Roll Call!!! - Page 5

[flamingo1129]

Who? myself and maybe DS1
What? for me a lot - mold, dust, grass and tree pollens, ragweed, tree nuts, milk protein, albumin, pitted fruit, citrus, several raw veggies, horse hair, most perfumes, cigarette smoke, paint fumes; foods cause nasal stuffiness (milk protein) to eczema, hives, and anaphylaxic shock (pitted fruit for one); the environmental ones get my nose and asthma going
When? Since birth - grew out of wheat and corn, thought I grew out of fruits/veggies but they returned with puberty; DS1 has been having eczema and we don't yet know the culprit

Emily

[joanq]

Who?? My son and myself
How old are they?? son- 23 mos, me- 30 yo.
What kinds of allergies?? son- egg & peanut. We've known he had food allergies since about 10 mos old, but found out for sure when he was 15 months old (skin test). Me- milk & shellfish and many environmental. I've known I had allergies my whole life, but was finally diagnosed when I was 25yo. Huge difference in my life to avoid the milk!

[kennethsmommy]

new to board.family with allergies

I AM NOT ALONE!
no one that i am "friends with" have a child with allergies, its nice to be understood. most of my family are most unhelpful and unsupportive. :

Who?? My son Kenneth
How old are they??
3 will be 4 in August
What kinds of allergies??
FOOD : Chocolate, Peanuts, CitricAcid, Red Dye, Cinnamon
He is also ALLERGIC to INSECT STINGS(we have an EPIPEN)HUSBAND is allergis to insect stings also
How long have you known?
we have know since he was 1 years old, son also has exzema

[Selah L.]

My dh and I both have cat and dust mite allergies and so our first son's doctor recommended that we wait on the major allergens until he turned one and they could do a cap rast. He came back allergic to egg white and egg yolk. He had pretty bad eczema up until that point and I cut out eggs from my diet and his skin cleared up. He's 4 now and still allergic to eggs and further skin tests have shown he's allergic to tree nuts and shellfish. My almost 1 year old has shown no signs of any allergy but we'll do his blood test soon and see where that leads us.

I'm glad I've found this site because sometimes I feel like I have a handle on understanding allergies and other times I feel kind of lost...

[missingNY]

My name is Kathy, I am the mom of 2 boys and 1 girl and I have a 16 YO stepdaughter. Isabel has had food intolerance issues since she started rice cereal at 6 months, but we just got the allergy tests back this week.


Who?? My DD Isabel
How old are they?? Turned 1 on April 14
What kinds of allergies?? Nuts (all except pecans), Milk, Eggs
and how long have you known? Just found out for sure but suspected Milk Protein Allergy since 7 months.

No one in our families have food allergies, my only experience has been a few friends with nut allergies. So I look forward to getting advice from other families that are dealing with the same issues.

[esmlranch]

We just found out from the ND this week that DS and I both have some food allergies. I will be checking in here for more info and support.

Who? DS (2 on 6/5/07) and Me (mom 37 on 5/22)
What? Dairy, Goats milk, eggs, bananas, kidney beans
How long have we known? I have suspected dairy for a while. When ds was an infant he had terrible stomach problems and I went off dairy and they cleared right up. Then we started having dairy again without as great a reaction. We have rashes, blotchy skin, dark circles under the eyes, and constipation. The motivation for testing was actually to straighten out my hormones so that I could possibly get pg.

No one in our family has allergies (that they know of). People don't really take it seriously and tend to feel like I am just being "picky" about eating. I pretty much just tell folks not to feed anything to ds. It is scary what people try to feed your child.

[sirena]

Who? DS 13 months and Me (32)

What? From a blood test at 4-5 months, eggs, whites and yolk, dairy, cow and goat's, oat, wheat, peanuts, gluten. I suspect cinnamon, amoung others?
I have seasonal they did a skin test few years ago for food and enviro, birch, hickory, dust mites, cockroachs (yuck) why even test for that? but food is really confusing for me b/c i can't figure some out?? probably dairy and chocolate???
we both get bad eczema and terribly itchy skin, I have sneezing attacks and running nose itchy eyes.

