What do you think is the real extent of allergies in this country?

[CasaBevron]

I ask because today I met someone who avoids peanuts because the last time she did her throat tingled and her lips swelled...she just avoids them and thats that.

My mum has loads of foods that make her mouth tingle if she eats them (not always but sometimes), mainly fruits, and also walnuts but she doesn't really make a big deal of it and doesn't do anything to avoid them really apart from the nuts. If she feels something affecting her she just stops eating it. She can eat, but not touch, other foods like citrus. She's never seen anyone about it.

It seems to me that there must be loads of people who eat/touch something, have a reaction and just think 'oh I'll just avoid that from now on then' and never see a doctor or specialist. It sometimes makes me wonder if I must seem really over the top to other people when I tell them that we have seen specialists etc with ds, and I just wonder how many truly allergic people there are who are never 'counted' iyswim? The problem might be much bigger than we realise because half of those who react to stuff just get on with it and don't really worry about it.

Maybe that's the reason that truly serious allergies, especially to anything other than nuts, are not taken as seriously as they might be? Is it that there are many people who just have a mild reaction and then avoid the cause and don't see it as a problem (whether they should do or not)? I've heard loads of anecdotes along the lines of 'oh yes, x couldn't eat egg as a baby but we just waited until she was a bit older and she was okay with it then'...On the other hand, imagine if everyone did seek medical help - waiting lists are long enough as it is!

Just thinking out loud really, but I'm amazed at how many allergies come out of the woodwork once you start talking about them...

Yes, I think I know what you mean about all the people who do seem to have genuine allergies but never see a doctor about it. A few weeks ago, I met a nursery worker whose son had a whole-body-hives reaction to nuts when he was about 3 years old, and the GP she saw had done nothing about it (apart from telling her not to give him any more nuts!), so she felt that her son did not have a 'proper' allergy.

My mum's lips used to tingle and swell slightly whenever she encountered kiwi fruit in anything (e.g. fruit salad, even if she picked out the kiwi before eating it). She never counted herself as properly 'allergic'.

I'd also love to know how rare it is to have the kind of multiple food allergies that so many of the mums on this wonderfully supportive allergy board are dealing with.

DS is highly allergic to CMP, eggs, nuts, bananas, garlic, lentils, peas (and other pulses), and is also not great with many other foods (e.g. soya, tomatoes, onions etc.) I keep telling him that he is 'special' and that we have 'special food' but it would be interesting to know just how 'special' he is statistically.

What a lot for your DS - and you - to have to deal with

I have to admit I have only really come across other people who react to just one thing. I suppose when you are dealing with multiple allergies, you are inevitably going to be a part of the system in terms of treatment, management, etc. But it does shock me that there must be so many people walking around with only one - but still one potentially really serious - allergy and doing nothing about it! By nature, I am a seeker-out of information. I need to feel in control and I could never have just left it at that knowing that ds had had a food allergy. Of course the downside to that is that I now know loads of stuff that I wish I didn't, and am probably overcautious and overprotective as a result, but I can't unknow it now! I'd rather know too much than nothing at all

I used to share a house with a guy who was anaphylactic to brazil nuts - he'd never spoken to a doctor about it, no epipen, nothing. He once ate a piece of fruitcake with brazil nut in it and had to stagger to Boots with a rapidly-closing airway, for antihistamines. Still wouldn't go to the doctor but is now much more careful to check before he eats.

I am allergic to shellfish and kiwi fruit but I doubt this is recorded in my medical records, although my environmental/drug allergies are.

For years we thought my mother had a food intolerance to chillis/sweet peppers because they gave her stomach ache. Then a couple of years ago she was cutting up a chilli and developed serious breathing difficulties. Turns out that it was actually an allergy all along, although she still doesn't consider it a 'proper' allergy as no swelling/hives.

I think in the past a lot of the babies/young children who 'choked' on nuts actually went into anaphylaxis when eating them. I also view statements like 'nut allergies are much less prevalent in developing countries' with suspicion because in my experience (West Africa) if you had a serious nut allergy you would just die young and nobody would know. Honestly, children die all the time without ever seeing a doctor - how would official statistics be gathered.

whats more disturbing is the fact that globally we are all becoming more allergic. just to different, but common to the country foods.
for e.g japan= rice and fish

so its not just blighty, its all over!

oh, and not just the humans, horses, dogs , cats all increase in allergic disease.

