Aibu To not really understand why so many children have food allergies?

[daftpunk]

Babies are weaned later ......? I didn't know anyone allergic to nuts or milk when I was at school, can someone explain it?

Not sure what Russia has to do with anything - how strange.

punk, don;t you remember having exactly this thread a couple of months ago?

er...no, i have never started a thread about food allergies before...

Dartpunk I'm not talking about MMR, I clearly stated that I'm not.

I'm talking mainly about the DTP jab, specifically the pertussis element. If you really have any interest at all in why the incidence of allergic disease has increased then do some reading into DTP.

ok...i will...thank you.

I didn't say you started it but you raised the same question and got the same basic range of possibilities as answers. Not that it matters, but it all went the same sort of way last time too.

???...you sure it was me?....have been on a few MMR threads (ages ago)

I don't want to get involved in blame, but I do wonder if the weird foods we eat now might have something to do with it - I read a book recently about how we should only eat foods our gps would recognise, and I don't think they would know what a cheesestring, vegetarian ham slice, or tin of veggie sausages and beans was. Maybe eating 'real' foods would help, but I know nothing - half of mine can't do dairy (properly checked, no fashionable band wagons in this house, just pita prescriptions for soya and wonderful goats milk)

ah. might not have been you.

'Allergies' is not a disease. Allergies are different symptoms in reaction to a host of different substances in millions of different people.

So the chances are there a many, many different reasons why people are allergic.

So all or none of the things mentioned in this thread could be correct.

There are parents who blap on about their children's allergies as if they are a sign of high IQ and there are parents whose lives are dominated by trying to keep their children safe.

My DS2 has severe eczema and he allergic to lots of things. I dont assume this, he has been tested (by a doctor). He has not been overprotected in the womb (hardly - there were few substances he wasnt exposed to by his birth mum) AND his inital vaccinations were delayed.

Does this prove anything? I dont think so.

Maybe the 'increas' is due to improved healthcare, lower infant mortality, pollution, over protective parents, MMR, Redbull and vodka?

I doubt we are ever going to get an answer.

A sensible summary of this thread, chegirl.

YANBU to not understand why so many children have food allergies, when the medical profession don't understand it themselves.

I would dearly love to know what parenting mistake I have made that has cursed my poor DS with food allergies.

I ate/didn't eat things when pregnant according to the official advice.

I bf exclusively for 6 months.

I weaned at 6 months.

My Ds has a wide and varied diet.

We have 2 pets.

We don't use antibacterial products and certainly can't be accused of over cleanliness.

Didn't stress out if I caught him eating worms.

Yet DS started showing symptoms of dairy allergy at a few weeks old through exposure to the dairy proteins in my breastmilk.

Everything he is allergic to i ate while pregnant and breastfeeding. I avoided peanuts and he's allergic to them.

go figure

Sorry that should read that he's NOT allergic to peanuts.

I have 4 children, 2 with Allergies.

DD1 is allergic to Latex, not sure how or why, but I think because she spent 5 weeks in SCBU, and they touched her repeatly with latex gloves she became allergic.

DD2 has ezcema, and hayfever, just a few weeks ago her face swelled, her eye closed completely and swelled, and she had hives all over her face, that was from grass!!

They were both BF, dd1 only for a few weeks but DD2 was breastfed for 9 months.

I weaned at 16 weeks (as was adviced then) and avoided nuts during pregnancy.

In their school I know of one child with multipy allergies, but he also has other medical conditions

Maybe it's a combination of factors? So, better awareness and ability to treat really serious, life threatening allergies, then makes mothers very aware that all children may be be allergic (through the news etc).

So then even a small reaction which, if we weren't so aware of the dangers, would have been overlooked, now becomes a reason to totally avoid that particular product that the child may have a sensitivity to.

Then the child has no further exposure, and this conversely goes on to cause a worse allergy as they can't desensitise themselves to it?

So it's no-ones fault at all, just a combination of factors.

Daftpunk if you really want to so some reading there are plenty of Pubmed referenced studies listed on this page which could be a place to start.

