i ended up sobbing the other night about allergies.

[misdee]

after 18months and dd4 not showing any def signs of outgrowing allergies i found it a bit much.

i am expecting dc5 in dec. and fight a daily self battle about what i shoul and shouldnt eat to minimise allergies. i ended up crying and howling on dh shoulders about how shit it all was, how much i hate it, and its not fair.

he told me to eat the nuts. because if dc5 doesnt have an allergy at all then its all good. but if i avoid them like i did for dd1,2 aqnd 3, and they all had allergies, then i will blame myself anyway for it.

so he said eat and enjoy.

tbhm i think he is right,. i dont think anything i do, or dont do will affect anything. i have done things both ways, and shitty genetics wins over food unfortunatly.

not sure why i'm typing this, but wanted to get it all out.

There is quite a bit of evidence. also evidence that conditions can improve after a bout of measles, strange though it may seem.

"And as allergies can develop at any age it seems unlikely"

DS's allergies appeared when he was 4 years 8 months, just when he was due his pre school boosters. For some reason he didn't have them until he actually started school the day after his 5th birthday. If he had had his boosters when they were due, i am sure some people would have connected the allergies with the vaccinations.

You mean you don't believe there is any evidence that vaccines offer the first significant challenge/trauma/insult to the immune system?

What do you think that would be then? Breast milk? Sudocrem? In your own time.

misdee, the good news is that they will grow up and it will be ok. I had all sorts of weird allergies as a child. Every time I got a cold I would end up with terrible breathing problems and having to breath over a hot steaming bowl of water with a towel over my head. And then there was the weird hives and massively swollen feet and hands that I would get with every cold. I would go wheezy with exercise and in fields and around animals. But this was in the 60's so you just got on with it. No inhalers, no claritin. Just a dose of antihistamine that would then make me sleepy and non-functional. I still managed to have a happy lively sports filled childhood. By the way, if you asked my mother she would describe my childhood as healthy and allergy free (I wasn't diagnosed with asthma until I was an adult) which may be part of why allergies seems so much more prevalent nowadays.
I outgrew almost all the allergies and use claritin and an occasional inhaler to control the ones that are left.

Because of my allergies, I was careful about avoiding peanuts and obviously allergenic foods (eggs, strawberries, kiwis, seafood) at a young age. By luck of the draw, Ds ended up with no allergies as far as I can tell and dd just got sensitive skin. She had awful cracked and bleeding eczema as a baby and then outgrew it by the time she was 3.

PS My mum blames all my allergy issues on my dad's genes.

tbh misdee you are right when you say its genetics...I have 2 ds's.

ds1 - asthmatic and excema and prone to verucas, warts and currently covered in molluscum contagiosa.

ds2 - nothing (so far)

Dh is asthmatic and has excema. I dont. It really is a genetic lottery. Dont beat yourself up about it. Hope you enjoyed the nuts!

btw, ds1's paed thinks he is outgrowing his asthma He will always have sensitive skin I think as dh is 38 and still does.

Ds1 used to get all sorts of wierd viral rashes when he was a baby/toddler too. It was really worrying. He was constantly ill til he was 5. They can grow out of these things misdee Maybe your dc will too x

dd1 has almost outgrown her eczema. she just suffers in the summer these days. her asthma is better controlled, and she doesnt let anything stop her.

dd4 i worry about. its that epipen in my bag that i worry about having to use. i want to get to dec and exchange it for a new one without ever having to use it.

its genetics, and i blame dh

I've often wondered about the vaccine link. DD's eczema appeared overnight after her BCG at 5 weeks old. It then worsened significantly after her 12 week jabs. From then on, every time I ate dairy or eggs in any great quantity, she would get massive oozing patches of eczema on her cheeks (BFing).

It was discovered at 8 months old that she was allergic to dairy, eggs and fish. Now at 20 months she's outgrown the fish allergy, appears to be OK on dairy, but it still v egg allergic. It has been hard and stressful. Still is at times.

I can totally understand the whole situation driving you to tears OP. I have cried about it many times. The fear factor of sending an allergic child to nursery for me was massive, and also socialising with other children when there's bits of bloody scotch egg all over the carpet, cake and beakers of milk everywhere...argh!

dd4 isnt going to pre-school becaus ei cant get over my fear of something going wrong. she is going to go to nursery though at 3yrs 9months (still got a year and 9months to go )i am hoping by then she will have outrgrown some of her allergies.

i am trying to work up the courgae to use the gym creche so i can go to aquanatel classes. but am still so fearful. i dont want that epipen used.