It's a tricky one, and certainly advise given by professionals has changed somewhat in the last few decades.
As a child apparently I was severely allergic to all "hairy" fruits, peach, kiwi, strawberries and raspberries and so on, my mum weaned me early on as that that was the practice at the time, and as soon she has started me on fruit pure s, she claims I was be in covered in hives with red swollen lips.
Advise she was given by paediatrician at the time was not to stop giving me those fruits, but rather to space them at the regular intervals and also to start with a very small quantities and increase gradually, idea behind I guess was for me to learn to tolerate those foods, as a result I have outgrown my allergies, in fact I can't even remember ever being allergic to anything, and today I am fine.
Was my reaction an allergic reaction or indeed just a passing intolerance I will never know.
One fact remain constant, we are more allergic and sensitive to a lot of things we ingest and come in contact with, allergies are on up some of them not very serious and some of them almost lethal.

Interesting one this. I kind of blame/applaud the internet for an increased awareness of intolerances and allergies. When i was a baby, i could not tolerate cow's milk. I was adopted (not due to the cow's milk issue!) and the hv/dr gave my mum some 'non dairy' formula. This was in the 1960s, so i dread to think what was in it! When i couldn't wean the dr dx a lipase deficiency and advised not eating animal products - which i don't. I always suffered - and still do - IBS, and contact allergies (unknown).
I then have 3 DS - all with allergies and intolerances, IBS, asthma, eczema etc. GP input still ongoing to find out what other irritants are causing problems.
This year i found my birth mother. On chatting to her, she worked out herself that she was wheat intolerant, and lentils are also a big no - she was hospitalised last time due to the reaction.
I guess that now we research, ask questions, know our rights and expect our GPs to take us seriously and not dismiss us with an 'over anxious mother' look, the numbers appear to be increasing. In the 60s, my mum just took the dr's word for it, did as she was told, and had no support from anybody. I wasn't a statistic, because it was 'normal' just to get on with it.

What an interesting thread. I was just posting something along htese lines, but hadn't seen this yet. I'm a scientist and was thinking about applying for a grant to look at the rates of undiscovered food allergies. Maybe better let sleeping dogs lie....

I'm possibly one of the uncounted for lactose intolerance.

As a child I didn't like milk and when forced to drink it felt sick. as soon as I could I stopped drinking it and still don't.

Years later I read about lactose intolerance and ticked all the boxes, i can eat cheese or sauces made with milk without feeling ill but not milk itself.

I just don't see the point of asking for testing. What would I do differently? Well nothing. It would waste the Dr's time and NHS money.

The allergic rections are on my medical notes and that's it.

My friend's dd had mild allergic reactions to peanuts and walnuts. The GP said it was a sensitivity and that it wouldn't need investigating further. Unfortunately she had an anaphylactic reaction at a school fete after eating chocolate brownies that she thought had no nuts in (they contained walnuts). She was fine after the paramedics injected her with adrenaline and took her to hopsital. She has fully recovered, and now has Epipens. I think any allergic reaction to foods should be taken seriously. Coming up in hives after eating something is a definite sign of an allergic reaction too. I would say that any allergic reaction in a child should be investigated even if you have to insist or go private, as the next reaction can be much more severe, and sadly I know of one child in a village near us who died from anaphylaxis when there were no epipens in the house. My dd has nut/shellfish allergies and I'm very upset about it. However, you just have to get on with it and avoid the allergens - there's no alternative at the moment.

To answer your question - I don't know the true extent of allergies in the UK, but 5% of children in our school have nut allergies - their epipens are all strung up in bags with photos of the children on them in a special cupboard. That's more than a few years ago when my eldest dd was small.

DH was diagnosed with a load of allergies when he was a boy including milk a, but it doesn't seem to affect him. Also various animal and hayfever. He does seem to have oral allergies to things like avocado and melon and he is definitely allergic to Brazil Nuts but has never seen anyone about it, he just avoids tree nuts.

I have had swollen lips and tingling with persimmon and plantain. I have only seen the doctor about an allergic reaction to the sun and some sort of rhinitis. I also had an odd hive reaction when I was little.