Daftpunk - We were told by a doctor that ds was allergic to nuts when he was 3 or 4. We were told it would be nigh on abuse if we were to leave the surgery after being told this and allow him to have anything with traces of nuts even for the rest of his life. There was no offer of help or advice beyond that. We were also told there was no test at his age to confirm it.
My db has severe allergy to nuts - the whole rushed to hospital in an ambulance type.

However rather than just rely on this gp I wasnt convinced. I went back and asked for a referal to a specialist and was refused as told there was no test.

Fortunately I dont assume they always know better than me so I researched it. I didnt believe he really had an allergy.

I changed doctors surgery and went to my new one with the name of the specialist I wanted to be refered to. I was refered straight away and ds was tested.

We were told that there was something like a 98% chance he was not allergic to nuts.

He is now 13 and never shown a reaction to nuts.

Gosh, to think I should of just gone with what the doctor said originally......

I could also offer proof that early weaning causes exceme etc. Ds had some formula in hospital and had mild excema and probably asthma as a baby. DD never had any formula till around 6 months (maybe a couple of weeks before, cant remember) and she has never had excema or any breathing problems.
Ds is allergic to cats, dd not.

Is that proof compared to your kids??

No, of course not. It means nothing; it's anecdotal.

AitchTwoOh, my DTs were weaned at 6 months, so were all the babies of my friends and that's a quite a number of babies. Haven't heard of anyone who would consider weaning their child earlier, however, I suppose a medical condition could be a valid reason.
Our boys started off with strawberries, kiwis, eggs etc and are absolutely thriving.
None of the other kids we know have any apparent allergies either.
The guidlines are there for a reason...

Message withdrawn

I agree with babybarrister. DD1 has many food allergies and I have just found out dd2 has eczema (she's dragging her poor little back along the floor to ease the itching at just 14 weeks) so likely to have food allergies too. I've done everything I could to avoid dd2 having allergies too but I guess its just one of those things.
Do I blame myself? Of course I do. But actually searching for causes and blame is not a good use of energy.
But I will say that its just not helpful for parents of nonallergic children to speculate that my house is too clean (its not anyway!!) or I ate the wrong things or that my decision making is worse than yours.... (so do jog on daftpunk)..What is really helpful is on play dates when parents let me check food labels for potential allergens, they assure me that none of the food on offer to any children contains the allergens and they keep an extra eye out for dd1. I know this wasn't a thread about being helpful and I've digressed.
My thoughts (shamelessly ripped off from my allergy specialist)are its genetic with probably a little environmental element. And you can do everything in the world to avoid them but they still might happen.

I never understand why people want to take cheap shots at kids with allergies. It's pretty shit for them as it is. Why mock?

If you trully want a discussion about the underlying causes of allergies then most Mums of these dcs will have their own theories, often formulated in hospital waiting rooms. My own is that it is probably genetic. My Dad had a sister who died suddenly. No-one ever knew why. Perhaps that was an allergic reaction which my DD inherited. We'll never know. Do you really care? I get the sense that you don't DP.

I suspect it's probably largely to do with the ingredients being used in formula milk - as well as generally weaker immune systems

I have identical twin boys. They shared a placenta so defintely had the same pre bith experience!

They were 8 weeks prem, so 40 years ago may not have survived.

They have severe asthma and allergies BUT their allergies are not all the same.

DT 1 has peanut allergy, DT 2 does not.

DT 2 has dust mite allergy, DT 1 does not.

Both have milk, wheat, soya and egg allergies, all proven by blood test, so not my over diagnosing or intollerances. They are not anaphalactic and as they have grown have been able to have soya, eggs and wheat and some dairy. But we have found dairy causes problems with their asthma.

At a few hours old DTs were both given formula through NG tube as I had not yet expressed enough milk. DT 2 coped fine, DT 1 did not and he could not digest the formula.

So, to recap - ID twins. Same upbriging. Same pregnancy. Different allergies. One showing signs of problems with dairy at a few hours old.

IMO I cannot see what I could have done to change this. More to the point, I think my children's bodies were too young to cope with being born, and therefore were left with asthma and allergies. Not because I cleaned my house too much/ too little, because I ate the wrong foods or because I weaned too early or too late.

It may also be genetic. I have hayfever, DH has eczema. But my dad had problems with dairy as a child, but just had to get on with it. Diagnosis wasn't as common then.
BTW DS1 has very very mild asthma and no allergies.