….when allergy babe was a mere five month old.
Being breastfed exclusively, allergybabe seemed, from a very early stage, to be restless, irritable, not properly sleeping and waking up a lot at night, having rushes and a very bad case of craddle cap. He was vomiting after feeds and kept crying for hours without settling.
All symptoms that occasionally ocured in any baby at this stage, but to allergymummy, it was worrying. She knew something was wrong. She just could not figure it out yet. It was just a feeling, which turned out to be all too true.
Coming back to the five month old, a chubby and eager to discover the world kind of kid, seemed, as an explanation, not getting enough nutrition. One evening, he was formula fed. Allergymummy was hoping for a good night’s sleep for baby and herself, which she had not had for a long long time. From drinking a tiny bit of formula to coming up with the full clinical picture of a severe allergic reaction, it took not even a minute. Baby was screaming, breathing stertorously, his skin was covered in hives, all puffed up and red as a lobster. He also vomited and had diarrhoea. Mummy took allergybabe to the changing table and noticed, that her baby was not moving but laying on the table, all floppy and pale. His lips had turned blue.
At that point, allergymummy remembered that she also was a doctor and realised that her kid was suffering from anaphylaxis. It is one thing to have a patient in your emergency room, and another to see your own child suffering a severe and life threatening allergic reaction.
A blissfully ignorant emergency doctor, a horrible two hours at the emergency room (chubby baby and iv lines are not ment to be friends), a 24h stay at the hospital, a very helpful and supportive night nurse and a discharge letter with the suggestion to consult a specialist is all I can remember. Oh yes, someone suggested not to feed allergybabe formula anymore. Thanks. That was very helpful. May I suggest next time, you provide an epipen, better two epipens, an emergency plan and a test for allergies before discharging? We neither received a presription for antiallergic medication nor a proper test for confirmation of the diagnosis.
That is the beginning of allergybabe’s story. If you have a child with similar allergies, it will probably sound all too familiar. It is usually an anaphylactic reaction that leads to a diagnosis.
Looking back, I should have insisted on an allergy test right away (the excuse “he received steroids, it is no use to test him now” does not count, it needs more antiallergy medication over a longer period of time to completely fail the test), asked for proper medication and two epipens before leaving the hospital.
allergyBabe 
This all sounds so familiar. I fed my 25 week old a spoonful of Mummy’s yoghurt and his first anaphylactic reaction occurred. Thankfully we had Piriton in the house due to his severe eczema and that helped with the initial reaction… We’ve since discovered that my, now six year old, has severe multiple allergies.He has outgrown some allergies, only to have them replaced by others.
I hope your journey is one similar to mine. I have been well supported in nursery, clubs and schools. I’m sure people think that I often ‘make a fuss’ about checking small details and labels etc. but I’ve kept my son safe!
I’ll be wearing my orange wig on May 17th with pride!
Thanks very much for sharing your experience. Our journeys Sound familiar indeed. Being very particular about My son’s meals and Snacks seems very fuzzy to Outsiders but is Life saving. Educating as many people as possible and raising awareness is the right Way to make People more understanding.
Orange wig Day, here we come!!!
What an unimaginably horrible intro to your baby’s allergies. I am shocked at how little info and preparation parents are given when we first receive a food allergy diagnosis. It shouldn’t take years of trial and error for each family to figure it out. Why must we all reinvent the wheel with such high stakes? My only conclusion is that even most Dr’s don’t really “get it”.
I totally understand your point! Allergies are on The rise and doctor s have a Hard Time in catching up. We all should Take as much opportunity as possible to raise awareness about serious Food allergies. Let us Not Blame others but try to stay positive and Educate People around us, our Friends, Family, local GP, Colleagues etc. We will have an Orange wig Day at our Nursery and try to inform as many parents as possible about severe Food allergies. But it is very sad that still so many People including Professionals are Not taking allergies more serious.
Terrible that you were sent away from hospital with nothing after such an extreme reaction. We had a similar experience at 5 months, she had formula (but not for the first time) and her face and lips swelled and she suddenly got very drowsy, We were lucky that it wasn’t anaphylaxsis, they gave us chloramphenamine just in case and we were immediately referred to be tested.
Thanks for following. I think our and a lot of other histories show how important education and raising awareness is. A lot has been achieved, but there is so much more to be done. I hope blogs like yours will help others to achieve better understanding and treatment in the future.