Ds's friend is allergic to all fruit?

[Frontier]

Really? I've offered them strawberries. If he's really allergic, I'll offer something else (have already offered alternative fruit). Uf it's just that he doesn't fancy what's on offer he can go without!

Mum has never mentioned it but he is 14!

[Newbiecrafter]

Moving, I hadn't realised that OAS can lead to an allergy to the food. My dd's allergy doctor had said it was nothing to worry about and just to avoid it for a short while. Her next appt isn't until next year but I might just check with the nurse to see if I should stop letting dd have carrots, apples and apple juice. I hope not as she has a very limited diet anyway, but it's good to know that I need to find out. Thanks

[ladydepp]

OAS here too, stone fruits are very bad for me but worst thing of all is fresh bean sprouts. I also struggle to peel potatoes without sneezing and getting rashes on my hands. All foods cooked are fine. My symptoms are worse during tree pollen season, Feb through April. Allergy doctor said no need to worry about anaphylaxis, my allergies are just annoying!

[psychomum5]

newbiecrafter, thankyou for the virtual hug, .

I used to be under a great allergy consultant, but once I was allergy tested and they found all my allergies and how to deal with them, after a few appointments I was signed off. I guess it gets pointless keep seeing them after a while as they can;t really do anything to cure you, and have done all they can to help educate (IYGWIM).

I have several medicine allergies, the first being to penicillin which was triggered at puberty, and was easy to avoid. Oh, and cats....less easy due to friends and sleep overs.
I have suffered asthma since I was 16, and then diagnosed with hayfever shortly after.....then slowly other airborn allergies and animals.

Food allergies actually only started after being pregnant with DS2 (also DC5, and my last baby), which I am certain was triggered by the anaphylaxis when in the recovery room. My body went into meltdown mode!

Reading the comments of hayfever being connected to fruit allergies is interesting. My consultant mentioned the tree fruits allergy being connected to the fact that one of my biggest skin prick reactions was to Silver Birch, and they let off their pollen at the same time as apples and pears starting to grow, and so the pollen gets mixed up within the flesh of the fruit (probably an over simplified explanation, but one easiest for me to understand )

It is hard work and bloody irritating living with allergies. Several of my children also react but none as severe as me. DS2 landed in A&E just the other day with a random reaction, but he is currently fighting a virus and tonsillitis, so I have a strong feeling his was allergy to the bugs. PITA, but hopefully not harmful.

[wobblyweebles]

My consultant mentioned the tree fruits allergy being connected to the fact that one of my biggest skin prick reactions was to Silver Birch, and they let off their pollen at the same time as apples and pears starting to grow, and so the pollen gets mixed up within the flesh of the fruit (probably an over simplified explanation, but one easiest for me to understand

Interesting, I had not heard this link between the two. I get very itchy eyes during birch pollen season and my worst OAS reactions are to apples and pears.

[ProcessYellowC]

Another OAS - I know it's bad to but I'm self-diagnosed and all the symptoms marry up perfectly.

Again, like someone else it developed just after I gave birth. When I went to see the GP she just said it could be indigestion (nope, I knew indigestion from pregnancy). Interestingly when I first googled my symptoms around 5 years ago I found OAS buried away in a couple of academic articles, now it is all over the net! My very lay-person understanding is that for hayfever sufferers, some of the proteins in the fruit have a similar structure to the pollen that your body has always thought is trying to kill you, and as you get older your immune system gets confused between pollen/fruit proteins and so it gets all militant over these fruit proteins too.

OP sorry I think your thread has been part-hijacked by an OAS support group! So what happened in the end with your DS' friend? Did his mum confirm it?

[unrealhousewife]

I know someone with an allergy to fruit but it was triggered by pesticides.

[ProcessYellowC]

PS I was going to warn fellow Birch-related OAS sufferers to watch out for soya milk but then didn't want to be alarmist - but another google confirms to look out for it. I learned the hard way because although with fruit I knew after a mouthful or two that it was triggering my allergy so I could stop eating, it is surprisingly easy to get a truckload of chocolate soya milk down your gullet in a short space of time ... before realizing that it is setting off an allergic reaction.

general oas link

[Solo]

My Dd can't eat raw apples as she breaks out in eczema. Thankfully, it is only that though.

[capant]

I know an adult who is allergic to all fruit except bananas. It is something in fruit, can't remember what. She loves fruit, but it makes her face swell up and she gets a really bad rash. So yes, thsi can be a real allergy.

[Surfsup1]

I know someone who is allergic to ALL uncooked fruit and veg. Cooked is fine.

[GlaceDragonflies]

Thanks Newbie, it was garlic and chilli pilau rice and a curry with lentils, potatoes and chick peas so plenty of scope there for it,to be any of those things. No aubergine though but almost,certainly cumin. I use that a lot myself when cooking though.
It could have been the potatoes as they are only thing that I rarely eat as my ds has an allergy to them, he had allergy testing not long ago and reacted to them on the test.

