just out of interest what allergies are we all living with?

[bridewolf]

just wondered,

have one child with allergies, all ige, and we have lots of asthma/hayfever/eczema on both sides of family.

sons food allergies,

peanut
brazil nut
raw egg
kiwi fruit
yeast extract
tree pollen
some types of beans (some outgrown now)
cat
dog
dustmite.

I'm not sure if it counts as an allergy but ds comes out in perfect pink spots if he eats even a tiny piece of prawn. Anti-histamine fixes it though.

yes, if it responds to anti histamine, and from the rash, it sounds like a ige allergy reaction.
avoid, avoid!

oddly shellfish and dustmite allergies do seem to go hand in hand, but my son can happily eat prawns , even though he has a very high dustmite rating.

been there with the growing list of allergies when my son was younger.

its heartbreaking to go through all that hope and have it dashed.

i was really upset when doc told us that son would never grow out of his peanut/bean allergies, i knew it, but to hear it said out loud was different...

DS2 is allergic to

tomatoes
celery
bell peppers incl chilli / cayenne / pimento etc
Food colouring annatto (in cheerios etc)

bridewolf, is your DS allergic actually to yeast extract! I thought my DS2 was until I realised that marmite has celery in and it was the celery and not the yeast extract (he is ok with crips / cheese straw type things with yeast extract).

I discovered the other day I get a skin reaction from touching cooked salmon (ok to eat it though, bit bizarre as have only developed it this year).

yes my son is REALLY allergic to yeast extract.
its out there, like all the others!

forgot to add our latest to the list,

possible liqourice, awaiting spt for it and other ingredients, so currently avoiding,

liqourice, cumin, aniseed, cochneal food colouring.

DH
Hayfever
animals
Brazil nuts but avoids all nuts
gets mild reactions from melon, avocado and seseme seeds
had positive reactions to milk as a child

Me
Hayfever
had mild reactions to persimmon and plantain
metal in jewellery
Plasters

DS 14
all treenuts except cashew
grown out of peanut allergy
seseme seed and most other seeds
plasters
insect bites
animals
hayfever

DD 12
nothing!!!!!

dh allergic to;
grass pollens
tree pollens
dust mite
strawberry
kiwi
green apples

fortunately relatively mild allergies but still very annoying.

Ds aged 17 months had a cow's milk protein allergy when he was younger and is now allergic to (but none officially confirmed yet)
kiwi
strawberry
spicy foods

they all give him eczema. He may have to be investigated for asthma when he is older and that worries me a bit. In his crèche they let him get hold of kiwi which caused a very nasty itchy rash.

DH
mild hayfever

Me
hayfever and asthma
horses, rabbits, cats, flamingos
shellfish
kiwi
(outgrown: fish, dairy, excema)

Ds1 4
Peanut
mild/newly developing allergy to (we think) celery
(outgrown): dairy

Ds2
Nothing (so far)

Sorry bridewolf, wasn't doubting you at all, just mentioning it in case it could save you a small amount of hassle. Should know really from your list that you are very familiar with allergies so would not have it wrong!

Oh forgot, I'm allergic to dustmite too. And sulphanamide drugs.

We have an epipen for dd1's dairy and egg allergies. She also has asthma, eczema and started saying her eyes were itchy last week, so I guess we can add hayfever to the list.

I'm allergic to scallops and oral allergy thingy with apples, plus hayfever, eczema. Dh is not allergic to anything we know of, but came up in an unexplained all over rash last year so who knows.

Dd2s lips swelled last week just after some peanut butter, so I was hyperventilating that we had to add nuts to the list of Foods Which Shall Not Enter The House. But she had it yesterday and seemed ok thank goodness. She's only 9 months so give her time and I'm sure she can come up with a few!

What's ige?

Oh forgot, lentils as well for dd1

and lots of topical things for me eg sleek plasters - took longer to heal up from the plaster for the injection than my c section!

wb.... flamingoes????! So how did you find that out?

I was a zoo keeper, lukewarm . A career than had to abandoned after a year due to my allergies.

DH - hayfever,dustmites,has mild asthma, and like lukewarm very allergic to plasters - those super sticky fabricy orange ones. He once got a minor cut on the face while playing a match and they stuck a plaster on it. The cut healed quickly but the reaction he got lasted ages and looked awful.

