"Andy" <q> wrote in message news:
[email protected]...
> Probably asked before but...
>
> I was thinking food and was reminded of my 1st cousin who was allergic to
> milk since birth until detected 3 years old. They just gave him pain
> killers.
>
> He grew up in his teens a skinny kid but mushroomed to 300+ lbs. last time
> I
> saw him.
>
> I'm not allergic to any foods. Maybe I'm developing lactose intolerance.
> Gout
> aside, I'm pretty food tolerant.
>
> Got food allergies? Got over food allergies? Since/At what age?
Oh yeah. As a baby, I wouldn't breast feed and I threw up any and all milk
they gave me. I was born in 1959. Not sure they had any commercial
formulas back then. But they might have. My parents figured I was allergic
to milk, and yet at some point they began giving me milk.
I was sick to my stomach all the time and threw up a lot. If I wasn't
throwing up, I was having trouble with the other end. Drs. said I had
allergies, and they gave me allergy pills which didn't seem to help much and
gave me a lot of side effects.
As a teen, I had acne. My Dr. told my mom to stop giving me milk and see if
my acne cleared up. She did and it did. Dr. said I was lactose intolerant.
So for years, this is what I thought I had. Although I wasn't "drinking"
milk, I was still consuming it in other forms. Like mashed potatoes or corn
bread. I'd never liked ice cream, so I rarely ever ate that. I did like
cheese and I ate as much of that as I could, which wasn't a whole lot since
my mom didn't think cheese was particularly good for us. Too much fat, you
know.
I also had lots of respiratory problems. Ear, sinus and throat infections.
Had my tonsils out at something like age 4 or 5. Sought out the help of an
ENT as an adult. I seemed to be sick more than I wasn't sick.
My mom had been diagnosed with food allergies a couple of times, but acted
like she didn't believe it. At times she would avoid some foods. Other
times she would act like she had never heard of the allergies, or she would
seem confused and say that she didn't eat something but she didn't know why
she didn't eat it.
Zoom forward some years. I got married and had a baby. A baby who threw up
all the time. Was cranky and cried and wouldn't sleep. Of course she never
did this at the Drs. office. Was quiet and cooed and smiled. So no Dr.
would believe me. I suspected a milk allergy. I wasn't producing enough
breast milk so we had to supplement with formula. The milk based ones made
her sick. But so did the soy based. No matter what we gave her, she threw
it back up.
She only stopped throwing up when we introduced solid foods. And she seemed
to prefer the solid foods over the formula.
At age 1, I switched her to cow's milk, but I didn't force her to drink it
at every meal like I had been. I wasn't convinced this was all that good
for her. And a favorite food? A whole wheat tortilla spread with peanut
butter and jelly, wrapped around a banana.
At about age 1, the respiratory problems began. If it wasn't that, she was
throwing up, or sitting on the toilet. That was after we got her toilet
trained, which didn't happen until just before her 4th birthday. What I
didn't know then but know now is that food allergic kids are hard to potty
train. They are so sick to their stomachs all the time that they can't tell
by feeling that they need to use the toilet. They just pretty much feel
like **** all of the time.
More problems began when she entered school. They suspected ADHD. She
couldn't concentrate in school. Couldn't sit still. Always had to use the
bathroom so it made it hard to get her out the door to get her to school. I
thought it was nerves. Drs. told me she had allergies, but they said she
didn't have food allergies, as though they were psychic. They never tested.
Long story of going from Dr. to Dr. and getting no help. Then we took her
to my mom's naturopath. Turns out she was allergic to dairy, eggs, wheat,
gluten, soy, peanuts and bananas. All the things I'd been feeding her every
day.
I immediately changed her diet. Took her about 2 weeks to detox. She got
really sick at about the 2 week mark and now I have a new kid. Suddenly she
could pay attention in school. No more outbursts. No more violence. She
used to hit or kick people for no apparent reason. No more dashing to the
bathroom. No more reparatory problems. She fell behind in school and had
to be put in special ed. Now she is in the 4th grade and no longer in
special ed. She is doing well.
Since then, my mom had allergy testing done again. Most of what I already
knew she had was confirmed again. And some new ones. Like chicken. She
still doesn't do a very good job of avoiding her allergens if you ask me.
For instance, she will say "no cheese" on her salad, but then eat some
cornbread that has milk in it.
Then it was my time. Started when I got some egg salad at a local salad
bar. I had stopped eating so many eggs after daughter was diagnosed with
the allergy. Seems once you get the allergen out of your system, the
stronger you react to it if you DO eat it. I got really ill and suspected
food poisoning.
About a month went by and I realized the eggs in my fridge were about to go
bad. So I made egg salad. Ate it and got really ill. Worse than the time
before. Now I knew something was up. I vowed not to eat any more eggs.
But I probably wasn't as careful as I should have been, perhaps consuming
some bread or something in a restaurant that had eggs in it. Like pasta.
My mom insisted I be tested for allergies. I was. By her naturopath.
Turns out I was not only severely allergic to eggs, but also allergic to
dairy and almonds. I can't say that I ate a lot of almonds on a regular
basis so that was no biggie.
The dairy allergy was far harder for me to adjust to. Meant I pretty much
had to cook everything from scratch. Have found only a couple of baked
breads that don't contain dairy and/or eggs. I don't dare have a sandwich
in a restaurant unless they can prove to me that the bread is safe. A lot
of restaurants can not provide you with the ingredients...or perhaps I
should say will not. Can't eat at most chain restaurants like Denny's or
McDonalds (not that I'd want to) because they put milk in things where you
wouldn't suspect it. Like green beans and French fries.
I've discovered things like vegan rice cheese. I can make pizza and nachos
with it! And Smart Squeeze margarine. Before I ate only real butter. Most
margarines contain milk so they are out of the question. And they contain
soy so daughter can't eat them. I only use the Smart Squeeze when I want a
butter flavor. Otherwise, I use coconut or olive oil.
Since changing my diet, I have had only one sinus infection and it cleared
up quickly. And my stomach problems have cleared. I used to go through
Imodium like it was candy.
I have had something weird happen though when I inadvertently ate dairy.
Twice, I found a shred of cheese in my restaurant food and this last week it
was what appeared to be a bit of sour cream on the tomato garnish at the
Mexican restaurant. In all cases, I was careful not to eat any of the food
that was touching or even near the dairy product. But all three times a few
hours later, I felt faint and my BP dropped very low. Not good. I have to
be really careful now.
