To be tired of so called food "intolerances" in children when the parent can't explain what symptoms the alleged intolerance produces?

[MrsSchadenfreude]

For the record, I am NOT talking about proper food allergies - coeliac disease, nut allergy etc. DD had some friends round for a sleepover the other week, and one mother said "oh X can't have anything dairy, she is intolerant to it." Fine, I cooked everything with soya milk and veg margarine. Another child was intolerant to wheat, so cakes were all gluten free as well. Gluten intolerant boy also had an intolerance to bananas. Apparently.

Asked parents what the symptoms were of these "intolerances" when children were collected. The wheat boy "bloated a bit after having bread once". Bananas? Apparently the doctor tested for banana intolerance and he was, although had never shown any signs. Dairy child "sometimes gets a tummy ache" if she has cheese. Has she had tests? Oh no. Parents self diagnosis.

Am I being unreasonable to think that this has all gone a bit far, and is used by mothers to show just how "precious" their little one is?

[Blu]

Thanks Weblette - I am v allergic to lots of tree pollen - and also the spores from invisible fungus that grows on trees.

[Blu]

or mould, rather than fungus, i thnk.

Couldn't see at all for 36 hours after walking under dripping pine trees, anyway!

[Peachy]

Ah spores from invisible fungus eh? , and you say your Dh is the hyperchondriac...... [just teasing]

[SueBarooeeooeeooooo]

I recall my first hangover vividly. I honestly thought I was going to die.

[weblette]

It's a pain in the proverbial tbh but might be worth seeing if your gp can refer you for a prick test. Certainly makes it easier knowing what to avoid. Sorry for the hijack!

[duchesse]

Ah, Peachy! Another person who can't take tea! I've felt like an English freak ever since it started in my teens (probably about the same time I started drinking tea really...) Cramps in lungs, severe stomach pains followed by diarrhea and complete clear-out. For three days. Fun. Have not drunk any since a homeopathically dilute cup (no hot chocolate or coffee available) in a Lake District pub 13 years ago.

I'm not too good with wheat either- brings on IBS style symptoms, deafness in one ear and excess nasal mucus. Now that is really something I want to share with people. Yet still they sometimes ask.

I think that on the whole, our UK diet relies far too much on a very restricted number of foodstuffs, and they creep into almost everything. It is no wonder that so many people are intolerant/ allergic if the foodstuffs they have trouble with are in everything. If those people moved to China, their problems would disappear because the staples are very different.

[Blandmum]

me too sue!

But you go, 'God, this is a hangover, I'll not drink so much next time.'

Not , 'Oh dear I must be allergic to this type of wine'

The woman was a farking idiot!

[MeMySonAndI]

I really envy you all who can laugh about these things, I really do! because it has been 3 years of utter misery with DS allergies and intolerances and although it is only peanuts that can kill him, I feel like killing myself at not knowing what to do to help him: constant pain, horrible asthma, hyperactivity, agresiveness, severe constipation, coughing, vomiting, delayed development, etc. And here we are... seeing our little child going from bad to worse with no body who could offer good advise. Thank you!

[Blandmum]

But no-one is talking about real food allergies. And many of us have made this very clear in our posts. We are talking about people who make this sort of thing up, with no diagnosis, who have none of the seriousl consequences that you describe.

FWIw, my so has quite a bad (but thankfully not life threatening) allergy to cats and dogs. But like you this is a real, diagnosed allergy. Not an excuse for picky behaviour

[MeMySonAndI]

Incidentally... I never ask people to cook for DS, it would be unfair of me, too much to take care of, not a task that could be done correctly once in a while

[MeMySonAndI]

My son is not only allergic but also intolerant, in the long run one is as bad as the other one. Unfortunately people is expecting your child to colapse in fits with foam coming out of hs mouth to consider the problem is serious, while many other problems derived from allergies and intolerances do not present themselves in such dramatic ways.

[Blandmum]

No, I think that most, if not all of us would agree with you.

Howvere there are people out there who are not talking about real intolerances.

Like the woman that I was talking about who could drink American and European wine, but not austrailian wine..

Or the child who was lactose intolerant acnd had to avoind darily in the form of milk but could eat cheese and youghurt.

When people take this things on,seeminglu off the cuff, they do nothing to improve the lives of people who have real issues with food items.

