Possum’s food allergy
Allergic reactions occur when a person's immune system reacts to normally harmless substances. Soon after Possum turned into a big one year old we purposefully tested her with a teaspoon of some scrambled egg only to quickly discover she has a life-threatening allergy.
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To be honest, the day started out looking like any regular Saturday when my husband, Possum and I graced a café looking to relax with a late breakfast. Without any expectation there would be a problem, I suggested to my husband that it might be a good opportunity to give Possum a bit of scrambled egg since she’d not really experienced it yet. No big deal.
Giving her about half a teaspoon of scrambled egg she soon spat it out, which was something I’d not seen her do before. I remember joking to my husband that I’d hope this wasn’t to be a new behaviour that we’d be tackling to stop. Little did we know that her body was almost instantly rejecting the egg and it was causing her tongue to swell and hives start forming on her torso. These signs were unfortunately covered up by the jumpsuit she was wearing that day.
It wasn’t long before my motherly instinct recognized that something wasn’t right and Possum was acting completely out of character. She was incredibly irritable and was unable to settle. Boy, if only babies could talk!
Ruling out as many reasons for her behaviour as we could, a nappy change revealed the aggressive hives. The rest seems quite a blur as we were at the hospital before we could take in the situation.
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Common allergy symptoms to look out for –
- Irritability
- Itchy skin
- Abdominal pain
- Diarrhea
- Swelling of the skin/tongue
- Hives
- Inability to breathe
By the time we reached the hospital Possum's symptoms became worse. She was ‘puffy’ and absolutely beside herself, scratching at her skin until it was starting to bleed. It was a horrible sight to see. The hives had almost covered her whole body and combined to form masses across her little body. Fortunately the hospital was quick to treat her with an antihistamine and everything started calming down after about 40 minutes, a very long 40 minutes.
Here are some pictures of Possum two hours after she was given medication at the hospital. These pictures are a huge improvement on what she looked like when we arrived at the hospital. Understandably I wasn’t exactly in the frame of mind to take pictures when she was at her worst.
So began the testing with allergy professionals, which determined Possum's allergic reaction to egg was severe enough to have her need an EpiPen, which is a shot of adrenalin should we struggle to breathe from any future reactions. The specialist explained that as each time she is exposed to egg then the symptoms are most likely to be worse so it's better to be on the safe side.
Hopefully in time she will grow out of her egg allergy. Apparently 90% of children have outgrown it by the age of 10. The remaining 10% have it for life and so I'm feeling that the odds are good.
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How to administer an EpiPen
For those of you who are unfamiliar with EpiPens and how to administer them
please view this really short video. You might not have a child with an allergy but you could come across one one day.
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So we are now very aware of her allergy and any food types that contain egg. We religiously check ingredients and never assume something doesn't have egg, many times we have been quite surprised.
Possum will need to have further testing over the next few years just to see if she is growing out of her allergy and beginning to tolerate small traces. Initially her allergy was a huge shock to us but we are now very informed and know how to handle a situation if she was to show signs of her allergy.
If you would like more information there are some great websites.
Food Allergy Awareness
http://www.foodallergyaware.com.au/
ASCIA
www.allergy.org.au
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Possum will need to have further testing over the next few years just to see if she is growing out of her allergy and beginning to tolerate small traces. Initially her allergy was a huge shock to us but we are now very informed and know how to handle a situation if she was to show signs of her allergy.
If you would like more information there are some great websites.
Food Allergy Awareness
http://www.foodallergyaware.com.au/
ASCIA
www.allergy.org.au
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Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Kate x
I would love to hear any comments or
experiences you have had with allergies.
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