***Ds's RAST results***

[Heartmum2Jamie]

Well our appt didn't quite go as I had hoped. We were anticipating an allergy to milk & egg, but what we weren't expecting was the allergies to nuts and wheat as well. The only negative was to fish. Needless to say, this is alot to take in. The paed has said that he wants ds on a strict avoidance diet for 2 years and wants to put him on a medication 3 times a day to keep is reactions mild, should he eat a bad food. It begins with a N i think, but can't remember what it's called.

Fingers crossed he outgrows them all.

sorry to hear that, at least you know wot to avoid.....almost everything from the sound of it!my ds was negative on the RAST test but ive tried foods since and hes def intolerant to them so v.confusing. hope you manage to sort out his diet and he keeps well

just reread my message and it didnt seem very sympathetic!it was meant to be

what a lot to get used to,I feel for you

My ds was diagnosed with nut and egg allergy at 18 months.It was really hard to get used to and face a lifetime for ds with allergies that could potentially be fatal.

He is 3.5 yrs now and has outgrown the allergy to cooked egg.Life isn't as scary but we're still realtively new to this.I've had a lot of help from mumsnet.

I hope you find the support you need,and it will get easier to cope with.

Sorry to hear your appt didn't go as you hoped. It is very overwhelming at first and takes time to get used to it all. My ds was diagnosed at 9 months and I was expecting wheat and milk and got wheat, milk, fish, egg and peanut. I cried hopelessly all of the way home. He is now 2 1/2 years and although it is always in the back of my mind it is part of everyday life and is very manageable. I have found MN to be very helpful and talking to other mums in rl. I wish you well and hopefully things will look a little better in the days to come.

I'm sorry to hear that :(. Somebody told me the first day (when you get the news) is the worst. It definitively was in my case, I cried my head off (I was expecting him to be allergic to nuts and he came positive on all of them but glutten to which he is moderately intolerant anyway). But with time you will see that once you start finding products he can eat, finding your way around food allergens and above all, once you are adapted to these restirctions, things will be much easier.

For me, Mumsnet has been a saviour in terms of allergy information, hope we can help you make your DS's allergies slightly more bearable [hugs]

our son was diagnosed as allergic to these allergies at 18 months old,
peanut/tree nuts ( about 4 of them)
eggs
cat
dog
dustmite
tree pollen
It was a bit of a shock to get a whole armful of allergies. We did go through an intense period of 'how do we keep this kid alive, when he is allergic to the whole world' but we took it one day at a time , and things got slowly easier.
Or perhaps changed with different problems and situations as time went on.

I try to remember that there are far more allergy/reaction free days than there are reactions.
It helps in a way to make us realise that we are coping.

Meeting adults with allergies, was a great help, it confirms that allergic children do have a future, and have a normal life.
We just have to bring them up in a way to prepare them for life with alleriges.

If you teach a child to cross the road, you can teach them 'safety steps' to managing allergies.

As he got older we discovered other allergies , kiwi/beans/

At 7 he grew out of cooked egg allergy( food challenge @ hos), still allergic to raw or partially cooked.
He has grown out of his tree nut allergies, but will be life long allergic to peanuts and beans.

Dog has rose in levels and can be poteintally life threatening in the 'right' envrionment.
tree pollen and hay fever have become more troublesome as the years go by.
However his ezcema has improved, this swing of lessoning ezcema and more severe reactions to tree pollon etc, is linked to the 'allergic march' and is quite common.

Peanut and beans are linked, tree pollen and kiwi are linked ( all similar proteins)

Date of birth does factor in allergies, son is march birth, so is allergic to tree pollen, if born in autumn, tree mould would be most likely.

20% of nut allergic children grow out of nut allergies, however that depends on age of dignosis and other factors i cant remember!!

milk allergies in most children are grown out of between ages 3-5 . A few are life long.

Son will go through a raw egg challenge at the end of this month. He will be 10, if he passes it will make his overnight school trip easier to manage. Even if he fails , he is still going, where there is a will , theres a way!!

a little hijack here,sorry.

Williamsmummy,I'm interested to hear that your son outgrew his allergy to tree nuts.
Was he allergic to cashews by any chance.?
Am holding out hope that ds will out grow his.
thanks

I cant remember!! almonds/hazelnuts/brazil.....................er, it was a bit of blur and shock that day.
I was only expecting peanut and egg!!
I didnt really care which one, they are all cross contaminted anyway, so if a food said which nuts , I would still avoid.
Still do infact.( because of peanut)
The biggest difference is that william can now eat tree nuts direct from shell with no reaction.

I think the 20% applies to all nut allergies.

But this is all new stuff really, I do keep fairly up to date with research, read about a new study with Dr lack today. Something about feeding infants in Israel peanuts to stop them developing allergy.
All confusing stuff, but interesting , and worth the ocasional google. It gives you something to ask about on the rare occasions you see a medical expert!!

a good book BTW is 'the complete guide to intolerance and food allergy' by prof brostoff, published by Gamlin.

