Allergy death threats
A paediatrician suggested it, because from five weeks Amelia was screaming in pain after breast feeding, projectile vomiting _ and once stopped breathing, slowly turning blue.
At the first attempt, Amelia refused to drink the milk and was irritable and screamed for a week.
The second time, Amelia drank about 20ml. Within minutes she screamed, vomited continuously and went limp.
In hospital a battery of tests found nothing. Six doctors and nurses hovered around her tiny body as she lay unconscious in intensive care.
Two weeks later, when Britten fed her a rice-based dish, there was another reaction.
Britten: %26quot;I was almost in denial _ I couldn%26#39;t call an ambulance again. A friend was visiting and she called. Amelia was in and out of consciousness.
We were in for a couple of days then they sent her to the allergy clinic. And she was tested and nothing showed up.%26quot;
And that was only one of the family dramas. A few months earlier her two-year-old son Jonte had eaten peanut butter.
His face immediately swelled, he vomited, mucous poured out of his nose, a rash swept up his back and he had trouble breathing.
Britten was in a total panic: %26quot;I didn%26#39;t know what was happening to my son.%26quot;
The ambulance paramedic told her, %26quot;You can%26#39;t afford to have a next time.%26quot;
Allergies can be life threatening and are not the fantasies of over- anxious mothers. The first challenge is trying to get answers.
Things had gone wrong for Britten%26#39;s son, Jonte, since the age of three weeks.
He had chronic reflux and eczema and threw up constantly. He was in the third percentile, which meant that within his age group 97 per cent of kids were bigger.
He was weighed weekly to check he was growing.
Breastfeeding was a nightmare; he would drink, then vomit.
A specialist said that Jonte might have a milk allergy. Britten changed her diet to make her milk free of cows%26#39; milk. It took a couple of weeks, but the eczema improved significantly.
Then the doctor suggested an alternative. %26quot;That was the biggest mistake,%26quot; says Britten. %26quot;I gave Jonte goats%26#39; milk and he started screaming and instantly projectile vomiting. I didn%26#39;t know what to do.%26quot;
Britten takes the children from Christchurch to Auckland Allergy Clinic (%26quot;their sessions are worth their weight in gold%26quot;) and will go next month for more tests.
Jonte%26#39;s food allergies include egg, peanuts, kiwifruit, goats%26#39; milk, ryegrass, dust mite, gluten and wheat.They still don%26#39;t know what%26#39;s happening with Amelia.
The tests say there isn%26#39;t an allergy but it%26#39;s very clear there is one, so her diet is also carefully controlled.
%26quot;We learn by mistakes, and it%26#39;s unfortunate that the poor children have to go through so much.%26quot;
Raewyn Mitchell is the regional co-ordinator for the Canterbury branch of Allergy New Zealand. She has also been on the circuit trying to find out what%26#39;s wrong with her son Jack.
%26quot;We weren%26#39;t referred to a specialist _ we battled on trying to get answers from our GP. He thought I was a paranoid mother.
%26quot;Jack was a terrible breastfeeder _ on and off all the time. And he%26#39;d make terrible noises when he was sucking.
And halfway through feeding, his bottom would explode with diarrhoea; crying, always waking; never settled.%26quot;
She and her husband, Brent, had little sleep for four months, constantly worried about their son and still trying to create a home for their older daughter.
Finally, the doctor arranged skin tests, which showed an egg allergy and a minor reaction to dairy.
The doctor suggested a soya formula. Mitchell had heard it contained hormones and eventually tried goats%26#39; milk.
Jack got bladder infections. They switched doctors and were finally referred to a paediatrician. %26quot;He went down the reflux road.%26quot; Jack did have reflux but Mitchell was sure something else was wrong.
If she fed him a dairy-based formula he would scream and develop a rash and eczema.
For several months she and Jack saw the doctor at least weekly, sometimes twice a week.
Finally, they were referred to Dr Rodney Ford. %26quot;He made us feel more comfortable. He did listen and gave us a plan and slowly but surely Jack improved. %26quot;
From Ford, Mitchell discovered the magitude of the problem. Jack%26#39;s allergies included dust mite, rye grass, dairy, egg, peas, beans, lentils, lamb and gluten.
They went onto a soya formula and that worked for a few months until Jack developed an allergy to it.
The next step was the Pepti-Jnr formula, but Jack couldn%26#39;t cope with that either so it was on to Neocate. It%26#39;s $100 a can and lasts three days. Fortunately, it%26#39;s subsidised.
%26quot;He%26#39;s lived on that for over a year now, that%26#39;s what keeps him growing. He also takes primadophilus.%26quot; (The label says it%26#39;s %26quot;friendly bacteria%26quot;).
Other than that he lives on chicken, rice and potatoes. He can eat silverbeet _ %26quot;but there%26#39;s only so many ways you can cook that%26quot; _ apples and pears.
He%26#39;ll be two next month and will have more tests to see if there%26#39;s been any improvement.
Elizabeth and Craig Keenan have four daughters. The youngest, Kate, aged six, and Jacqueline, two, also have allergies.
Kate%26#39;s allergies are not food- based. She reacts to grass, dust mite, horses and cats. She also had eczema so badly that she was hospitalised at three.
