Anxiety about one-year-old's food allergies
My 1-year-old son has multiple food allergies (peanuts, eggs, and sesame). He was diagnosed soon after he started solids but I’m still having a really tough time dealing with the anxieties of feeding him and imagining what his life will be like when he’s older. I would appreciate the following recommendations:
- A therapist for me. Ideally someone who has experience working with parents.
- Allergists around Berkeley area who do OIT
- Any other resources for food allergy support
Feb 2, 2022
Parent Replies
I wanted to reach out to show support. My child has multiple known and unknown allergies. Like your baby, we learned about the food allergy when starting solids. Peanut and egg allergy is not difficult to navigate as nut/peanut allergy is very common and vegan diet is very delicious with no eggs. We are able to bake just about any desserts and cook most of our favorites using vegan ingredients. (We are not vegans by the way.) It took some time getting used to it because my favorite food is egg and my spouse's favorite food is peanut/nut and then we ended up with a child who is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and eggs! I'm not sure how severe your child's allergy is, but for us, we have allergy medicine well stocked and in every bag/purse/wallet. At 1 year old, you can easily and fully control the baby's diet. Restaurant food can trigger allergy, but when we began introducing our child to restaurant food, she was old enough to take chewable claritin which is actually delicious and kid loved it like it was candy. Sometimes, our child has environmental allergy and we have no idea what causes it yet. Definitely talk to your pediatrician. While I don't love that our child has to depend on antihistamine so often, doctors have assured us that it is not harmful to do so. So we make sure to have antihistamines and wipes on hand and live our lives. Birthday parties get a little tricky, so we bring our own cupcake and/or cookies. Thankfully, most preschools and schools no longer have a "nut table" where they isolated kids with food allergy. So, my child didn't have to feel excluded because of allergy. Once in a while, we sneak away and indulge in the forbidden food -- e.g. Pad Thai. No matter how well we clean ourselves, we can tell the kid is irritated when we come back from our forbidden food outing. We give her an antihistamine because we need a break once in a while. It's also possible that your baby grows out of allergy. My friend's child had allergy to egg, dairy, and nuts. At 6 years old, the child is still allergic to eggs but is no longer allergic to dairy and sensitivity to nuts has decreased. I had shellfish allergy as a child but I can stuff myself with crabs, lobsters and shrimps now. I love my therapist who is compassionate and has been very helpful with my anxiety. https://www.michellesicula.com/
You've got this!
Just wanted to be sure you know about the organization Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE). Lots of resources.
https://www.foodallergy.org/
There's a Facebook group called Food Allergy Talk and Treatment that might be useful.
I know of people who have recommended Allergy and Asthma Medical Group, and Columbia Allergy Associates. I haven't tried either yet (we currently have Kaiser, which doesn't do OIT except with Palforzia). I am also thinking of exploring SLIT, which Columbia does.