Allergized

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Luke and I were checking out at the grocery store yesterday morning when the woman checking us out, grabbed Luke’s arm (without asking), looked at his bracelet, and said, “Is he a diabetic?!”

Luke looked like he was about to cry – mostly because the lady grabbed his arm without warning – and I calmly explained to her that he had some severe allergies.

So, then, as we were trapped there, she began asking 1 million questions and nearly driving my boy to tears.

“What can’t he eat?”

“How are you going to send him to school!?!”

“You must be so scared to send him to school.”

“Oh, you poor thing. You can’t eat much, can you??”

“So, what does he eat?”

“So, is he allergic to peanuts?”

“Are you even able to go out to eat ever??”

I tried to keep my cool and brush off her look of panic….I kept trying to change the subject…and I was trying to let her know that she was upsetting Luke but clearly this woman was clueless. Even as Luke was sticking out his bottom lip and burying his head into me, she continued….went on and on….

We couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I think I’m going to make up little cards that say “please stop talking” and just hand them to people like this next time.

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Luke is newly potty trained and since he’s been in underwear, he has broken out in hives fairly significantly 3 times now around the waistband of his underwear & also up onto his abdomen and down onto his legs.

Very often he is red on the skin his underwear touches…and now we are looking into a possible allergy to what – lycra? latex? I also read that with severe dust allergies, dust can easily get trapped in the elastic.

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Often times when we take our kids out for a meal away from home, especially at someone else’s house, where you can’t control what is served….we run into the typical, expected issues.

“Mom, Can I have one of those crackers?”

“Sorry, buddy. Those have gluten in them. I brought you some gluten-free crackers. Let me get them from my purse.” (aka: You get the SPECIAL crackers. Everyone else gets these.)

“Mom? Can I have some of these candies?”

“Let me see if I can ask (whoever) about seeing the label on the package to see if they were made in a factory that handles peanuts or treenuts….” (aka: Lets see how uncomfortable we can make the hostess feel and how much unwanted attention we can draw to ourselves. Lets also hope she didn’t throw away the package.)

Then there is the ultimate horror: a bowl of nuts out with the appetizers.

Of course there is also the issue of rolls or bread at the dinner table & what might be in the casserole, etc….

The bottom line is eating out at someone else’s house can be a completely stressful event. The same can be true for walking into the Church Parish Hall for Coffee Hour (although our church does a fantastic job of always having fruit out). Or going to the Preschool Open House where they serve cookies & juice.

Chris & I are very good at scanning the room whenever we walk into a room with food in it. We will find peanut butter cookies, banana bread with walnuts, coffee cake with cinnamon sprinkled on top, or a bowl of mixed nuts in no time flat. We work like a well-oiled machine, steering the kids away from potentially harmful allergens. We pull out little baggies of safe-food for them to have because what other options do we have? Lets face it. Food is a very social thing. When they have to eat their own “special food” that we brought along, it’s often not about the food at all. It’s more about how they feel left out, not part of the group.

That’s why we were SO grateful this past Friday night when we went to my parent’s house for dinner to celebrate my uncle’s 85th birthday. My Mom did an awesome job at making the kids feel part of the group. She had out safe appetizers that they could eat – but the best part was that there were NO appetizers that they couldn’t eat! She carefully studied the ingredients, making sure nothing had a warning about potential nut contamination, and she even kept all of the packages for me to check out.

Everyone had gluten-free crackers & cheese. She also had out a bunch of fruit. She even had out jelly beans they could eat! I think the most impressive thing was she even had gluten-free dinner rolls on the table for everyone to share – again the most wonderful part being that there was not a basket of gluten-free rolls for the kids & a basket of regular rolls for everyone else — NO – it was for everyone!

For families like ours, that struggle with this type of thing everywhere we go, we were super grateful & the kids were very happy. Thanks, Mom.

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Back in November, 2 days after Luke turned 3, we went to see our Allergist for the “Peanut Challenge Test.” They felt it was best, given his history, to have peanuts for the first time in his life right there in the office.

Before they had him eat peanut butter on his gluten-free pretzels, they first did a skin test. It was the 2nd time we have done skin testing for peanuts – and once again – we had a negative skin test result.

So, I was feeling fairly confident when he ate his first bite of peanut butter pretzel. We started with 1/8 of a tsp of peanut butter. Right away, his cheeks got bright red and he started rubbing his nose.

Then, they gave him another 1/8 of a tsp and he literally stopped breathing through his nose -his nasal passage had totally swollen shut and he started breaking out in dime-sized hives all over his cheeks. Shortly after that, he had diarrhea.

Obviously, the Allergist said that the “peanut challenge test” showed that he is allergic to peanuts.

My question remains – what about the skin testing? There are still so many unknowns in the world of allergies.

I have heard that unless you have had the allergen in the past, the body may not recognize it right away as an allergen — just like how you hear of people being severely allergic to bee stings but they don’t know about their allergy until they’ve been stung 2 or 3 times.

Luke didn’t react to the antibiotic, Gentamicin until his 3rd dose. However with Ciprofloxacin, he reacted within in 5 seconds of his 1st dose.

We are learning as we go and keeping our epipen & benadryl with us everywhere we go!

