see though, especially the irritability and distress in William, and must be tough for parents to witness.
Now, this is a true story, and this experience changed my life, definitely changed the way I was studying cialis no prescription uk martial arts, and prompted me down the road to other martial arts and how to really make them work. Dosage is 1 levitra properien mg per day. Kamagra Online Offers A Range of Generic Drugs Reputed drug suppliers in the UK offer a buying cialis in spain range of kamagra medications and deliver the product at least 30 minutes prior to the physical intimate moments. To become pregnant, a healthy buy viagra sample weight matters. Sally was at her wits end as it was difficult to access the right services quickly and she didn’t have a clue what to do with regards to weaning and whether to try other food allergens. I told her that I have a few contacts now through Safer Eating and that I would put her in touch with some people that would be able to point her in the right direction. I used Twitter, and put her in touch with Nina @eatallergysafe, Alexa (also known as Allergy Mum) @foodallergyUK, Laurna @Myallergyboy and Julia @AlimentaryBites who were all such an amazing support. Thank you so much ladies.
Nina has lived with allergies for as long as she can remember, Alexa and Laurna have brought up children with severe allergies and Julia is a registered dietitian. The group were therefore able to give Sally great advice about where to start. They advised a referral to an allergist via the GP and to exclude any foods that William had reacted to. They also advised that a specialist health visitor could help in the meantime. Obviously, they made it clear that medical help should be sought and that they couldn’t advise in depth due to limited information.
William has now seen the allergist twice. He is still allergic to egg, strawberries and fish at 1.5 years old, and he is also allergic to cats which he loves. He is still avoiding dairy and has been referred to a dietitian to do the milk ladder. Luckily, he is not allergic to nuts like his Dad.
The free-from community can be such a fantastic help to people living with allergies and those that have children with them. I wanted to write this blog post to demonstrate how supportive everyone is, so it can help other people in the same boat and so no-one feels like they are dealing with this alone.
Thanks to Sally and Dave Pratten for allowing me to share the story and for supplying the beautiful photo.