How long we have known? DS since 4-5 months and me? I had some as a child, went away, back REAL bad since his birth! (I think the antibiotic drip at birth was the cause of ALOT of issues!)

[alyrie]

Who?
Me (23)

What?
Everything! Well, more like cats, dogs, horses, most grass, hay, poison ivy/sumac/oak, bees, wasps, horseflys, ants, fleas, ticks, most pollen, dust mites, perfume, scented soaps, scented laundry detergent, certain deodorants, etc.

I've known since I was about 7 years old.

[~PurityLake~]

Who? Me
What: Cats, Grass, Trees, Horses, Hay, Mosquitos, cologne/perfume, scented cleaners or laundry stuff, probably more that I can't think of right now.

How long known? officially diagnosed when I was 11 but I'm certain I had the allergies long before then (same time I was diagnosed with asthma, which again I think I had that long before, too.


My mom is lactose intolerant. My maternal grandmother had asthma, but it went away in adulthood. Not so lucky in my case.

I had bronchitis and croup at 18 months so severe I was given a tracheotomy and hospitalized for two weeks. (I think this was a contributing factor to my asthma).

So far, both of my daughters appear to be allergy free. They do both have a sensitivity to cheap paper diapers, but putting cotton diapers on them has no negative effects.

ETA:
When A was on formula from 8 month to a year old, she had exzema.
Once she quit drinking formula at a year, the exzema went away.
She boycotted cow's milk until she was 14 months.
Once she started drinking it, she was fine.
A's back to nursing at 23 months, so has not wanted any cow's milk.

A also had a severe skin reaction to a new shirt that I forgot to launder before putting on her (gift from great-grandma).
Even after it was washed, she still reacted.
I think it was to the dyes, because it was made of 100% cotton.
Everywhere the shirt touched her skin, her skin turned bright pink, hot to the touch, and was itchy.

[Mamasjoy]

Hi everyone,

Here is my addition.

a. DS1 - age 3 - allergic to peanuts and treenuts and suspected environmental allergies (to be tested for environmental allergies on August 30th) - had one severe reaction at 15 months - also has eczema

b. DS2 - age 17 months - no known allergies to date - has not had peanuts, tree nuts, nor fish - we suspect he is allergic to something since he also has eczema - has not been tested yet

c. Me - age 38 - had an allergic reaction (hives all over my body) to something - I am going for testing on August 15th

Glad I found this board.

[caholcomb]

Who? DD (4) and DS (2)

What? DD is allergic (based on blood tests) to dust, dust mites, dogs and cats. She also shows sensitivities to (and thus we avoid) dairy, eggs, apples, tomatoes, chocolate and soy (except soybean oil). She is also sensitive to chemical and perfume smells.

Ds is allergic to (also based on blood tests) dust, dust mites, dogs, cats, and dairy. He shows sensitivies to eggs, wheat, chocolate, apples and soy (except soybean oil).

How long have we known? Food sensitivities/allergies were suspected around the 2 month mark for dd. It has been a trial and error process to slowly figure out the rest of the puzzle (still not done!!). Only recently had the blood tests and figured out the dust/dogs/cats.

[lilepad]

Who? The whole family--DH 28, me 28, DS 4, DD (suspected) 8 weeks

What?
DH dust mites, some molds, grasses, ragweed, cats, dogs, sulfa meds, formerly soy (recently outgrew it) (skin tested)
Me Elm, birch, cats, ragweed, sagebrush (skin tested)
DS has always blood tested negative to everything but even doctor agrees that there is "something"--we are almost 100% on ragweed, but there are others. I suspect a legume/nut problem (peanuts and pecans). I also believe he outgrew a dairy allergy around 15 months though he tested negative for it.
dd -- still trying to figure it out. Strongly suspect soy, perhaps others

How long have we known? DH has been battling allergies most of his life. I was in denial until I was 25 and got tested. I did have a lot of skin sensitivities as a child but outgrew them. DC--we've suspected most of their respective lives.

