Have you experienced problems with people who do not fully understand what it means to have a food allergy? From the waiters at your favorite restaurant to a schoolmate on the playground, those who do not understand the severity of food allergies could unknowingly put your food allergic child in harm’s way.
A report published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology shows that food allergy knowledge in the general public is poor, especially when it comes to knowing the difference between food allergy and food intolerance.
One of the most alarming misconceptions highlighted by the report is that “almost half of participants erroneously believed that a cure exists for food allergy, and more than two thirds stated that a daily medicine could be taken to prevent a food allergy reaction. They also tended to overlook the necessity of strict allergen avoidance: more than 40 percent of participants indicated that other means exist to prevent life-threatening reactions.”
Unfortunately, it is up to the food allergy community to raise awareness and educate others about the severity of the condition. Here are a few tips to help you inform others about your little one’s food allergies. The more people know about food allergies, the more likely they are to be vigilant about helping your child avoid potential allergens.
- Schedule a meeting with your child’s teachers and caretakers to go over the basics and put a plan into place to help avoid an emergency.
- Ask teachers and students to participate in the “Be a PAL” Program, which teaches five simple steps kids can take to keep their classmates safe.
- When you dine out, bring “chef cards” with you to alert the wait staff and those in the kitchen of your child’s allergies.
- Remind people that a food allergy is different from food intolerance, which does not involve the immune system and is typically not life threatening like a food allergy.
Have you had experiences with the general public not understanding the severity of your child’s allergy? I encourage you to help support other food allergy families by sharing some of your stories here and telling us how you handled the situation and any additional recommendations you may have.
-Christine
Neocate is now on Facebook!
1 comments:
Hi,I get irritated as people say things like:
" how are her allergies ? she seems to get better... You can't tell that she's allergic ! "... (as if they want to witness a reaction or it should be written on my daughter's face ??)
"it's ok, it should go as she grows"
"RASTs can be positive when a child actually won't react.
"there are some cookbooks for allergic people"
(I bought one but haven't found one recipe that avoids : wheat, eggs, soya, milk, tree nuts, peanut, coco, oat, malt, rye, banana, kiwi, strawberries )
" don't worry, you can give her this ice-lolly, it's just water and fruits, it doesn't matter if I lost the label."
"Allergic to wheat ? it's ok you know, nowadays you find a lot of breads made of oats or rye"
(she's also allergic to oat and rye, thankfully I found another type but it's hard to get)
"at least she can have dark chocolate"
(soya-free ?)
"can she have mashed potatoes ? can she have jam ? can she have juice ?"
what I don't like is when I take her to friends for a party, they still let their kids running about with biscuits in their hands or don't wipe their mouths full of chocolate cake, or yoghurt sticky hands)
Now I just listen and then : "no thank you, I won't give her this lolly, I don't want to risk it". (after all, even if it's a light reaction, like vomiting, she will still suffer not them !)
The allergies of my daughter are varied (about 15 of them, they seem to increase as she becomes allergic to things that she used to eat before like banana for example), and the RASTs are still too high for skin testing.
I am so fed up hearing that I should try chinese medicine or homeopathy...although maybe I should ?
This kind of advice makes me feel guilty of not trying hard enough, but really, after what we've been through the past 3 years (severe eczema from age 3 months, spreading even though I exclusively breastfed up to 6 months, and as I am French living in the UK I had no family around to help, then delayed diagnosis because of hassle in the UK to get a referral to specialist (at first I couldn't control the eczema and was going to the doctor every week or more and was told that referrals to dermatologists were reserved to cases like skin cancer, until they had tried so many types of steroid creams and emollients on her), infected chicken pox on eczema at 6 months, she stayed in hospital and battled hard for 7 days, no sleep at night for her nor us up to age 9 months (husband couldn't keep up with work, being late and tired, and colleagues not understanding, thinking it was down to "colic" when baby was actually reaction to the proteins in breastmilk, and when she was finally tested at 8 months and put on neocate, it was a complete relief she became such a relaxed baby after a few weeks and finally the 3 of us could manage to sleep), then feeding became a nightmare, we have to watch her always when socialising, take her out of nursery as they couldn't cope and she became so sick after 2 weeks that she was in hospital for dehydration, so one of us had to stop working to care for her).
Now I'd rather stick to the same doctors and carry on with testings and avoidance diet but people constantly challenge me with new ideas and I wish they could just sympathise and believe me, that's all !
the result of people's ignorance is that I don't trust anyone to look after my daughter apart from the nursery school she now attends just under 3 hours a day (I gave them a health plan and they all had epipen training).
Since my daughter was born, we never went out as a couple. I can't hire a babysitter, it's too much responsibility. Even my mother says she would be afraid to take her if we wanted to have a holiday as a couple. Now we are so used to it and she is so nice that we can't be without her anyway. It's ok now and much easier than before, and we are lucky to be a strong couple.
Thanks for reading this if you made it to this word!
Celine
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