Allergies are Taking Over the World

Warning - this one really is a ramble.

Allergies are taking over the world. Well, at least they've taken over my world. Almost exactly 3 years ago, we found out that my then 6 month old son had food allergies. While joyous to have an explanation for what two pediatricians had incorrectly diagnosed as full body cradle cap, which was finally accurately diagnosed by someone other than myself as eczema triggered by allergies, we found that this was just the beginning of what will be a lifetime of cautiousness for both me and my son and everyone who knows him.

We are blessed really because the peanut allergy "may not kill him" (a phrase to warm any mom's heart) and he is outgrowing the milk and egg allergy. At one point touching a milk jug produced small hives and eating anything with egg in it resulted in large hives on his scalp and even vomiting. However, my child will never be able to eat Chick-fil-A or peanut butter cups - two things very dear to my tastebuds. If I am lucky, he will sit at the peanut free table at lunch, and will always remember to carry his Epi-Pen. His teachers will be accosted by me at the beginning of each school year, and I will soon start to fight the system to allow children with severe allergies to carry their Epi-Pens with them in school or at least have teachers in the classroom keep them. Because by the time the nurse arrives (if she's there that day), it could be too late. I've even heard of a new form of bullying in which devil children expose an allergic child to peanut butter.

And the story of the allergies continue. My pediatrician doesn't want me drinking milk or eating peanut butter while breastfeeding my newest addition. She also wants any formula we use to be Nutramigen - which costs $27 for a container half the size of a regular formula container. Yes - this is considerably more than Starbucks. All just in case he has the allergies his brother does or in case we can prevent them.

For those of you (yeah right - who will even read this?) who don't get it - let me try to explain. Daycare is peanut free. Yet one day I saw a little girl in my son's class eating M& Ms for breakfast ( I won't even go there). No, they were not peanut M&Ms, however, both versions are made on the same machine. This is the case with much chocolate. I had to ask the daycare director to speak to the parents of the little girl, asking them not to send these in again. I couldn't be angry with them for violating the peanut free rule, because normal parents don't have to read labels three times to be sure they won't accidentally kill their child.

Once my husband and I, on a rare date night, went to a steakhouse where you throw peanuts on the floor. When we got home we immediately stripped down in the basement, put our clothes in the washer, and our shoes outside to be hosed off. When attending baseball games, we have to wipe off the seats in case someone ate peanuts the night before.

As much of a nuisance and concern this all is - I am so proud of my little boy. After starting what I call the yucky campaign as soon as my son could understand, he understands that cannot eat many things other children can. At age 3, he knows that Mommy has to check all candy he gets at Halloween or Valentine's Day. When he attends birthday parties he knows that he cannot have cake or ice cream because it might be "yucky" for him, and that he will instead eat the snack that Mommy brings. Meanwhile, Mommy watches like a hawk. Recently we attended a birthday party, and the party attendant gave him cake. My little man just looked up at me bewildered, and another parent who is knowledgable of our situation and was closer than I was, whisked the cake away. At the next birthday party, he was given the ice cream cup, and looked at me as if to say "Mommy, are they nuts? I can't have that." Daycare has told me that if he is given the ranch dressing with his veggies, he reminds the teacher, "I can't have that."

Many wonderful people have helped us on this scary journey. My neighbors and friends are so caring and cautious about what they have in their homes and give my son to eat. However, there are some daycare providers who lie when they make mistakes. There are parents who fight elementary schools that are trying to become peanut free. Why should their child not be allowed to eat peanut butter? Well ma'am, because there are children who could die because of that sandwich. There are children whose allergies are so bad that they could touch a book your child touched and get sick or die. Is changing one meal a day really worth that? There are people who are so ignorant of eczema, which is in the same family as asthma and allergies, that in public they would comment on how chapped my son's cheeks were or how his lunch was all over his face, causing me to come home crying and stop going anywhere with him. At the time I was afraid he wouldn't know how to use his hands because he wore mitts on them all day every day for months to protect him from scratching himself.

By the time we finally got those diagnoses of eczema and allergies, his arms were infected.
Later skin infections triggered by seasonal allergies led to ocular herpes - cold sores on the eyes, and Herpes Whitlow - on the finger, which he is now susceptible to for the remainder of his life. He must stay on an antiviral medicine for an unforseen amount of time so as not to infect his infant brother, for whom cold sores could be deadly as they can attack baby's brains. At the time that he rubbed the Herpes into his allergy-itchy eyes, I was fighting the insurance company to approve the doctor's Zyrtec prescription in order to give his swollen, red eyes some relief. They did approve it - after I asked them to take a look at his record - which now included daily trips to the pediatric opthamologist, several visits to the pediatrician and three prescriptions, all of which may (or may not have) been prevented by the allergy medication. Thankfully, its now available over the counter (though hard to find for his age), so I will not have to go through the annual battle.

So, why all this jumbled rambling? Well, both seasonal and food allergies have risen in staggering amounts in the past ten years. Some claim it is because our society is too clean, and our childrens are not exposed to as much, therefore crippling their immunity. Whatever the cause, the result is this - allergies are taking over this country's children. ALL parents of children, allergic or not, need to be aware. Elementary schools need to be peanut free facilities. People need to have more compassion. My child had a red, itchy face - I cannot imagine what people say to those with truly serious serious medical or physical conditions.

To end my ramblings, I would like to thank those companies who "get it." Cold Stone Creamery allows me to get dairy free sorbet that has never touched a spoon that has touched any of their ice cream or toppings. I simply ask them to get ice cream from the "back" with a clean spoon. Edy's has a line of ice cream that is manufactured in a peanut free facility. Hershey's makes their peanutty products in a separate facility from everything else. FreeDerm, available at http://www.freederm.com/, miraculously cleared the eczema that nothing else could. The Food and Allergy Network sends me emails that let me know what products have labels with undeclared ingredients. They are holding an allergy walk in Northen Virginia on August 23. (http://www.allergywalk.org/)