Allergy services stop at 16?

[musicposy]

Hi there, I just found the allergy board by posting on a thread in chat and someone mentioning it, so thank you :)

My DD1 is 16 and has a very severe peanut allergy, which started with a rash at two. She was formally diagnosed at 6 and has been under the hospital since then. She's gone into anaphylaxis 4 times and has had very nasty reactions to "may contain traces" products on top of that. She even had a bad reaction to the skin prick test and had to be kept under observation. She is fine with tree nuts but also allergic to penicillin, bananas and chestnuts, though none of these as severely as the peanuts.

The hospital have said she won't outgrow the allergy now and there are no allergy services for adults. Because she is 16 she has her very last appointment with them next week and they will sign her off to the GP (who is so useless that when her epipens ran out of date he refused to replace them as he couldn't find the hospital letter and we had to get a new letter - this is a child who has been rushed to hospital more than once!). Only a couple of weeks ago she had a bad reaction with severe vomiting and itching from eating something which we didn't realise had been changed to a peanut warning.

I know she's nearly grown up and all that, but I'm terrified at the thought of no hospital support and just our GP, just at the age where she tends to be a bit blase and the hospital lectures her keeps her on track a bit. I guess they know she's allergic and what else can they do now - it just feels like a nice safety net and their advice is always so good.

Anyone else with nearly grown up allergic children? Am I being stupid?

Ditto what babybarrister said. And you're right, your daughter is at an age where risk taking is part of the normal process of growing up but for a teenager with life-threatening allergies this can be a dangerous time so you really do need support. The Anaphylaxis Campaign are fantastic and they run workshops around the country specifically for teenagers as well as lots of other uesful resources. If you're not a member already, I strongly recommend joining.

We used to be members of the anaphylaxis campaign but let it lapse over the last couple of years - we've been dealing with it so many years it's easy to get complacent. I will rejoin.

That's really weird because I looked on the website for Southampton General Hospital (where we go) and they clearly have adult allergy clinics - yet we were told last year she would be referred back to GP after this appointment as she is 16. I'm glad I looked and asked, I will question that now!