The Truth About Food Allergies

In the past few years, an emerging new worry for parents has been food allergies, specifically peanut allergies. Gone are the days when parents put cereal in their infants' bottles and started solids at 2 months of age. Instead, the AAP has updated recommendations to combat the growing threat of food allergies, including exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, withholding certain allergenic foods until after age one, and not introducing peanut butter until age three. According to our pediatrician, this is a problem only in the US. Countries with peanuts as a staple crop don't have the high allergy rate that the US has, so it is somehow linked to the way we process our food. Yet another argument for eating as many non-processed foods as possible, but that's another topic.

One of the biggest challenges facing parents with food allergic children, besides the obvious, is educating others about it, and walking the fine line between reasonable and unreasonable.

When Johnny was 9 months old, he was still spitting up on a regular basis. We'd already decided he didn't tolerate yogurt well (that's an understatement; it made him throw up, usually all over me) and had cut it out of his diet. I'll leave out most of the details, but basically he had a weight gain problem. The problem being that he didn't gain any. None. Zero. He was diagnosed with a milk protein allergy; coincidentally, this all happened at the same time some hormonal shifts in me started to affect my supply of milk. By the time I stopped breastfeeding at 11 months, my milk was gone.

Our doctor referred us to a pediatric gastroenterologist, we switched to soy formula, and cut out all traces of milk.

The diet change cleared up the problem, he gained a pound in a week, and we didn't have to go see the specialist. We switched to soy yogurt (decent), soy milk (yuck) and soy cheese (double yuck). Since soy products are so much lower in fat and calories, he remained thin. To this day, he is barely on the weight chart; at two and a half, he's around 24 pounds. How much of that is due to his early allergy issues and how much of that is genetics, we'll probably never know.

Luckily, Johnny's allergy was not life threatening. Still, it was hard to see him sick from what he was eating, not to mention smelly, and the prospect of seeing a specialist and going through tests was really awful. Having a child with a terminal illness is one of my greatest fears, and I spent so much time worrying over my little boy.

He eventually outgrew his allergy and tolerates milk products just fine now, but I learned a lot during that 9 months that his diet was dairy free.

First, that the FDA needs to do something to make food labels clearer to the consumer. Allergenic ingredients need to be clearly labeled. There were a lot of things that contained milk that you wouldn't otherwise suspect; but when I looked at the label, whey and casein were often present. That could spell trouble for someone with a more serious reaction.

The second thing is that most people don't really understand food allergies and how serious they can be. I lost count of how many times I had to explain that he was not lactose intolerant, he was allergic to the protein found in milk. The grocer at Whole Foods tried to sell me so called "dairy-free" cheese, because it didn't contain lactose, but milk protein was still listed on the label. I had to tell another mother at a playdate that "even a tiny piece" of cheese cracker was enough to make him throw up. I had to police the area whenever we went to a children's event, in case there was a sippy cup left unattended or crackers on the floor.

I read an article once written by a woman with a peanut allergic child, and she said she *had* to be direct when discussing her child's health problem. Others probably saw her as overbearing, but it was up to her to educate people about allergies and what it meant, because her son's life depended on it.

One of my good friends has a child who is allergic to peanuts. And milk. And eggs. And wheat. And tree nuts. She has expressed some of the same frustrations that I dealt with. I know that she appreciates that I get it. From what I can see, she's reasonable about what she expects of others. When they come over, I sweep and mop my floor to make sure there are no stray Cheerios or spots of spilled milk. I do it out of respect for my friend and concern for her son. However, if she wanted me to eliminate all allergenic foods from my house and bathe my kids before she came over, that would be crossing the line.

I've heard horror stories about parents who wanted peanut butter completely banned from the school. I've heard about parents who wanted the other children to brush their teeth before entering the classroom. I've heard of parents who insist that the menu at birthday parties consist solely of foods their child can eat.

It's only natural to want to protect your kids. But you can't follow your child around wiping his hands every time he touches something suspect, inspecting everything he eats and policing everyone he comes in contact with. We live in a dirty world and there will be times when you are not there. If your child's allergies are life threatening, get him an epi pen and make sure he knows how to use it and so does every care provider.

Hopefully my friend's son will outgrow his allergies. If he doesn't, he needs to learn to be vigilant on his own.

The hard part is distinguishing between being your child's advocate and being unreasonable. It's also hard to really drive home the point to people that allergies are not something to be taken lightly. I should know. I'm allergic to tree nuts. I just get hives, but it's uncomfortable. It took some time for even my own husband to really get it. I remember one family event when he brought me a brownie and insisted that I try it. I asked what was in it and he said, "Just try it, it's awesome!" As I was swallowing, I saw a walnut sticking out of what was left of the brownie. Within minutes I had welts on my arms. He had completely forgotten that brownies often are made with nuts and in his enthusiasm, caused me to have a reaction. The good news is that he learned his lesson.

Maureen is 5 months old now, and we're delaying solids for another month. I'm nervous that she may have allergies like her brother did, but at least this time I would be prepared for how to handle it.