Today was Eva's allergy appointment and I have to admit that I did not go into it feeling the best. Call it "Mommy gut" or whatever...I just didn't have a good feeling.
Well, we've been done with our appointment for about 2 hours now and I still feel like I'm on some crazy ride. I am starting to really believe that Eva's food allergies are going to be a life long "thing" for her. She just can't seen to catch a break.
Today she was officially diagnosed with Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS).
Oral allergy syndrome, also known as pollen-food syndrome,is caused by cross-reacting allergens found in both pollen and raw fruits, vegetables, or some tree nuts. The immune system recognizes the pollen and similar proteins in the food and directs an allergic response to it. People affected by oral allergy syndrome can usually eat the same fruits or vegetables in cooked form because the proteins are distorted during the heating process, so that the immune system no longer recognizes the food.
Oral allergy syndrome typically does not appear in young children; the onset is more common in older children, teens, and young adults who have been eating the fruits or vegetables in question for years without any problems. Those with oral allergy syndrome typically have allergy to birch, ragweed, or grass pollens.
Most of Eva's foods are in the birch pollen group: Peaches, plum, apple, and celery. She also has kiwi, mango and pistachios. The last 3 are not "officially" on the list but her allergist says that they are becoming more and more common.
She also cannot have honeydew (grass pollen).
With OAS, many people can eat some of the foods in these groups if they are baked. However, her allergist was not comfortable with Eva trying that at this time for a couple of reasons..... 1) She's only 5. A 5 year old cannot "be trusted" to necessarily give us enough information to know if it's really safe for them or not. And 2) Eva have a very severe reaction to apple in the fall. His concern is that there is the possibility that she could be in the very small percentage of people with OAS who can have more severe reactions to some or all of the food.
So for now peaches, plums, apples, celery, kiwi, mangos honeydew and pistachios are added to Eva's "not safe" list.
As if that wasn't enough for me to process today. He also said that because of some symptoms Eva has been having he feels that we need to not allow her to have any forms for sesame. (This has been a gray area for Eva's allergies....sometimes it's fine and sometimes it not.) Eva eats a lot of a hummus and I THOUGHT the brand we had was okay since she hadn't had any obvious reactions but we will go back to making her hummus that does not have sesame in it.
WAIT...I'm not done yet. Wheat has also been a "gray area" for Eva and again, with the symptoms that Eva has been having, we are going to back to really watching how much wheat she has....no more than one SMALL serving a day and some days having none. For now, we will let her have her wheat serving at school if there is crackers, etc for snack...but none other than that. Just writing this is making me remember what a challenge this was before....I'm not really looking forward to it but more than anything, I just want Eva to feel better.
He also officially diagnosed her her with chronic urticaria (hives). She still gets a few hives several times a week. It's likely environmental.
So as of today.....Eva has 12 foods that she cannot eat at all and one that we have limit big time.
I think that I had better make a list on my phone of all these foods because honestly....I'm not sure that I'll remember them for awhile.
I was pretty darn nervous thinking about sending Eva off to kindergarten next year and today's news has done nothing to calm my nerves. Not one bit.
(Sorry if the fonts are crazy on this post...i've been trying to fix it and cannot figure out what is going on!)
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