Saturday, March 31, 2012

Disappointment and discouragement

Oh dear, that's not a very inspiring title for a post...

I'm afraid despite a positive attitude, we've had quite a few set backs of late in our food trials and I'm feeling somewhat disillusioned. I'm counting four setbacks so far, with our last success seemingly very long ago.

After trying to adjust my way of thinking to being more adventurous, I realise that our son is anaphylactic to 4 of the 9 common food allergies... not 3 as I said in a recent post. So that's milk, egg, peanuts and tree nuts. The latter two are different categories. Even as I type this I'm realising that I'm hitting the keyboard with unnecessary force... I think there is a bit of anger and resentment hidden in these last set backs. I have to acknowledge that our last setbacks haven't been that serious - no epipens required, no trips to the hospital, not even a dose of antihisitimine. We have had to use some of our steroid creams, but mainly it's been a case of lots and lots of laundry due to diaorreah. It doesn't help that our son is in a single sized bunk bed that seems a lot more tricky to make and unmake compared to a toddler bed, especially when sporting an ever growing belly. But alas, he does love his new bed, so I can't begrudge that too much. Instead, these dramas really stem from his blasted allergies!!!

We've tried blackberries (got up to about 4 whole ones) as well as barramundi (ate up to half a palm sized piece). Because I was too adventurous, I actually don't know which one caused his problems, so for now, both are off limits. I should have spent a whole week on the blackberries, but I was impatient and let the food tests cross over. Then we tried a rice porridge which according to the ingredients doesn't contain anything new, but never the less resulted in a rash on his face within a few hours. This rice porridge was specifically labelled as allergy free, but my only conclusion is that perhaps some of the ingredients used actually contained traces of nuts or something similar. It did contain coconut, dried peaches and other stone fruit, so I'm guessing that the sourcing or control of all the ingredients isn't what it should be. Then, we tried a meusli bar of sorts, made by a special allergy-free company we use, and that resulted in terrible diaorreah on day 2 of our tests. The only new ingredient was linseed - which I did have reservations about, given it could be similar to a nut.

So there you have it, in the last month, we've had a lot of set backs, and it's basically sapped me of any desire to try other new things.Of course I can't actually keep this attitude, so I'll just indulge myself for a week or so of nothing new.

What this has motivated me to do is make another appointment with our allergy dietician - maybe she can give me a bit more direction as to which foods to try next. So don't give up reading the blog, there is hope somewhere out there... just have to keep looking, and keep reading!

5 comments:

  1. I remember that feeling well...my son is allergic to dairy, eggs, peanuts/tree nuts, beef, sesame, fish, shellfish, raspberries and just recently mustard. I am glad to hear that you haven't given up hope...hope is the fuel that keeps me going! Susan H. @ The Food Allergy Chronicles

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    1. Wow Susan, you are actually one of the few people who probably does really understand the extent of our allergies, and although I wish this wasn't the case, it is a source of comfort. Especially that you've walked this path with your son so successfully for all these years. We have had a couple of successes since this last post - a new multivitamin of which I have stockpiled since every other supplement we find seems to get discontinued! We have also discovered red licorice strips which my son loves - no dairy or nuts in sight! Keep up your good work, and I look forward to reading more of your adventures.

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