DD1 (almost 4) - asthma, eczema, egg allergy, dustmites and grass pollen. Very sensitive skin - regularly comes out in strange rashes

DD2 (16 months) -so far no sign of any allergies. Had a small bit of eczema on her face which has almost gone.

Me - nothing I am aware of.

Our problems are very minor compared to what a lot of you deal with. Anaphylatic reactions must be very scary to deal with.

I'm allergy free but

DH allergic to
cats
hayfever

DD1
cats
dogs
horses
feathers
moulds
dustmite
tree pollen
asthma
hazelnuts
pine nuts

DD2
nothing

DD3
hayfever

i also could add that we are lucky that son is not asthmatic, however does have inhalers for allergic reactions , as his throat/chest close.

lots of asthma in my family am amazed that he doenst have it!

yeast extract is not a 'real ' allergy, apparently (so docs explained to me) but of course is serious and does cause anaphylaxis.

yeast extract has a high histmine content, and as son is IgE allergic , has a higher level of histamine in body than a normal person.
yeast extract causes histmine content to overflow, and kicks in to allergic reaction.

in fact, thats a good explanation for IgE allergy, (to be frank here, am bit concerned that people are confused with this, it doenst say much for the medical support you are getting!)

an allergic person has a higher than normal amount of histamine, if you think of a pint glass, (picture it now...) a normal person without allergies, would have a thin level at the bottom.

a allergic person has a pint glass half full. this is before exposure to allergens,

in my sons case, his level gets higher in winter (centrol heating on=high dustmite), and then spikes higher now, in march (tree pollen allergy) currently he only has a small gap at the top, which is all the space he has to overfill to go in to anaphylaxis IF he accidently ingested one of his food allergens.

when younger, when dog allergy spiked, he would have difficulty breathing during this time of year near , or in a room /or car that a dog had been in.
thankfully thats much, much better now.

for those with asthma, impact of allergic reaction truely depends on asthma control.

a allergic persons symptoms are immediate and of course most of us are pretty good at recognising them, due to being a constant wittness to them, or personal experience.

its getting to know how to look for the killer symptoms and ignoring the outward visable ones, and concentrating on the lowering blood pressure signs and breathing problems.

this is why its important to know the difference between intolerance and ige allergies, as 'allergy' is such a loose term , one means life possibly at risk,
and other means days of tummy pain,vomiting and D sleepless nights and sore guts. (not dissing intolerence folks, am aware that its not fun, and can be very nasty, and have impact on long term growth etc)

DS had that type of reaction to plasters as well. He got pushed into a table by another boy and they put an oval shape plaster on it. He still had the shape of the plaster on his stomach about 9 months later long after the graze had gone.

DH - Hay fever (grass pollen)
Bananas

Me - Hay fever (tree pollen, grass pollen and mould spores)
Dogs
Tomatoes
Oranges
Cheese
Mushrooms
Bananas
Cherries
Bread made with fresh yeast.
Strawberries
Some types of potatoes, especially new ones
Out grew - eggs and milk (although milk still makes me feel sick)

DS - Aero bars
Poppy seeds
and I suspect he's going to get hay fever this year

DD - Most anti-biotics
tree pollen
Avocado
Bananas
Dogs
insect bites

Bridewolf - thanks, that's a great explanation of ige! Does it make any difference to treatment or diagnosis? Just that dd1s consultants have never mentioned that term.

wb - zoo keeper... one of my fantasy jobs. Very unfair you couldn't continue.

I'm allergic to

dogs
cats
dustmites (not my own, thankfully, but get horribly wheezy in other people's houses, no matter how clean-freaky they are)
grass
tree pollen
all raw fruit except oranges, raspberries and bananas
quite a lot of raw veg but ok with them if they're well cooked

I have Oral Allergy Syndrome which is an allergy to birch pollen which is found in all sorts of random foods. My mouth becomes very itchy and inflamed if I eat anything with the allergen in.

I also tested positive to peanuts, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts on a spt and have had an anaphalactic reaction to pecans having had no problems with them in the past. So now I have to have an Epipen with me all the time.

It's all come on in the last couple of years (I am 33), I've had asthma since I was 7 and eczema since my teens but both very mildly.

DH has no allergies.

Dd has no allergies

DS1 gets an odd blotchy rash on his face from a food colouring, we think, but we can't pin down which one.

Ds2 has chronic eczema and I suspect will have an asthma diagnosis before too long but doesn't yet appear to have any food allergies.