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Things in our family are so much better recently. We finally feel confident that we know what our kids are allergic to / intolerant of. Figuring that out has been the most difficult part of our journey so far.

In addition to that, since they are both gluten-free now, it has actually made life somewhat easier. We no longer have to have Luke watch Joey eat things that he can’t have – because it’s all the same!

In general, I think we are all healthier. We eat very little processed/packaged food these days and instead eat a mostly whole-food diet — and we have found some things that we do like in packaged isles — including gluten-free frozen waffles & gluten-free hot cereal (Luke’s favorite)!

Our boys are growing & thriving & that’s all we could ask for.

There are still challenges – especially all of the birthday parties that Joey goes to, his “special” snack bin at school, and trying to figure out what they can eat during coffee hour at church.

Still, we are counting our blessings & so glad to be going into a new year with good health & happiness.

Happy New Year all!

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In wheat, barley, rye, and low level oats, there is a tough protein called gluten. This substance is what makes the dough bind, which you can see with baked breads and other baked foods. Although these grains contains gluten, which may cause a gluten allergy in responsive people they additionally contain numerous additional proteins that can also trigger allergy symptoms.

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The four most important proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley includes albumin, globulin, gliadin, and glutenin, better identified as gluten. Gluten Allergy Symptoms As the symptoms and severity of the symptoms of gluten allergy differ from one person to another, in general a person would notice

• hives,
• swelling,
• abdominal cramps,
• nausea and vomiting,
• asthma

If the person is very sensitive to gluten allergy, the symptoms may be life-threatening. The positive news regarding gluten allergy is that if the person has a response following consuming wheat or wheat product, formulating an early diagnosis quite uncomplicated. The complexity is that lots of the foods we eat are made with wheat, making it challenging to identify where the real problem lies. Most often, a qualified doctor or allergist may conduct a skin prick test or take blood to substantiate that gluten allergy is the scalawag. If the response to gluten is very severe, the best solution might be to eliminate wheat and wheat by-products from the diet.

Yet, if the gluten allergy is insignificant, then reducing the amount of wheat consumed and/or allergy medication or shots might do the trick. If the person with gluten allergy is a young child, chances are he or she will outgrow the allergy. Gluten Intolerance, otherwise known as Coeliac Disease, is a inherited illness that has an effect on the immune system. In this circumstance, when gluten is consumed, the mucosa, which is the lining of the small intestine, is damaged. When this happens, critical vitamins and nutrients are not absorbed suitably.

When a person has this sort of gluten allergy, the symptoms will be unlike in children than they will be in adults. For children, the gluten allergy is observed as abdominal distension, impaired growth, abnormal stools, irritability, poor muscle tone, malabsorption, poor appetite, migraine headaches and wasting of muscle. If an adult has this type of gluten allergy, then diarrhea, significant weight loss, abdominal cramping and bloating, constipation, and offensive stools are general. In both cases of gluten allergy, a doctor would need to perform blood tests to make a definite diagnosis.

Once done, the single treatment is to have gluten totally eradicated from the diet. For this reason, it is necessary that nutrient and vitamin insufficiency is addressed with things such as niacin, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, chromium, magnesium, selenium, folacin, molybdenum, and phosphorus. With apt attention and diet, a person with gluten allergy can enjoy a ample choice of foods without the frustrating symptoms. Cosmetic Surgery Herbal Life - The best products and customer services. Herbalife

What To Expect When Following A Gluten Free Diet

Following a gluten free diet is not easy, and you will need to become an expert in reading labels. As mentioned, gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and a few other closely related grains. However, tt’s also found in 95% of all processed foods (maybe I’m overstating this a little), including things you may not expect: like low fat yogurt. It’s used for a number of purposes (apart from the obvious pastry and bread): to mask a high fat content, to replace the creaminess lost in producing a low fat version of something, to thicken gravy etc, and to add bulk.

Many medicines contain gluten, for example to make the tablets/capsules a reasonable size – tiny tablets are easily lost – or to thicken a liquid mixture. These foods contain no gluten if they are unprocessed: meat, fish (but not seafood sticks and processed fake seafood), cheese (but grate your own, as shop-bought grated cheese is coated in modified starch), eggs, dairy products (but read the label carefully), fruit, dried fruit (but watch that they are not coated in modified starch), vegetables, nuts, rice, millet, corn, quinoa, oats. The problem with oats, even though they do not contain gluten, is that they are often contaminated by being processed alongside other grains that do.

Buy oats labeled gluten free, which will have been processed in a gluten free facility. Start the easy way, by buying some steak and serving it up with some potatoes and vegetables – hey presto, a gluten free meal without even thinking about it. Basically, avoid food coated in batter, crumbs or sauce. Watch out! some frozen products like roasting potatoes are coated, which may not be obvious. You will need to make your own using gluten free ingredients if you want these. Watch out for malt and derivatives, modified starch and soy sauce. Soy sauce is made with wheat! There are glutenfree varieties available, but these are very expensive and not usually found in your local store.

The golden rule (I call it my mantra) is: Check the Label Every Time You Buy – remembering that manufacturers change recipes without warning, if price/availability changes.

Stop Smoking Weed

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