Thank-you all so much. I don't feel as bad today and know that we will find a way to cope and a routine and menu that suits, but it is all a bit overwhelming. We were not given anything from the hopital, no leaflets or anything. I tried calling our dietician yesterday, but she was out of the office and today she has been in a meeting. I guess my main worry is that ds's staple food is biscuits! Bad habit started bu his lack of weight gain, but when we found something he would eat, we ran with it. I enitely put his stead weight down to biscuits and bananas alone.

I do have a question though. Will I need to cut all these things out of my diet too as I am still breastfeeding? I guess that I should clairfy that his milk & egg allergies are skin based reactions, so rashes, eczema and hives. Not sure about nuts and don't care to find out. Wheat gives him bloating, tummy pain and soft, squishy stools.

Don't know the answer to your questions hm2jamie,I'm surprised they didn't go through dietary questions at the hospital as it's quite an extensive variety of food that you're being asked to exclude.

Think you do need a dietician.

How old is your ds?

Williamsmummy-thanks for the info,will look out for that book.

We have cut all those things from our diet even when I'm not BF. THe reason being that cooking a different meal for DS everyday was far more work, there were more risks of crosscontamination and, to be fair, the quality of DS's food ended up being a not-so-nutritious imitation of what we were having. By removing dairy, egg, soya, nuts, fish, bananas and beans from our diet, he can eat whatever we eat and we are sure that the thing has a good taste which makes feeding him far easier(unfortunately many substitutes taste so bad they are almost unedible).

Regarding the little info you have been given, I'm afraid that's the norm. Soon you will see yourself turning in such an expert that you may end up correcting the dietitian .

I have posted the following in another thread but hope you may find it useful as well (give or take according to your DS's own allergies):

OK, to start with, the things that you have to watch for are the following,

Egg. Not that difficult as most things that contain it have glutten/wheat which you are already avoiding. Sometimes is hidden as Albumen. Replace with Organ No Egg (egg replacer)

Soya. The omnipresent allergen if you ask me, Possibly present in flours and every pre-packaged food. Hidden as hidrolysed oil/vegetable protein, lecithin (E322). Sadly, most alternatives to dairy are soya based.

Milk. Possibly present in bread, biscuits, and some frozen vegetables, and in sandwich fillers like ham, sausages,etc.

Sesame. Avid humus in particular, beware of oils, bread and biscuits, otherwise not so difficult to spot.

Fish. Watch out for Worcestire sauce (it contains it) and most products containing Omega 3.

Nuts. Avoid everything that contains the word nut in its name, with exception of coconut and nutmeg.

I have a list of products DS can have, but as glutten is not in the list of things I actively watch for, I'm not quite sure they don't contain glutten.

As for recipes, don't panic, get a good book to cook rice/risotos. Most recipes in them can be easily adapted to avoid the things your child can't eat. Or, even one for pasta is good as long as you substitute the pasta with rice or use the intended sauces as jacket potato fillers.

Many recipes in Gina Ford's "The Contented Little Baby Book of Weaning" are totally safe:
Chicken Peach Casserole (p.11), Lamb and Vegetable Casserole (p.107), Chicken w/sweet peppers (p 113), Chicken and Mushroom stir fry (p.115), Chicken and vegetable oat crumble (p.117), Mixed root medley (p.78). Chicken casserole (p.75), Corn Chowder (p.81), Thick courgette and leek soup (p.74). You can cook these and serve them with rice or potatoes, or, if your child is not good at eating her vegetables, you can puree the casseroles and used them as sauces for the rice.

Be sure to include, proteins, two vegetables (at leats) and carbohidrates both at dinner and lunch times. A helping of red meat a day it's important to keep the levels of iron OK.

I noticed that while I was cooking a separate free-from version of what we ate for DS, he was not getting, most of the times, a well balanced and tasty meal which made feeding him somewhat more difficult. We decided to eat all the same food and since then he is eating better (probably because we ouldn't serve him any more things that we would hate to eat (like the rice bread) and since then we all are having a more healthy and balanced diet.

In terms of bread, you can bake your own, Spelt flour is also glutten free and tastes much much better than the rice bread they sell for allergic people.

HTH. Any questions, please ask

hi Ggirl, ds is 20 months. He had been under a dietician since he was nearly 6 months. I get the distinct feeling that the consultant expected the dieitican to go through it all with me, but she is hard to get hold of.

I definately think that I am going to look into that book as well.

P.S. You can also get corn pasta from bigger Sainsbury's

Thanks for the info Chandra, it's very useful! We want to try my older ds on a wheat free diet as well (he has bloating and tummy problems too), so the whole family may as well jump on the bandwagon!

DS had the bloating and constipation problems because of milk, and he has certainly improved since we removed it from his diet: DS was always labelled as being a very placid kid (say a pillow, where ever you left him you will pick him up from the same place) since we removed the milk he is full of energy, he also laughs a lot so, keep in mind that your DS may make such change for the better that you won't bother anymore about living with a restricted diet :)