It is sort of a case of other people crying wolf so often that people with real issues don't get the help/sympathy they need

[Blu]

MeMySon...I have complete sympathy for anyone who has a child with real symptoms, be that uncomfortable bloating or whatever - not just full-scale anaphalactic shock!

That is not what this thread about. it is about the issues MartianBishop describes.

people would have more sympathy for genuine intolerance if fake and imaginary intoleracnes were not so prevalent.

[MeMySonAndI]

But MArtianbishop, it is basic knowledge of allergies that children could be intolerant to certain presentations of a food group. Children whose intolerance levels are low can eat certain things of a food family without problems while having problems with others.

Cheese and yoghurt are far easier to digest than milk is for children with lactose intolerance as the protein in them is more broken down.

Some children who have allergies to egg can eat yolks or well cooked egg but would get in trouble, or serious trouble, with raw egg. (Mine is one of those hence I avoid everything with egg just in case, as a bit of uncooked egg white can cause a reaction on him similar to the ones he gets for peanuts)

You are right in saying "When people take this things on,seeminglu off the cuff, they do nothing to improve the lives of people who have real issues with food items. " that is true. Problem is how to sort the ones with grounds for real worry from those without.

Unfortuntely, the full business is quite complex, confusing and difficult to understand.

[Upwind]

MeMySonandI, I find the information in your last post extraordinary - can you back it up by referring to your source of this "basic knowledge of allergies"?

This is a genuine request as my DH suffers with severe hayfever, cat and dog allergy. I am worried that our dcs may inherit his susceptibility.

[Blu]

MeMySon: yes, I agree it is complex and subtle for people with real allergies and intolerances. And then there's my DP who is feeding DS gluten-wheat-free pasta on the grounds that DP (not DS!!!) had a bloating reaction which he presumed to be from wheat, and which I presume to be from drink and foul greasetastic food in a cardboard box.

MB - I have come across people with a traditional lactose-intolerance (native N Americans, and some Asian people) who can have yogurt with no symptoms because the yogurting process does something to the sugars (lactose!?) which makes it tolerable...Presumably the sugars convert to something else in the fermentation or whatever the Good bacteria do? 9apologies for ArtsGraduateSpeak)

[pagwatch]

• greasetastic !

[Blandmum]

I thought the same thing!

[pagwatch]

Intolerances are so bloody difficult though - and frankly weird at times.
DS2 used to drink apple juice but it used to make him smell like a wino, made him ridiculously giggly and also interfered MASSIVELY with his sleep.
I let him drink it ( in spite of the smell) for about six months because i knew he had no problem with apples.
But, turns out he really can't do apple juice. My best guess is that there is something in the pips. But I got so tired that I don't really care WHY it is that he can't have it. I just had to pull it because he was sleeping and not stinkey....( OK I would have tolerated stinkey if he had not been up for up to three hours a night).

But I know I have had odd looks when I have said - no sorry can he have water - he can't drink apple juice and 10 mins later he has eaten an apple. Now I just say he doesn't like them ...

[edam]

Blu, those allergy/intolerance home testing kits are absolute rubbish. I led some research into them once - we sent two samples from each tester, using different names. They came back with completely different (made up) results. The companies missed our testers who had real, properly diagnosed allergies, and claimed those who were fine (we had them checked out before taking samples) had to exclude all sorts of food. Which would have caused real problems for them getting all the nutrients you need in a balanced diet.

Tell your dp to destroy all evidence and stop putting money in the pockets of the snake oil salesmen!

[pagwatch]

my 5 year old described our friends garden as conkerific at the weekend.
I was faintly proud

[edam]

Something to do with the process of turning apples into juice, presumably?

[Peachy]

memyson- the difference is clear to us all i think, and I do have sympathy (I dont have the risk ofdeath and thank god, but i do have two children with asd so can relate to an awful lot of what you say about the heartbreak, delayed development etc- I do know how that feels).


RE; the milk / dairy stuff- some peole are nto intolerant to lactose, but like me to casein- cheese etc is a total no-no for me, indeed it give me ASd-like absences as wella s the usual. The easiest way imo to work out which intolerance it is, is to try lactose free milk- if that still upsets you then more than likely its casein.

[Peachy]

pagwatch- that sounds like salycylates doesn't it, the apples? being that juice tends to be the concentrated juice of far mroe than 1 apple....

[motherinferior]

Honestly, Blu, your DP is off his trolley.