Our doctor and our allergist have basically said from the beginning that our children will undoubtedly suffer allergies and it seems that they are right. We did delay highly allergenic foods for our ds--he hasn't even intentionally had nuts yet--but what's meant to be is meant to be, I guess.*sigh*

[mtn.mama]

Me (age 36) sensitive to keflex (1993)- skin reaction, wine (1989)- breathing/heart and skin reaction, bee stings (2004)- breathing and skin reaction, wheat (2006)- major indigestion, sugar (last week)- minor indigestion
DD (age 12 weeks) sensitive to wheat, cow dairy, sugar- facial eczema, diaper rash, allergy ring, pink dipes, gassy, fussy, vomiting

Elimination diet helped us get on track, combined with probiotics, enzymes and crystal testing. This forum has been a big help- thanks everyone!

[elanorh]

Who:
DH (allergic to cats, diagnosed as a child; seasonal allergies to tree pollen developed as an adult) - he's in his mid-30's

DD1 (allergic to eggs; has outgrown allergies to dairy, soy, wheat, legumes; avoided peanuts/treenuts/fish/shellfish with her and she doesn't react to them) - she is 4

DD2 (allergic to dairy) - a little over 1 year of age

**
When:
We discovered Ina's allergy when she was about 2 1/2 months old. She didn't gain any weight from 1 month 'til 3 months as a result of her allergy. Ped diagnosed the allergy (she was nursing enough but not gaining, per LC assistance with pre-and post-weighs; plus the green poops, allergic shiners, red ring, and reflux). A month later added all legumes, eggs, and wheat to our list.

She outgrew dairy at 19ish months, soy also around that time (legumes also were safe by then). Outgrew wheat by the time she was 10 months. Still reacts to eggs and is now on an epi for them (no ana reactions yet).

With SJ, we avoided eggs, peanuts, treenuts, fish/shellfish throughout the pregnancy. And quit dairy, soy, legumes, and wheat the last month of the pregnancy and didn't try any of them again 'til she was 4 months old and thriving. She is fine with me eating wheat (and fine with wheat herself now). She reacts to cow's milk (which we didn't try 'til she was 6 months). As a result, I still haven't tried soy or legumes and won't be trying eggs in my diet or hers 'til she's 2 or her sister outgrows her egg allergy, whichever comes first (I hope ).

I take probiotics and am eliminating dairy, soy, eggs, legumes, peanuts, treenuts, fish, shellfish.


I've posted here occasionally and learned a lot here, just don't seem to come to this forum as much as others, I guess because I feel like we've got a pretty good handle on things at this point.

ETA:
My family has a history of food allergies (I have uncles allergic to seafood and bananas; and my dad is allergic to MSG and soy, but none of us 7 kids reacts to anything).....

Also, Ina was on 100% neocate while I pumped when she was recovering from hospitalization with the allergies/reflux cascading, and more neocate after that (with supplemental breastmilk) while we rebuilt my supply (damaged by supplementing, retained placenta, and EPing). The Ped told us that her allergies had cascaded to the point where she couldn't digest any proteins at all, thus the elemental formula 'til she healed. We successfully returned to 100% breastmilk and she nursed 'til she was 2 1/2.

[jayell79]

Me, I'm 28 and I'm allergic to: Soy, Wheat, Rye, Hazelnuts, Chashews, Black Walnuts, String beans, Carrots, Peas, Cantaloupes/Melons, Beef, Tuna, Shellfish, and Whitefish....whew....plus cats and 97% of environmentals in this area.

My DH only has one known food allergy and that's Pecans. But we are starting to suspect a soy intolerance since his diet at home does not include it. He gets a very upset stomach when he eats a lot of it. He also is allergic to cats and has hay fever.

Needless to say, we are VERY concerned for our DD. She's not here yet, but I wouldn't wish my allergies on my worst enemy. I have only eaten peanut butter twice since I found out I was pregnant. My OB says not to worry until I start BF but at this point I'm paranoid!

[karin95]

Hi everyone!
Thought I'd add my son to the list...

He's currently 10 months old and is allergic (via CAP-RAST blood test at 7 months) to:
milk, soy, wheat, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, cats and dogs. We have an EpiPen Jr for him, but *knock on wood* haven't had to use it.

He is breastfed (exclusively up until this past month) by myself and my partner, and we are on a TED - currently introducing foods, but we still don't eat much.

His major (only?) symptom is severe eczema on his face and body, which is currently under control with the TED and 1% hydrocortisone cream on his face (his body is currently great w/o steroids!) He also has digestive sensitivity, which is fine with the TED.