A gym creche should have relatively strict rules over snacks etc. The ones I've looked at seem to have a rule that says in general they won't feed the children unless it's an absolute emergency, as they're only in there for an hour or so, so it's just beakers of water etc... have you had a chat with them about it?

Not a vaccine rant - was just giving a word of advice and reasons why - you took issue with it which is your right.

Good luck misdee.

Actually what a cheek - you said you wanted links and evidence.. unless you meant something different by chapter and verse. What a cheek.

Misdee - hope your feeling a little more relaxed today - altho I know that sounds like a unsensitive and stupid thing to say I hope ykwim.

I do believe its genetics - although I have read about CS births being a link and have beaten myself up over that as DS is developing allergies now at 6yo. I think thats it tho isn't it. As parents we try to assort some sort of reason and blame as their OUR DC's and we want to protect them.

My DS allergies aren't nearly as severe as many of your DC's and no real cause has ben established yet - he has chronic ultarcaria (sp?) I had asthma as a child Dad has hayfever and my DB had excema so genetics probabably are to blame - sod the damn things Looking back he also had a lot of colds as a child in which he couldn't breathe at night and ended up needing manual nasal suctioning . Hasd an inhaler when he was 3 for continual night coughing which stopped after a few weeks. I also felt guilty as my BF stopped at 7 weeks (later discovered I had liver inflamation so maybe why) and I kept thinking if I had BF longer......

LOL at not eating a cat . I do think tho thats it is a lottery and I hope things improvve for you in the future - especially for DD4. Best of luck with PG and DC5.

Sorry just read this back and it seems to read me me me and my feelings but honestly I just wanted to share so you know you are not alone feeling like this - if that helps

FFS I'm crap at posting.

thanks mumbar.

yup i blamed myseklf for years over ss1 allergies and eczema as only managed 6 weeks of breastfeeding. then again with dd2.

then felt gutted when i breastfed dd3 for 2years and she still had allergies and eczema.

and even more so with dd4. for eating nuts in pregnancy.

so we just cant win. whatever i do, and whatever happens i will end up blaming me.

Thats thing things tho - you can 'do all the right things' but still allergies are there. I think what put it in perspective for me is having a friend (met when dc's in preschool together) who ate everything banned inc nuts during pregnancy and chose not to breast feed and her DC's are fine - actually never even had antibiotics at 4&6yo, and a collegue with DS 6 who did 'all the right things' only ate approved foods, BF for first 2 yrs etc and her DS has severe peanut/ egg allergy, asthma too. Her DS2 is fine.

crazycatlady, when my ds and dd were born, I was instructed not to give them eggs, fish or large amounts of milk until 12 months because their immune systems are not yet mature. Did your gp not give you this advice? I do wonder why the advice is so inconsistent in the UK about potential allergenic foods.

Sofia the advice is very patchy I agree. Because of family history we were advised not to give eggs, dairy, fish or nuts until past 12 months.

She had bad eczema as a baby which prompted allergy testing at 8 months since I was still BFing and going crazy with excluding one thing after another from my diet! At least then we knew once and for all, and have since had follow up testing which shows she's beginning to outgrow some of it now at 20 months. Not egg yet though.

We've had excellent care from our GP and the allergy experts at St Thomas's so I feel very lucky, I know it's a different story elsewhere in the country.

"razycatlady, when my ds and dd were born, I was instructed not to give them eggs, fish or large amounts of milk until 12 months because their immune systems are not yet mature. Did your gp not give you this advice? I do wonder why the advice is so inconsistent in the UK about potential allergenic foods."

I think that advice has now changed

aap recently changed advice

you might also find EAT study interesting

"razycatlady, when my ds and dd were born, I was instructed not to give them eggs, fish or large amounts of milk until 12 months because their immune systems are not yet mature. Did your gp not give you this advice? I do wonder why the advice is so inconsistent in the UK about potential allergenic foods."

I think that advice has now changed

aap recently changed advice although the advice may still be the same for high risk children

you might also find EAT study interesting

Thanks bruffin. As it happens, I have LOTS of food allergies in my family, so I was extra careful. In fact when dd was 9 months or so, we were in US and dh decided to ignore allergy advice (no food allergies in his family) and give dd some egg when I wasn't looking. Dd was on antibiotics for a chest infection at the time. She broke out in hives all over. We never did know whether it was the egg or the antibiotics, but she has had both since and has not had reactions to either.

My first child has multiple food allergies and at birth my second did too. However, given experience saw allergy consultant who advised we breastfeed to 4 mths then skin prick test which we did to find egg/milk/nuts allergies BUT then went on dairy free/soya free formula until age 1 and BINGO the allergies had disappeared. I think its genetic not because of what you do/don't eat in pregnancy.

Good luck