Food Allergies and Children

Is It Taking a Toll on Your Family?

By Debbie Vallejo

It is certainly a daunting task protecting children from the possible misfortunes of everyday life, but add a potentially life-threatening food allergy to the equation and the task becomes monumental.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, approximately 4 percent of children appear to suffer from food allergies. An allergic reaction occurs when the body mistakenly believes that a normally harmless substance (i.e. food) is harmful and so creates massive amounts of chemicals and antibodies. Reactions may range from as mild as a couple of hives on the face to as severe as anaphylaxis. Symptoms may also include swelling, nausea, coughing, vomiting, drop in blood pressure, breathing difficulty, wheezing or blackouts.

Heather Woodward's son, Cullen, was only 1 year old when he had his first severe reaction to food. "I gave him part of an egg," Woodward says. "Eggs are one of the highly allergenic foods, so I waited until he was a year before I gave him his first taste. I did everything the baby books said to do." She boiled the egg and separated the yolk from the white, giving Cullen the yolk. The yolk is the least allergenic of the two. "I turned around for a second and when I turned back his face was all red and swollen, and it seemed like he was having trouble breathing. I was about to call 911 when the swelling went down and he began breathing a little easier. He had only taken one bite."

The next day Woodward took Cullen to the pediatrician and explained what had happened. The pediatrician immediately referred her to an allergist, where her son received a battery of tests. Within the next year she was to find out that her son was deathly allergic to peanuts and eggs. "Our lives were drastically changed from that day on," Woodward says. "All eggs and peanuts were thrown out of the house; I had to change the way I cooked, where Cullen was allowed to play and the restaurants we could go out to eat in. We have to carry an EpiPen with us everywhere and I have to call restaurants ahead of time to find out what oils they cook their foods in and if they use egg in the kitchen. When we go to birthday parties I make egg-less cupcakes ahead of time and take them with us. It can be overwhelming."

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