To be fed up of people thinking peanut allergies are the worst?

[misdee]

Not many take the eggs and milk part of my daughters allergies as seriously as her nut allergy.

Why?

Why do some assume that peanut allergies are always deadly and others aren't?

Anaphylatics is anaphylatics whatever the trigger is.

it's not a completition, someone must have seriously pissed you off. what happened? a severe allergy is a severe allergy whatever the cause. it doesn't matter what people think UNLESS they are involved with either your (if you are the sufferer) health ie food/cooking etc or your childs. too many people go on about their kids allergy when it is very different to a severe one ie a tummy upset/bloating ain't in the same league as swollen lips/impaired breathing. fwiw dd used to be allergic to all dairy + eggs (& nuts) for the first four years of her life (she is 9 now). was a bloody nightmare, nuts still severe as is raw egg (so no mouse/mayo).

*i meant to say competition...

Just wanted to say I am one of the people who thought until now that peanut allergies were the worst, despite having done first aid training which included epipens. Thanks for starting a really educational thread OP.

If someone says they/ their child has an allergy, is it okay to ask how severe the allergy is? From what you've said, the difference between 'can't eat' and 'can't be anywhere near' is vital and too often ignored, but I don't want to sound as if I'm doubting them/ trying to minimise it/ being nosy.

eragon: its so obvious kittyfane1 that you dont live in an allergy world. so your comments are understandable.
Hmm, you make assumptions...
Your talk about your DC's symptoms at length. How is this managed at school? From what you have said, in your DC's case it is not enough to not eat/ drink certain food. Just being in a place this food has been or being with a person who has eaten this food is a danger.
I have no idea how you deal with this situation but I do know that in a school with 1200 students and 80 staff, with the best will in the world it wouldn't be possible to ensure that it was a safe environment for your DS.

i'd rather people asked than assume :)

to put it in perspective, one of my other daughters has Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS). ashe cannot eat raw apples and carrots as he makes her mouth and face itch/hivey. Its not likely to kill her.

But as with all allergies, they have the potential to be lethal. Someone further down wrote about it very well, about all the factors coming together to one big allergy storm resulting in anaphylatics. Also the more exposures, the higher risk of anaphylatics developing or the allergy progresing from 'just' a rash to somthing worse. Allergies are serious, and should be treated as such.

Thanks for the information misdee :)

kittyfane1, i didnt talk/list about my sons symptoms at length, that was a description of mild reactions moving on to full blown anaphylaxis.

ingestion means, licking fingers if they have been in contact with an allergen, or rubbing an eye, and for airbourne, environmental allergies, breathed in. Thats how it enters the blood stream and kicks off the reaction.

I described a very common BUFFET situation for a small child, explaining ingestion of small amounts would have caused a reaction, and no one has any idea if that would escalate.

my ige allergic child is now a teen, and yes he has had many reactions in school, and the school deal with this, we have a care plan, and epi pens etc in place to hand. much like the majority of allergic children.

Do you think every child with epi pens is home schooled? (some are of course, as are children without health problems)

for the record, every epi pen moment of our sons live has been with ingestion, from a new allergy to a newly developed one.

I dont expect everyone to understand our strange allergy world, however i am always pleased when someone takes the time and thought to ensure our children have a normal life as everyone else . we walk carefully in a world full of food that has the potiential to kill our child.

It's not just my experience though - as this thread shows.

Sadly the biggest problem as someone above highlighted is those who claim to have allergies who maybe have an intolerance or IBS related digestive difficulties.

People have become sceptical as well as thinking these allergies just can't be that bad.

I had a bit of a freak out recently about a baby and their bottled milk being in my home when dc is anaphylactic to milk. People on here said I was OTT and ridiculous, its a baby and they need milk.

They were right, its a baby and their only source of food but when I asked them - food source aside for a second- whether they expected someone to be as relaxed about having peanuts casually around a peanut allergic child, in the same way they expected me to relaxed about having milk around my milk allergic child, no one answered. Because, the fact is, unless you've been there most people just dont understand that a mere touch of it could kill. Just like peanuts.

However, I never knew before dc had his first reaction. And despite the aboveI have recieved an overwhelming amount if support from MN regarding dc's allergies so it all balances out.

I think the general problem is people adopt an 'I know better than you' attitude when parents are explaining about allergies.

I'm lucky, my DS doesn't have any allergies but I grew up watching my childhood best friend deal with severe dairy and nut allergies. I was taught as a teenager, by who I'm now realising must have been a fantastic GP, to use an epi-pen at my friend's mother's request because we spent so much time together out of the house.

I really feel for you all - not only do you have to battle well-meaning ignorance, but you have to deal with people who DO NOT LISTEN and then dismiss you. How you refrain from punching them I do not know.

Your peanut point would depend on the child as would any other allergen though. If someone reacts to it in the air then it makes sense to make sensible precautions to avoid being in a location with it as much as possible. If someone reacts to touching it then it makes sense to try to ensure everyone is aware and takes sensible precautions with cleaning, if someone reacts when eating it then its sensible not to feed them without checking first.

What the allergen is shouldn't come into it, its about people being sensible about the needs of others.

YouAreKidding But it isn't just about allergies that are fatal, serious allergies can cause many differing degrees of reaction.

The outcomes aren't limited to just death or 'a bit of a dodgy tummy'.

With my milder allergies, what I experience could not be described as a bit of tummy upset, I can hospitalised even though it isn't anaphylaxis.

If my toddler DD is exposed to CMP she gets terrible diarrhoea. By terrible I mean really terrible, it lasts for 5-7 days usually and she has explosive diarrhoea up to 8 times a day in that period.

She has stomach cramps, she becomes dehydrated and has been hospitalised numerous times in the past because of this. She cries with the pain, she doesn't get out of bed in a morning because by the end of a week of this because she hasn't got the energy to anymore.