Their family was more fortunate because the allergies were diagnosed quickly.
They learnt of Jacqueline%26#39;s problems when she had egg custard at the age of six months.
She started scratching, her face went red, she got hives and started vomiting. In allergy tests, egg and peanut had a huge reaction.
Once parents start understanding their child%26#39;s allergies (which keep changing), the next issue is the need for constant vigilance.
Parents must know who makes each product, ingredient lists, and how it%26#39;s made.
Has it shared a lane with peanuts at any stage of production? It sounds extreme, but some children just need to touch the food to react.
Jack%26#39;s father, Brent, ate peanuts while out and forgot to wash his hands. He held Jack when he got home and within two minutes Jack was covered in hives, with a clear red handprint on his leg.
Jack%26#39;s breathing became shallow. Anti- histamine helped and after two hours the swelling went down. It took a week to deal with the eczema reaction.
Hence the need to scan labels carefully, and some companies are better than others at supplying information.
Cross-contamination is a big concern. The three families all have separate cooking utensils, chopping boards, cutlery and plates for the child with allergies.
Raewyn Mitchell boiled an egg for her daughter, washed the pot and next day cooked Jack%26#39;s vegetables in it. His lips and face swelled up. %26quot;That was a year ago; you learn along the way.%26quot;
The day before Jonte was due to start pre-school, the supervisor phoned to say they wouldn%26#39;t take him as he was too big a responsibility.
Britten was devastated and wondered if this would always be the pattern. But they did find a great pre-school.
Social occasions are a problem. There is always food, and the parent has to prepare in advance.Raewyn Mitchell: %26quot;We stay home a lot, as home is safe.%26quot;
Barb Britten: %26quot;All his food is prepared at home. We take his food everywhere, to cafes and people%26#39;s places. If we go away for a week I spend a week preparing.%26quot;
Last week Jonte started school. There are lots of kids, and on a wet day he will be inside at close quarters with other children who have many foods to which he is allergic.
Britten: %26quot;Children will have peanut butter and nutella sandwiches and I don%26#39;t know how he will react (to airborne particles).%26quot;
Keenan: %26quot;I think it%26#39;s safer for Jacqueline to be home with me until she%26#39;s about three. I wouldn%26#39;t want her to have to fend for herself in pre-school. But the time will come.%26quot;
This is Allergy Awareness Week (May 9-14), part of a global campaign to educate people about allergies.
Allergy New Zealand is promoting Red Alert Day. It%26#39;s encouraging people to wear something red to work, school or pre-school and make a gold coin donation. Allergy New Zealand will use the money for education kits.
A few simple changes will make the world safer for children with allergies:
* If businesses offer free food (eg jellybeans, or chocolate eggs at Easter), check with parents first.
Consider having stickers or some other non-food treat as well.
* Put food scraps in a rubbish bin.
* If you are told a child is allergic to a food, believe it and don%26#39;t give him or her any.
* For further information, contact Raewyn Mitchell, ph (03) 942-4557, www. allergy.org.nzTips and theories
When paediatric consultant Dr Rodney Ford spoke to Allergy New Zealand members last week, IgG and IgE tests and issues relating to coeliac disease, and the relation between ear infection and dairy allergies were discussed.
Here are some edited snippets from Ford%26#39;s talk and a later conversation.
* If a baby is allergic to, say, peanuts, and the mother eats them, traces will be in her milk and the baby may react.
* Ford says it%26#39;s important to test. %26quot;If you don%26#39;t test, you don%26#39;t know.%26quot; He says it is sad that some women wean their babies early when, if they had known about their baby%26#39;s allergy, they could have changed their diet and kept breastfeeding.
* Grandparents can be the worst when it comes to children with allergies. Many have the attitude, %26quot;That%26#39;s nice, dear, but we didn%26#39;t have allergies in my day%26quot; and give the child the problem food anyway. If the child has an immediate reaction it only happens once, but if it takes longer, the child%26#39;s parents have to deal with it.
* Allergies are increasing, both in New Zealand and worldwide.
* One theory is the %26quot;hygiene theory%26quot;, which suggests all the anti-bacterial sprays around children mean a loss of beneficial bacteria that line the intestine and help the immune and digestion systems.
* Another theory is that as houses get warmer for people they also get warmer for dust mites to which many people are allergic.
* Ford recommends all babies be given acidophilus from day one, as part of maintaining a healthy lining to the intestine. He says it will halve their chance of developing allergies.
* Many children grow out of their allergies by about six years. But only 20% grow out of peanut allergies.
* If both parents have allergies, it is highly likely the child will develop one. Ford suggests acidophilus to try and prevent it and to %26quot;switch on%26quot; the helpful bacteria.
* For most infants who have eczema in the first six- eight months it is food-related.
* A high proportion of children whom Ford sees (and their parents) are gluten intolerant. Ford reckons up to a third of all chronic ill health could be caused by gluten intolerance.
Disclaimer: Rodney Ford is not on the advisory board of Allergy New Zealand, and his views are necessarily those of the board. A parent should not change a child%26#39;s diet based on the information above. If they have concerns they should discuss them with a medical professional.