DS has nut and seed allergies as well as hayfever. He has seen consultant. It did take a while to see consultant as originally gp's advice was just avoid those foods.

DD has no allergies whatsoever.

our food, globally has changed dramatically, the last 100 yrs of advice re weaning has also changed.

formula, has been and still is a form of human experiment, its a fab invention that saves lives , but is over used, so you could ? the over use of non human protein in early diets.
For instance during the '70s a new formula for babies came out, and they had a crop of infants with kidney failure. it was only then they realised that over fed infants, got too much salt from the milk, and then they thought to remove it...
As for the growth of those with true problems with milk has risen dramatically.

Then there was the advice to avoid peanuts while pregnant and breastfeeding, which was advice for those with atopic disease in family, but everyone seem to grasp this idea, and the rate of peanut allergy in infants without parental atopic history, has risen 200% since the nhs put this advice in to place.
Hence the LEAP study, which is taking the idea of early introduction of peanut /egg halting the onset of allergy developing.
i suspect that my own grandchildren will be born, and weaned early on to egg and peanut to halt allergy development.

Its interesting that a great deal of atopic disease is inherited, however, in the mix, if its atopic mother there is a higher risk of the children inheriting, if its just the father, there is less chance, but of course with both being atopic in some form, the risk of allergies developing is high.

Asthma is by far the biggest global allergic disease, which kills in uk alone 1500 people a year.

Environmental allergies are also very high, and that is a new thing, what is causing that? is this linked to the change of farming of our food? the global warming that traps the layer of pollen/mold in the air for longer?

the double glazing, carpets keeping the rate of dustmite very high in our homes? so many changes, and so many people living longer, unhealthy lives.

its a scary really when you think about it.

This is a very interesting thread. I have had many arguments with DH who keeps saying nobody used to be allergic to anything back in the 70s and that most of today's allergies are made up by over anxious parents and that's what makes the stats looks so high.

When DH's aunt heard about DD2's egg allergy, she said 'oh that's interesting, your dad (that is PIL) also had an egg allergy when he was little.' When I challenged PIL on this, he told me I was being silly, of course he hadn't had a allergy, he simply didn't like egg.

Sorry about all the typos. FIL, not PIL.

Funny how it all starts coming out after you have kids! Not that there's anything I could have done to try to prevent ds's allergies, and I didn't imagine he would have any anyway tbh as dd doesn't but I didn't know any of our family history of eczema etc til this happened with ds.

interesting thread
Looking back I had allergies that were never recognised as such when a child.
Dogs made me itch and eyes swell, my parents alwasy said I was lying about somehting when i was rubbing my eyes .now know I am very allergic to dogs and cats and allergy is worse now I no longer live with a pet.

Ds has nut allergy , he's 9 now and it has been recently defined as cashew and pistachios only by food challenge. He was born atopic , so had broken eczema as a newborn infant (well a few weeks old), probably due to formula top ups (guilty). So as i was eating nuts and then creaming him i inadvertantly introduced the nut protein to his body...produsing the allergy.
This is how consultant explained poss cause to me anyway.

So thsi ties in with formula theory really as maybe ds wouldn't have had broken skin to allow the allergy to start if I hadn't used formula.

I dont think formula alone is a cause, but do wonder about the change in infants gut flora, sort of wondering if mothers with slight milk intolerance, and other atopic disease are more likely to produce a infant with high atopic disease.

none of my children ever had formula , all breastfed for years, never believed that breatfeeding could stop allergies, when basic genes/family history seem to be the problem!
my grandfather (born in london) was fed by a wet nurse during the day, and evaporated milk during the night, he had life long ezcema, had 7 surviving children, most had ezcema as children, 1 DD life long sensitive skin,ibs, adult onset asthma, nickal /metal allergies, 1 DS with life long asthma, and adult onset shellfish allergies. DD produced 3 children , 1st infant ezcema, life long sensitive skin with flare ups of ezcema, 1 DD asthma but developed while smoking so dont count that, 1DS with metal allergies, mainly impacting on clothes choice.
grandmother also had milk intolerence, and ibs had severe brittle bones when old due to milk avoidance, often complained about bread, scrap of marge , and can remember her tummy toubles and visably looked ill after consuming small amount.

my other side of the family were for many many generations (1600-1900) farmers, with animals and later on combination, mainly dairy farmers, have no form of allergic disease at all in current live family ( to our best ? so far!)

this fits in with the hygeine theory, the idea that citys produce allergic /atopic disease and that farming, and close contact with animal poo protects against allergy development.

