Allergy families: Share your thoughts

[SweetSilver]

This forum can be so stressful!  I am a regular here because allergies rule our world, and I enjoy helping others with info and some perspective.  But yikes!  This is such a hard issue I feel that I just need to de-stress.  Not exactly vent, because we've been doing this for so long as a family.  But it never ends, does it?

I am an avid home baker who uncovered multiple allergies late in life, and it almost completely derailed my love of baking.  It did my love of cooking and recipes.  I just don't have the joy any more.  My daughter and I have competing allergies.  She can have soy and oats, but not wheat and dairy.  I can have wheat and (kind of some) dairy but not oats or soy.  (We have many, many other allergies besides.)  She can have buckwheat and lentils and navy beans.  I can't cook with garlic anymore.  It just doesn't cook away the troublesome compounds.  I can't have mushrooms anymore, I feel like they make me want to throw up.  

But I don't just want to vent.  We have had some great success.  We are eating more together as a family rather than the short order style that it was in the beginning.  Avoiding allergens has taught me some discipline I needed to lose 40 pounds.  I feel sooooo much better than 2 years ago.

So, though we still have to eat before going to parties and potlucks, it's been OK recently.  We can't eat out much  and when we do it's extremely limited.  But otherwise, it's becoming that allergies aren't ruling our lives anymore.  It's becoming background.  This month dd has been challenging some of the troublesome foods and we see less trouble with corn (back in because she *really* wants to eat corn) and with buckwheat.  It's hard to get her to agree to challenge things.  A peanut trial at her doc's office might open up some nut trials for us, but I am less eager about those.  I am more eager to trial rice and, especially, eggs.  Eggs would make wheat-free baking so much easier.

So, I just wanted to share.  I've seen many of you post regularly here, I would love to hear your stories too.

[kfillmore]

not exactly what you are looking for but you might want to look into Advanced Allergy Therapeutics. I think there is another chinese medicine inspired NAET (maybe?) or NMT

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by kfillmore 

not exactly what you are looking for but you might want to look into Advanced Allergy Therapeutics. I think there is another chinese medicine inspired NAET (maybe?) or NMT

I am a raging skeptic, so NAET is out.  I just can't squeeze it into my paradigm.  I am, of course on the lookout for things we can do (probiotics, raw honey, etc.) and I don't discount the power of the mind to heal a body.  But that's the natch IMO.  If NAET works, it is a mind-body thing.  So, I would have to be on board with its efficacy...... aaaand I'm just not!  Plus, any big remedy has to be covered by insurance or I can't justify it. 

There are definitely other issues involved with being allergic to nearly everything.  My body is pretty much "on fire" all the time.  Good for preventing cancer I hear, not good for my heart.  So, I'm definitely open to trying some remedies.  I don't think I want to be on drugs every day.  That might cure the inflammation but brings up other annoyances.

No, I'm mostly content just to practice avoidance.  Clearly that's not working 100%, but I guess it's a good holding pattern.  So, no, the advice not "what I'm looking for" but I always appreciate the suggestions.  And I hope my "verbal eye-rolling" doesn't offend anybody!

[KimPM]

To get back to the topic of the OP, we've been dealing with this as a family since late 2006. DH has been dealing with his food issues for a few years longer than that. We don't eat together, as the allergies/sensitivities for the three of us are different, and each of us has so many food issues. My DS can eat some of my foods and some of DH's foods; but DH and I are almost mutually exclusive with foods. Thankfully, DH takes care of himself as far as food goes. But it's hard to have to make different meals all the time even just for DS and I; I feel like I'm always making food or cleaning up. I try to decide who needs to eat first, DS or me, and work on that first. It hit home the other day when I was making my dinner and DS tells me that he can't wait for "his turn" to eat. That felt weird - it was a reminder that we'll never be normal in the eating department.