She still wears a nappy at bedtime and she has eczema by the end of the week she has raw, burnt skin on her bottom that is so sore she cries when she sits because of the diarrhoea in the night. I do my best with this but it happens each time, even though I set my alarm clock at 2 hourly intervals to get up through the night to check her and change it and reapply cream if she is dirty.

Just because it isn't a anaphylactic doesn't mean that it isn't serious. For a lot of people it isn't just an upset tummy and a bit of bloating. Jesus, I wish!

Do you know what caused it last time?

A mother at toddler group gave her some cake, I removed it, thanked the lady but said that she can't have things with milk in them. I turned my back to give my other DC a safe snack and when I turned back the woman had given the DD the cake back.

I asked the woman what the hell did she think she was doing and she said that she felt sorry for my DD missing out.

Nonnamesleft with all due respect, they probably do know more than you (you plural). I knew nothing, literally nothing of allergies (I thought allergy and intolerance was the same thing!!) before my 5 month old baby went into anaphylactic shock after a yoghurt.

8 months and LOTS of research later I know a fair bit (and a lot still unknown!) so yes, allergy parents probably do know more.

And outraged if the allergy is really anaphylactic, the child should have adrenalin on them. My baby was prescribed several after his first reaction.

Peanut, milk, egg whatever it doesnt matter. True anaphylaxis means epipen/jext/anapen.

Youarekidding Sorry I started my post with your name and actually I think I meant to put someone else but can't even remember who now! Sorry!

I think you've misunderstood me, NortyNancy. I meant that parents of children with allergies must be completely fed of other other people (for example, the lady who gave KirstenDunce's DD the cake back AFTER being told she couldn't have it) thinking they know better than the parent and overruling them DESPITE being told the child has an allergy.

That's alright Kirsten I was wondering how it related to me but I agree with everything you said.

I read your post 3 times before I replied but youre right, I really did read it wrong. I appologise!

With regards to what you really meant, and not what I thought you meant, I agree and that scares the fuckety fuck of me. Im waiting for the day someone hands my toddler a finger of chocolate or something, poo pooing my protests. I wonder how common that is?? Not too common I hope.

Our toddler group went milk and gluten (and egg and nut) free because we have one little boy who has these allergies.

His mum was happy bringing his own food, but then we found out she was having to give him Piriton after every session because although the kids sit down to eat they were touching toys with milky fingers etc that the little boy was then touching.

It seemed like a very easy decision to make - a very small change for us to make that makes a very big difference to a little boy and his family.

I really want to start taking my baby to mother and baby groups but feel ridiculous wiping down each toy before he plays with it. Im sure they'll just assume im neurotic. Short of standing up and announcing it, im not sure how else they'd know?

As it is, my baby only has 1 nap a day in the morning. All our local baby groups are morning time so Im kidding myself that >thats< the reason we're not going.

But it wont be long before that reasons gone. I cant mot socialise him. I know I'll have to be seem as the strange, toy cleaning neurotic mum at some point.

Hehe, 'tis ok. We were both actually agreeing with each other.

My DS had eczema (well, still does) when he was a baby. I wouldn't class it as severe because we never got to the wet bandage stage, but it was pretty bad and he ended up with a very dangerous infection in it that could have killed him. I went paranoid after that and through trial and error, discovered that soap powder was the worst thing for flaring it up so I started making my own.

The number of times that family members tried to put him in something they'd washed in Fairy or some other 'mild' washing powder was unbelievable. The same family members that had seen him in hospital, looking like he'd been burnt, so you think they'd know better and would have actually listened to me. Nope.

The sheer arrogance of people thinking they know better than the parents astounds me.

I struggle with certain family members, they are from the 'if you expose them more they'll build up a tolerance' school of thought. It pisses me off beyond belief, they just won't listen to me, despite having visited us in hospital after a reaction.

nogoodnamesleft this is nortynancy I just name changed. How do you make your own powder?

We currently use soap nuts which I think are great but I miss the smell if fairy powder and conditioner.

Dc also has had horrific eczema which needed oral steroids, topical steroids wet wraps etc etc.

I used to go to toddler groups when DS was 6 months and putting every toy in his mouth, I used to follow him around on the floor and wet wipe every single toy before he picked it up!!! In the end I realised that he didn't get much from these groups because children that age don't really play together and I was becoming a nervous wreck, in the end we stopped going to groups altogether. We had 6 months where we didn't go to any toddler groups and it was hard on me to not be able to socialise with other mums and for a while I felt a bit isolated and like we were the only people in the world with allergies this bad. Anyway, by a year his allergies had reduced by half and he wasn't putting everything in his mouth so we ventured back out again and everything was fine in grubby toddler groups. I'll never forget how hard that time was. I had to wet wipe everything, the shopping trolley, the table if we went out for coffee, I just about stopped short of wiping other peoples kids!!!!

I used a mix of soap flakes and washing soda/soda crystals. I get the soap flakes from Boots and the soda crystals from Home Bargains.

Luckily for me, DS didn't react to soap just commercial powder. What I make isn't a powder, it's more of a liquid/gel. We had an old nappy bucket with a lid on and I filled that with it. The ratio is 1/2 cup soap flakes, 1/2 cup washing soda to 1 litre of boiling water. You mix it really well until the soap flakes dissolve and when you've got a bucketful and it's set, there will probably be a crust of soap flakes on the surface. We use a hand blender to mix it all up.

I've not made any for a while but DS's eczema is flaring up again so I think I'll start doing his bedding in it.

Mummahubba how do you know it was reduced by half?
My child is adding allergies as he goes, not reducing them.

nogoodnamesleft do you use anything to make the laundry smell nice?