[Newbiecrafter]

Potatoes are one of the night shades too. They do funny things to me too. I can eat them sometimes and be fine. Other times they give me terrible stomach issues.
Xxx

[kiritekanawa]

another OAS one here - this is absolutely real and the list of things you're allergic to can grow and grow to really embarrassing proportions. I've had anaphylactic reactions to stone fruits, but am allergic to almost everything in fruit, nuts, vegetables, dairy, soy - except bananas and oranges (both of which I hate). This is real, and tends to be worse in hayfever season, and it can also be unpredictable - for example, while I am allergic to latex, I can eat kiwifruit (which crossreacts with latex) up to a certain level of ripeness, and beyond that level, my mouth will swell up. Capsicum is an issue with really fresh capsicum, but the somewhat old ones I encounter in certain supermarkets are ok.

I'm reluctant to just give up basically all fruit and veg, so I persist in eating things that don't always cause reactions.

The kid will probably know what he's allergic to - ask him. And if you want to offer a snack that's not biscuits, something like toast would work. But probably not carrot sticks without asking first... I'm allergic to those too!

[kiritekanawa]

Just a point to those who are told don't worry about anaphylaxis. I went from swollen lips and tongue and red watery eye, for a few years (was repeatedly told by an immunologist friend twat that it couldn't be an allergic reaction if it was only one eye getting red ), into anaphylaxis happening repeatedly over a few months. No obvious trigger except that it was hayfever season.

So please do take seriously the idea that this is potentially fatal, carry an epipen, and know what to avoid.

BTW Newbiecrafter apple juice from concentrate should be fine. But not cloudy apple juice if she's showing signs of allergy to apples, pears, stone fruit. The cross reactions are a bit unpredictable, but they tend to go in clumps, so all blossom fruit (apples, peaches, cherries etc) go together; soy, kiwi and latex go together - but apples and soy is less common.

[GlaceDragonflies]

When I get hay fever only one eye gets watery and itchy (always the same one) so I don't believe the stuff about it only being an allergic reaction if both eyes react.
As for the epipen, if they won't prescribe one then we're stuck aren't we?

[GlaceDragonflies]

Yes re potatoes, my DS gets appalling stomach cramps after eating them. Once is OK, any more than once a week and he's ill for 3 days

[kiritekanawa]

Glace - is that that your allergist consultant won't prescribe one, or your GP? If the latter, see a different GP...

However, it's worth knowing that I've lived in countries where I haven't had access to epipens (because nobody gets prescribed them and they cost hundreds of dollars and go out of date in a few months), for the last 4 years, and I haven't needed one. And TBH all my anaphylactic reactions have been on a timescale where an epipen from an ambulance crew or even in A&E would have been soon enough.

However if I go anywhere that I don't have easy access to an ambulance, I do sort out an epipen, despite the frankly ridiculous cost.

[Newbiecrafter]

Thanks kiri.

Can I ask, what's the difference between cloudy and non cloudy juice? I have noticed my dd sometimes coughs for a bit when she has apple juice, which is pretty much once a day. I have carried on with it as I,m worried if I stop, she'll develop an allergy to it.

It's odd because we were told to continue giving the foods she can eat on a regular basis, otherwise she could develop an allergy to them. But the opposite is also true. She was eating jackets at school for lunch most days and now she can't eat them without getting diarrhoea. It is so so frustrating!

Thanks for the advice. Xxx

[Newbiecrafter]

My understanding is that if you,ve had an anaphylactic reaction once, you should be prescribed one.

[myusernameis]

I'm also allergic to a lot of fruits and some veg and tend to avoid all fruit because it isn't worth the hassle. Some fruits I react really badly to, I've reacted to peaches, plums and nectarines when my dp has eaten them in the same room as me. Yet doctors refuse to believe I get anything more than localised itching.

Haven't watched that allergy programme yet but will be interested to find out. My own theory is that it is to do with pesticides etc and intensive farming... I don't know maybe air pollution also has a part to play. Allergies are certainly so common now.

[FridayJones]

Wow, someone else has the chlorophyll/green food/can't mow lawns thing.
Thought it was just me.
Full on blasting asthma attack if I go within smelling distance of a lawn being mowed. Not remotely amusing. Used to love the smell of fresh mowed lawn before I got allergies (pesticides exposure) too, and playing in the cuttings.

[kiritekanawa]

Myusernameis - not dissing your point about pesticides, air pollution etc, but i think the people who focus only on those are missing a big, biologically relevant part of the story: your intestinal microbial ecology.

As well as air pollution and pesticides, the other thing that's really common now is people eating a lot of highly processed food, often without much fibre. This is something that has been an obvious change in the last 1-2 generations, whereas really high levels of air pollution and pesticides have been around for longer, more like 3 generations for pesticides and about 6 for air pollution in some cities. Obviously different biological mechanisms take different lengths of time, but processed food is on the right timescale to correlate with the huge rise in allergy.

There's been some cool research recently (only recently been possible, due to changes in how people sequence genes) showing that gut flora in people who eat unprocessed, high-fibre diets are very, very different from gut flora in people who eat the white-bread white-rice white-pasta packet-sauce processed-meat shop-cake western diet.

Now whether this is down to high-fibre or other aspects of the diet, we know that gut flora have a huge knock-on effect on general health. So if you change what food you eat, you may well mess with your gut flora, and what they're doing and how you're reacting to it.

Some recent research has shown that you can eliminate peanut allergy in mice by changing their gut flora.

There's also recent research showing that you can significantly reduce asthma, in mice, by feeding them high-fibre diets.

So there may well be a strong relationship between gut flora and allergy...