'Allergic to everything' channel 4 thursday

[misdee]

see here

Allergy is spreading throughout the population at an alarming rate. At present, one in four British people suffer from an allergy, or have done at some time in their lives. Each year, the number of UK allergy sufferers increases by five per cent. Forty per cent of children now suffer from asthma, eczema or hay fever, and more than one million people have a food allergy.

© Ronnie Bergeron
The difficulties of living with an allergy are highlighted in Channel 4's Allergic to Everything, which follows four families whose lives have been blighted by allergies. Liz is 21 and suddenly became severely allergic to a whole range of foodstuffs as well as latex, pollen and grass, at the age of nineteen. Ewan's mother has been advised to keep him off all artificial flavours and colours, which is no easy task with an eight-year-old. Georgia is four years old and suffers from asthma, eczema and a severe skin allergy which means that her legs need to be bandaged to stop her itching. And James is just five months old but has a bleeding rash all over his body.

I will be seeing it, I'm still wondering how am I supose to feed a child who is intolerant to most common food, I'm supposed to rotate the less ofensive food (just allowing each ingredient once a week) but still doing that I don't get enough carbohidrate optiions to fill a week.

i'm trying to figure out clothing poption for my kids who are proving to be allergic to fabrics and bindings

When DS eczema was at its worse I tried the organic cotton range of Green Baby, the only difference I noticed was in my purse, expensive and useless. Hope you have better luck than us.
How bad is it at the moment?

The ecsema, I mean (banging my head on the keyboard after a sleepless night)

I run out of Zzz as well as you may aprefciate

dd1 is bad on her legs, docs says its stress, and i belive him. the school carpet is irrating her. dd2 still reacts to some knickers if the elastic is too exposed, i got some from spirit of nature, and they are lovely soft organic knickers with covered elastic, but they are out of stock atm. dd3 has come out in as nasty reactive rash where the leg bindings on her wraps is. am hoping its just because of the weather and the wraps have rubbed rather than her being allergic to the bindings.

Are you watching it?

btw, what's happened to this thread?? all topsy turvy

am watching. thinking we should've applied to the programme lol. that boys list is extensive but not that extensive IYKWIM. its a nightmare to get referred to allergy clinic, no wonder private clinics are making a good trade in private tests.

I'm in tears that poor wee baby

oh that baby. reminds me of dd1, hers wasnt that bad, but was bad.

is she mad?!!!!!!! she is the adult there ffs!!

i want my kids tested!!

i know i'm going on, but that poor woman. i know her frustrations so well.

There is no mention of alternative methods of testing at all

My dd went the conventional route and a endoscopy finally dignosed food allergies (but not which ones) three blood tests later we were none the wiser - as they are not accurate - we went to a Knesiologist who diagnosed her within half an hour - withdrew what she had diagnosed and within days she was a different child - third lot of bloods came back afterwards mirroring the Kneisologist - who was far less envasive, more accurate (went through far more allergens than the hospital) and was less stressful for dd

tamula -- felt for him too

misdee -- has kiddies been tested.

FIMAC1 -- how did you find out about Kneisologist? was it very expensive.

I don't have words to explain how angry I am... how much is a test for god's sake? DS was like the baby in the program and we were told for months that he will out grow it by himself, took him to Spain for a dermatologist and the problem was solved within FOUR days! I guess it would have been cheaper for the NHS to autorize propper treatment rether than expending far more money in milder treatments that simply didn't work. DS hashad a reactions to peanuts and been trying to go private without success there are simply no way you can get your child tested in the north of ENgland unless he is 5 yrs old, but I don't think that that age is very much representative of an allergy milestone but that doctors are so booked up with cases that just allow under 5s to try to sort themselves withou treatment, it's really a shame. An in-depth blood test for antibodies costs 250 pounds, a RAST one 8 pounds per allergen. GPs can bypass the specialist should they need to do so but unfortunately they are not aware of it. could we really trust GPs to treat something they know barely about?

what is a Kneisologist and where can you find them not had ds tested since 2002

My Dad mentioned a food allergy person he knew and in desperation we went as dd was very ill by then, when I got there and heard it was by muscle strength testing I nearly walked out of the door there and then! As the food groups she diagnosed were in the same 'family' (all bovine) and she had got my dd aged 5 to select which phials were put on her skin I decided to give it a try - within days she was better - get a recommended one or one from their society as I would hate anyone to feel as if they had been conned - I was very sceptial but the results proved her right - it was around £40 for a first visit. 5 years on and my dd still cannot have Bovine products (as the Knesiologist had told me as the reaction was so severe) but at least we know what it is now!

Kneisology is through muscle stength testing - the Knesiologist puts a small test tube with a possible allergen on your skin and tries to move your arm with you resisting them, if it is an allegen your arm is like jelly, no matter what resistance you put up! It is totally weird and if someone had explained it to me I would have shown them the door so to speak!

She did a short test on (totally sceptical) dh who was speechless when she diagonosed a few foods that he was allergic to (and had himself told me in the past caused him probs when he ate them)

Really, really worth trying!

ds has allergies or I should say has had intollerances diagnosed though thankfully has never had fylly blown anafalaxys only to the swelling of his nose and tongue though i managed to get his medicine down before it got severe enough for his eppi pens. When I recently saw the local school doctor about his developement she was horrified to discover that we are trying to raise his tollerance to certain foods, at first it was hard but now he can tollerate quite a lot and I also have managed to totaly get rid of Excema which unfortunatly tortured him for too long does anyone out there know about the method of raising tollerance or have you all been warned to steer clear?

ds was like that baby hence our move to Spain, the climate worked wonders for him. I was in tears throuout the programme, we did the wet-wraps, we have the epipens, there qwas so much I could identify with.

Why do we only have 9 allergy specialists working ft in the NHS???? Germany has 500. WTF

Anyone fancy joining me in petitioning Arsey Blair to improve allergy services???

bunny2 put me down on your petition!as many times as you like! I used to live near Edinburgh and was seen within two or three weeks now I live in Ayrshire and not only do I have to travell for an hour but it would take months if not years!

yes bunny2.

Count me on Bunny.

Fimac, about kinesiology testing, I would like to try it just to compare with the results we have had. As with any kind of medicine (alternative or traditional) you can have a very good doctor or a useless one, and I would like to avoid the useless, do you know if there's any association where I can get info about a reputable one (I would ask you the name of the doctor you have seen but I believe is unlikely that he is also in the north of England, though, if he is... can I have his/her contact details please??? [begging emoticon]