Food Allergies

When I started this blog, I had one child with autism, and an infant baby girl. Well, Amelia is now almost 18 months old and turning into a little firecracker toddler. Before she was born, I was worried about her increased risk of having autism. It didn't take long for me to figure out that she was NOT autistic. She is about as "typical" as they come in a lot of respects. I was definitely not, however, expecting her to have food allergies. I know that food allergies are on the rise, but as with anything unexpected, I didn't think my child would be one of the statistics.

One Sunday morning (November 3rd, 2013), Amelia was demanding my toast which had peanut butter on it. While I don't always give in to her demands, I was feeling particularly awed by her cuteness at that moment, and decided that since I considered her at low risk for a peanut allergy, it would be fine to try it. I gave her 2 or 3 bites of my toast and within 5 minutes she got red, angry hives all over her chin. We went to the emergency room and were discharged after 3 hours without incident; her reaction didn't progress into anything more than hives. We've since been to a pediatric allergist and her tests (both blood and skin) came back as reactive to walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, and almonds in addition to peanuts. We also suspect that she's allergic to sunflower seeds/oil or something else that is commonly in processed foods but not required to be labelled because it's not a common allergen. We'll be finding out more about that as time goes on.

All in all and so far, having a child with food allergies is not nearly as challenging as raising a child with autism. The feelings I had when Amelia first had a reaction to peanuts was similar to the feelings I had when I first discovered that Alex had autism, but they were not nearly as intense, and lasted only a tiny fraction of the time. I would consider that short time period more as an adjustment than as a major life change. I had some of those long-term thoughts about how my daughter's life is going to be with food allergies; she is going to have to read every label and ask questions at every restaurant for the rest of her life. We never eat at McDonald's so when we were traveling for Christmas and stopped there because it was the only option, I asked so I could be sure their fry oil wasn't blended with peanut oil. I was pretty sure of the answer, but I wanted to be totally confident. When I asked the girl at the register, she looked at me like I had two heads (and proceeded to ask the manager to answer my question.) That's not the only example of feeling that I'm inconveniencing or annoying a server at a restaurant by asking questions. It's okay, though; I've long gotten over caring that people can't be accepting of my children. That is the least of my worries. Clearly, it's more important to me that my children are happy, get their needs met, and, well, survive by not eating things they're allergic to!

Amelia's food allergies, so far, have not been life-threatening. I'm well aware that any subsequent exposure to allergens can increase the reaction and she could have a more severe reaction any time. So just as our family has made adjustments for Alex's needs, we have to make adjustments for Amelia's. And just as we're in the beginning stages of our journey with Alex, we are in the beginning of our journey with Amelia. God willing, I will have many fun, hopeful, and beautiful years with these wonderful, special children I've been blessed with, no matter what difficulties present themselves along the way.