http://www.care2.com/greenliving/nothing-to-sneeze-at-rethinking-childhood-food-allergies.html
Nothing to Sneeze at: Rethinking Childhood Food Allergies
Over a decade ago, I put myself through college by working as a pre-school teacher at a well-equipped private school. The job was often challenging, as four year-olds can be, but one of the more nerve wracking and daunting responsibilities was caring for and protecting one particular child named Lily (not her real name). Now Lily wasn’t a particularly fragile child, nor was she picked on any more or less than anyone else, but Lily, as her parents reminded me almost weekly, had severe food allergies. So much so that if she were to innocently run her hand along a table that held a trace of peanut oil left over from a long forgotten peanut butter and jelly sandwich, well she would likely go into anaphylactic shock, or at least puff up like a puffer fish (as Lily once said to me). Thankfully, with tireless diligence and commitment, I was able to avoid such incidents by maintaining clean tables and keeping other nut-munching children at other lunch tables across the room as they consumed their contraband.
Then a funny thing happened. One day, Lily’s mother brought her into school and said that she had enrolled Lily in an experimental program that would effectively “cure” her severe food allergies. I was skeptical on the inside, but enthusiastic on the outside. From what her mother told me over the following weeks was that Lily was going in for testing and various controlled exposure therapies, and that within a few months, she should be “normal.” Again, I was encouraging but skeptical. A few months passed, and Lily was soon declared allergy-free. While her parents were not quite comfortable with the idea of slathering their child with peanut butter, they didn’t seem to be at all concerned about exposure, or even the possibility of her consuming something containing nuts. Miracle cure or coincidence?
Really, it is difficult to know. Now recent news has come to light about how misdiagnosed food allergies are on the rise, while parents continue to unnecessarily avoid particular foods and are spending loads of dough on costly non-allergenic supplements. Needless to say this complicates matters and undoubtedly feeds into parental insecurities. Many of these misdiagnosed food allergies are the result of false positive blood tests that erroneously label children with severe food allergies, sending them on a lifetime of particular eating and vigilant label reading. According to The New York Times, more than eleven million Americans, including three million children, are estimated to have food allergies, most commonly to milk, eggs, peanuts and soy. In addition, general food allergies among children have increased eighteen percent in the last ten years. All things considered, with the upswing in positive diagnosis comes more of a frequency of misdiagnosis, as both parents and doctors come to rely on singular blood tests, rather than a series of tests or the option of administering multiple tests over time. These blood tests, while enormously useful, tend to be somewhat unreliable because they are unable to accurately distinguish between similar proteins in different foods.
But wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry? Well, yes, but besides the relative hassle of keeping children nut-free or wheat-free into perpetuity, there is the issue that by routinely avoiding foods that fall into the suspect category, you might be compounding the problem by creating more sensitivity to certain foods once your child finally tries them. This coupled with the fact that, in very extreme cases, some children are at risk of malnutrition if they are unable to obtain certain vitamins and nutrients only found in the forbidden foods.
So, one answer is to test, test, and test again (with more than one diagnostic method), if your child tests positive to any food allergies. It is often that children routinely grow out of specific allergies (milk, wheat, eggs, and soy, but not so much with nut allergies), which means that a particular dietary regimen at two years old, might not be what the good doctor orders at five.
If anyone out there has first-hand experience with overcoming childhood food allergies, or even an informed opinion on the matter, I am sure everyone would love to hear it. Feel free to sound off.
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21 comments
add your comment »Thanks to Cornelia... Once she mentioned hidden ingredients in one data base, i visited http://www.foodfacts.com in March after her Mar 19th post, and I'm hooked! My whole family is sharing recipes and talking about all the best places to eat where they cater specifically to food allergies, sensitivities and general healthy eating! Woo Hoo!
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Kabin
Konteyner
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~Christina Sanchez
I surprisingly have no food allergies but i am sensitive when it comes to eating fish. Whenever i eat fish i have an unusual feeling in my stomach that causes me to eventually vomit later. I try to avoid it and otherwise I'm fine.But i seem to have some mild form of eczema which i get few dry patches, but none of my family has any skin issues what so ever. We have some heart problems but that's another story.
When it comes to allergies, I think that parents shouldn't flip over every little thing. At least let them try to experiment. This could cause them to have Mal nutrition from these supposed "allergies" . Like what this blog said, many people are misdiagnosed with food allergies they don't have. I think the subject in which the parents are concerned and trying to keep them safe is that they shouldn't worry so much. If something doesn't happen for this alleged food allergy, then you know that your child was not allergic. If something does happen, you know to be watchful of what foods they eat. This is what my mom sort of did to me and my brother. My brother is apparently allergies to milk and wheat. I doubt it because he has been eating cheese and bread all his life and nothing has happened. In my opinion, the parents shouldn't be too concerned.
