Last week was UK Allergy Awareness Week and there was a lot of press surrounding the rising number of people, particularly children suffering from allergies.
On Monday there was an article by Jo Willey of the Daily Express, quoting a report by Allergy UK that stated that ‘Health chiefs are failing allergy sufferers by providing woefully inadequate NHS resources’. More…
Yesterday was a big day. Zac had his follow up appointment with the allergy specialist to discuss his blood test results. He also had an appointment with the dietician. I am happy to report it all went well.
Zac was very anxious going in for the first appointment and when we walked past the room where he’d had the blood test last time, he pointed it out and shuddered! When the bloods were taken (over 3 months ago) he was extremely traumatised. He had to have 4 vials of blood taken, from each arm. They had put numbing cream and a plasters over both elbows to prepare the skin – but perhaps unsurprisingly, Zac had an ‘allergic’ reaction to those and looked like he had been branded with a hot iron when they removed them. Rather than numbing his skin it was ‘on fire’ and he screamed the place down.
Anyway, yesterday we saw the dietician first and she was lovely. He cried when he first entered her room but she had a lovely manner and soon assured him that she wouldn’t hurt him. He’d had his height and weight checked on arrival and she said that they were perfect and she could see he was thriving. We had a discussion about his current diet etc and she confirmed that his anxieties about foods are normal and it is ok for me to ‘sneak’ foods in with whizzed up pasta sauces etc, as it is crucial we get the good stuff in him, by any means.
It has been a while since I gave an update on Zac’s condition. This week we had a distressing new symptom to deal with and I wanted to share it with everyone – just in case anyone else is going through this and is as puzzled as me. Zac has been ill with his intolerances and allergies for more than three of his four years. I have been seeing doctors and paediatricians and dieticians since he was one and they all say the same. He will grow out of it. But the truth is he has grown in to it – he started off dairy intolerant, then became so sensitive to wheat and gluten that I suspected and still do suspect he has Coeliac disease. He is also allergic to cats, has hay fever and has started night coughing, which I know (from experience) is an early sign of asthma.
I have argued that he needs a full allergy screen and further tests. So far all he had was a blood test for Coeliac which came back negative. But previous to this he had been on a gluten free diet for months. We introduced gluten containing foods in the three weeks before the test but I suspect he hadn’t eaten enough to give a positive result. He was so ill by the end of the third week, he could hardly eat at all and ended up in hospital!
Despite all this, not one GP at our practice thought he needed to be seen again and like a fool I accepted this. They flattered me by saying how well I was managing his condition and just said I should keep him on a very restricted diet for several more years and then they would consider challenging him again.
Then in recent times we have had some accidental ‘gluten’ incidents which have told me that we still have a problem. The first one was several months ago when he had a gut bloating reaction after eating Burger King fries – which I later discovered are not gluten free. Then more recently after a supposedly gluten free, dairy free meal at Carluccio’s he was suddenly hit by an uncontrollable urge to scratch. He was literally clawing at his face. I ran to the nearest Boots and got him some anti histamine. Within about twenty minutes, he stopped scratching and fell asleep.
As far as I was concerned that was an alarmingly swift and very definite allergic reaction. So I went back and saw yet another GP and begged for a referral to a different hospital (our third). This GP was sympathetic and surprised that both previous had discharged Zac. He referred us to a dermatologist at another local hospital but warned there could be a wait. A month later and I still have not got my appointment.
feeding my intolerant child 