Breastfreeding doesnt present asthma and eczema it just moves it to later in life

bruffin - that's interesting. Where did you get that information?

If you read these boards regularly, you might know that I am 'still' breastfeeding a toddler - but honestly, I am not asking because I am some kind of breastfeding-nutter. I am a part-time breastfeeding supporter, and my job involves giving presentations about breastfeeding to pregnant women at antenatal sessions. I usually admit that my own breastfed son has allergies, asthma and eczema - but then of course I also tell them that breastfeeding is known to reduce the risk of these conditions! The breastfeeding network that I work for is very hot on providing good, academic sources for the information that we give. I would really appreciate it if you could give me some links to whatever you have read.

eragon, I also agree with the hygiene theory to some extent. I try to let DS get dirty and muddy as often as I possibly can (although am very careful about him touching traces of foods he already sensitised to) and I often take him to the local City Farm. Who knows if it is helping... I hope so!

greenbanannas, no it wont really help the allergies if your allergic son get dirty! too late for that!

the reason that i mentioned my families farming side, was because the rate of allergies in farmers and of spring is pretty low , and to avoid allergy development, (the opposite of the hygeine theory) you have to have close contact with, say a cow,and its waste, while pregnant. while breastfeeding and then take the infant and let them have close contact with the waste of , say a cow. consuming part of the waste is part of that!
the only farmer and ofspring that dont have any protection against allergic disease is a pig farmer, who has a much higher rate of asthma development.
so when people start going on and on about the hygeine theory, they have no understanding of how dirty you have to get to avoid allergy development!

Very interesting thread.

As far as medical history is concerned I've only ever stated an allergy to cats when asked to fill in forms.
I have come up in hives once to an unknown cause - don't even know if it was something I ate or touched, it's never happened again so I've never had it investigated further.
I quite often get a tingly mouth when I hoover so I may have a minor reaction to dust. It's never got any worse so there doesn't seem to be much point going to the dr, I just think of it like hayfever (which I also get).

My mum is allergic to bee stings and is now diagnosed coeliac, her coeliac symptoms developed very suddenly after an insect bite. I'm not sure what the interplay between different allergies is but there certainly seems to be a connection.

Ah well, eragon, thanks for that bad news

Obviously nothing is likely to 'cure' the allergies DS already has (I wish there was something that could!), but I was hoping that by introducing him to animals and letting him get muddy I was somehow helping to prevent his allergies getting any worse. I am semi-rural myself, but DS was born in a small city. I did spend loads of time at our local City Farm when I was pregnant (but I'm not sure I actually ingested any cowpats!)

I have been reading The Allergy Bible (Linda Gamlin, 2001/2005, recommended by the Anaphylaxis Campaign). It suggests that it is never too late to try exposing children to dirt; e.g. "you can probably reduce your child's chance of developing new allergies, and perhaps make the existing ones less severe, by easing up on hygiene" (p249)

Wish I hadn't spent so much time introducing DS to the pigs at City Farm!

re breastfeeding and allergy/asthma prevention, the evidence seems 'mixed'. There was an appraisal of the evidence for the 6 month ebf concept earlier this year in the BMJ (full text free) outlining the benefits but also concerns (in industrialised countries) about possible higher rates of coeliac and food allergies.

I have become allergic to fruits and some nuts in the last few years. It is called Oral Allergy Syndrome. The fruits in Q: plums, peaches, apples, pears, kiwis, pomegranates make my lips and mouth incredibly itchy, give me weals in my mouth and if I get the juice on my hands and rub my eyes give me very sore eyes. I haven't seen a specialist, the GP told me just to avoid those foods as there is a slim chance they could result in breathing difficulties. Apparently anaphylaxis is very unusual with Oral Allergy Syndrome. I carry Piriton on me in case I have something by accident or a new fruits causes problems.