Food Allergies
When you live with food allergies, you have to always be vigilant. We learned this when our daughter was diagnosed with allergies to peanuts, tree nuts and eggs.
She was four months old at the time. Now she is fifteen and we have gone through lots of phases of learning to live carefully when it comes to food. One of the main problems is hidden ingredients in prepared foods. Every time you eat in a restaurant, you have to rely on the honesty of the restaurant in letting you know if a dish has something you are allergic to in it. Our daughter has eaten in all kinds of restaurants, but there is always a degree of worry that a food will make her sick due to her food allergies.
The allergist has always said that her past history of reactions (bad stomach ache and vomiting) is not a predictor of future reactions. They could be worse or better. Our daughter has learned to always carry an epi-pen and benadryl. These could save her life. She gets tested every year or two to see if she has outgrown and of the allergies. So far, she hasn’t. In the meantime, she is a tall, beautiful girl who enjoys all the regular activities of a teenager. She just has to be a little more careful. We hope that someday research that is underway will help find a cure or a better way of preventing bad reactions.