We're going to re-test him at 13 months old and see if his numbers go down, or if he's outgrown anything (or if the numbers go up...). We're hoping to test him on goat's milk and also chicken and beef (so he can eat them directly), because we're currently on a vegetarian TED using nutritional yeast as our only protein (I'm a lifelong vegetarian and can't stomach meat more than 1x/month, and don't really like it.) We'd love to be able to add goat's milk to all our diets!

I've learned sooo much about allergies in the past 3 months, it's insane. We're still hoping to find a naturopath to work with to strengthen his immune and digestive systems. And we're always crossing our fingers that his animal allergies will go away so we can have fuzzy creatures again (we had to move our beloved cats to my MILs house to live).

[kullrich]

I am so happy to have discovered this forum and this topic is so important to me... I've been wanting to write about this for some time but have held off because there is so much to try and outline... I will put the basics below in the 'role call' forum and plan to put a more detailed note out to the group for their feedback and opinion this week.

I'm sure there are others who feel as frustrated as I do with the process of trying to help our little ones with allergy issues. It is an overwhelming procedure trying to figure out known allergens and I know I will appreciate the advice and support of this group.

Thank you!

Who is allergic:
My daughter who is 10 months old

Allergic to what?
From the age of about two months Ava developed eczema that became quite severe at 4 months. She would scratch until she bled. I had suspected it was related to food, but kept being told I was crazy (mother's intuition was right!). We ended up getting her tested by an allergist (IgE blood test). She tested high and very high for soy, dairy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, dust and dog.

The dog went to live with our dog walker and I went on a strict elimination diet. Her skin improved slightly but was still extremely irritated. I was second guessing everything I put in my mouth and finally ended up weaning her at 6 1/2 months. I wasn't happy about this but I needed to get to the bottom of her allergies and I was finding the food elimination process next to impossible. I had every known allergen out of my diet (I was extremely strict) but there were probably other things that aggravated her skin that we didn't test for and I was finding it impossible to figure out and differentiate between food and environmental allergies.

Symptoms:
Before she was tested we had tried soy formula as an experiment for a couple of days and she threw it up. This was her only symptom aside from the skin issues. No diaharrea, runny nose or coughing as of yet.

Steps:
Dog has been removed, we are working to figure out what other foods may be irritating her skin. It is MUCH better but she still has flareups. We are seeing a Naturopathic doctor. We have tried a homeopathic doctor (didn't really see results). She has an allergist and a dermatologist (was absolutely necessary to give her relief from the itching. I tried every natural remedy, but with the allergies a lot of natural treatments aggravated her skin even more.

[Alyantavid]

Who?? my 2 sons
How old are they?? 5 and 18 months
What kinds of allergies?? and how long have you known? My 5 year old has had environmental allergies for years. He's also got asthma brought on by colds. He takes Singulair daily right now which is working wonderfully! I'm hoping to get him off that at some point. I completely blame myself for his asthma. He was a very sick kid for a long time. Something was constantly wrong with him. First it was ear infections, so he had tubes put in, then it moved on to pnuemonia, bronchitis, recurrent sinus infections. He was on so many antibiotics it was just awful. We finally got him into a doc that figured out he had asthma and he's been a totally healthy kid since. I'm going to get him in to see our chiro soon and see if she can get on off the meds.

My 18 month old has a dairy allergy that we just discovered about 6 weeks ago. He's had horrible problems with sickness and ear infections and was headed towards tubes when I got him into a chiro. He's doing amazingly well since. He's off dairy, on probiotics, some homeopathic drops when he's sick along with garlic oil for any earaches. He's had terrible ezcema all his life and that's finally gone!

[gen_here]

Me
31
Newly diagnosed celiac (life-long raw egg)

[moonlitemama]

Hi! I've lurked here on and off for the last year & thought I really ought to introduce myself.
I'm Raechel. I'm 32 and found out last summer that I'm intolerant to gluten, soy, dairy and glutimates. We found out at the beginning of December that my 2yr old ds is also intolerant to gluten and dairy. And my 6yr and 8yr old ds too (just got results a couple of weeks ago).