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As a child and adult I was constantly ill. I also suffered from exercise induced asthma. In my early 40's I started eliminating foods from my diet and discovered that what an allergist had said to me in 2000 had actually been the case - I was allergic to about 90% of foods on the market. I now eat a very healthy diet - mostly non-package/altered foods, organic, and ancient grains along with whatever meat I need and as another individual indicated - NO SOY. I used to be able to eat peanut butter as a child but now I cannot - I have a feeling its likely the GMO issue since peanuts have been so altered, along with soy, that they really aren't what they used to be. There are a couple soy's out of China that have never been altered and its interesting to note that there do not appear to be allergies to it.
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Funny that all of the food allergies are all things that are GMO's. I myself was told I had food allergies to Milk products, Eggs, Wheat, and was told I was gluten intolerant. I eat all of them. I just eat an organic version with NO SOY!!! None zero. I will not buy from a farmer that uses soy. Now some Doctors are telling people they might be allergic to beef. LOL I find that pretty funny. Peanut allergies used to be very rare. But after they started genetically modifying stuff it is really common and scary. People die. I think it is more than time to ban the GMO's.
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Our child developed eczema at one month, along with terrible crying bouts for eight hours a day. We tried various things with little success and thought it was just colic that we had to "live through." The medical profession offered nothing but increasingly powerful drugs, some of which were not even approved for his age. He tested negative for food allergies at four months old. At age two, he was in such misery that we finally took him to a homeopathic doctor who suggested we go dairy free. It took about three or four weeks before we began to see improvement and it was very depressing for the rest of us for a while to have to change our diet so much. But he began to improve and is now 95% eczema free. He still gets a little bit of dairy in some things he eats occasionally (it's hard to say no all the time). We buy mostly organic foods and we have gotten used to less dairy (for some things, we make his portion and then add the cheese or whatever for ours). He drinks rice milk and takes calcium supplements. We are all much happier! I don't know what exactly about the dairy was causing the problem, since he tested negative, but it just goes to show you can't always rely on allergy testing. He is almost four now and always asks, does this have cow's milk in it? before he eats something. I also believe preservatives and refined sugar aggravate his symptoms. He takes probiotic and omega 3,6,9 supplements daily and we use aloe cream.
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When I was about 5 I vomited after eating a "Chunky" candy bar... I've been avoiding walnuts and pecans (which are very similar botanically) since. I used to be able to resolve the occasional exposure by drinking tomato juice, but it got worse, with my throat tightening some ten years ago. The last year or so, though, I've run into them by accident with nothing much happening other than annoyance at finding them in what I'd been told was nut-free.
I've always been able to eat pistachios, almonds, and macadamias and was thrilled to have discovered toasted chestnuts, so it is not always the case that when you have an allergy to one you must avoid all tree nuts.
Also want to warn you all that if you have hayfever you must not drink chamomile tea, as these, too, are botanically similar.
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@Heather Rowell
Wow and I thought I was the ONLY one who was allergic to pasteurized milk, but could drink raw milk!
Unfortunately they have made it illegal here for farmers to even give away raw milk.
It's good to know that I am not the only one. (people told me it was all in my head)
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At the age of 9 I developed an allergy to, of all things, strawberries. If I ate a strawberry, I turned into one! Hives, blotches, the whole nine yards. For four summers I suffered through not eating any; while watching the rest of the family eat away. Finally, Mom let me try one more time, and at the age of 13 she let me try a strawberry shortcake again. Surprise! I had outgrown my allergy all on my own, no medications, no doctoring.
Allergies are like that. What you can tolerate one day will no longer be tolerable to the body because of your auto-immune system. THen, for some unknown reason, it also can reverse itself and allow you to enjoy those once 'forbidden' fruits. Parents, watch your children; don't smother them but let them LIVE life. Smothering is the root of probably half of the 'allergies' we see out there!
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I used to have incredible trouble with my IBS but I have started taking allergy treatments in the form of an acupuncture program and I am a whole new person. The biggest proof of my improvement was when I could eat eggs again... it seemed if I even looked at an egg the wrong way that I would be enormous amount of pain and agony in my stomach for days, but now I can eat eggs for every meal if I wanted with no problems! I encourage anyone who struggles with allergies to try the program. Also, I think these allergies to food, etc. can be from the preservatives and unnatural foods we consume... maybe? I'm not sure.
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