We've had several minor reactions over the last few weeks, and it's getting frustrating. I just think I've isolated the source, when William has another one. Thankfully, we're only dealing with digestive issues and eczema, but when we're being *so* careful to avoid sulphites, even a minor reaction is frustrating. It's even more so when I know that even these small exposures could cause an anaphylactic reaction.
So far, it seems that these reactions are a result of one of three things. The first is food products produced before the current labelling laws went into effect, which means that while new(er) product is labelled, older product isn't. We can't even be sure that foods are safe if we've read the label, and that's incredibly frustrating. It means that grocery shopping is a potential mine field, which is one of the reasons that we're moving towards an organic diet.
The second is food products that don't need to be labelled, which includes things that contain less than 10 ppm of sulphites. Ironically, grapes that supposedly contained less than 10 ppm of sulphites were the source of William's original anaphylactic reaction.
The third is cross-contamination. We've had a few instances of this and, with our switch to organic produce (thanks in part to Etomami Organics), there have been less and less of these reactions. But we can only control so much of William's environment and food intake, so are having to slowly eliminate more and more items as we discover potential points of cross-contamination.
In this process, I've learned two things: (1) there is no such thing as "sulphite-free" eating due to the fact that sulphites occur naturally in a variety of things* and (2) dealing with a complicated food sensitivity is extraordinarily frustrating! I've dealt with serious food allergies before, but sulphites are a category all of their own in terms of the near-impossibility of avoiding them. At the moment--knock on wood--we've had several days without a reaction, but I'll stock up on Benadryl, again, this afternoon, as the question isn't "if" there'll be another reaction, but "when."
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*Look for a post on naturally-occurring sulphites, coming in December.
Showing posts with label first reaction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first reaction. Show all posts
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Tracking the cause
So, what caused William’s reaction?
William had a grilled cheese sandwich on multigrain bread, a few French fries, and some packaged, ready-to-eat grapes for lunch the day that he had his first serious reaction. Of these things, the only one that he hadn’t had before at that particular restaurant was the grapes, so that was where I suspected the problem lay.
The doctor whom we saw the day of the reaction said that his reaction indicated a food allergy and that, considering what he’d eaten, she strongly suspected a food preservative was the culprit.
The following morning I phoned the restaurant and talked to the manager. He was able to tell me who distributed the grapes and gave me that company’s contact information.
When I phoned the distributor, I discovered that the grapes were washed with potable tap water, then packaged. When I pushed a bit further, saying that I’d narrowed the source of the reaction down to the grapes, the representative with whom I spoke said, after a bit of thought, that all grapes were sprayed with sulphur dioxide prior to packaging and distribution.
A brief Internet search revealed that sulphites are one of the nine most common causes of serious food reactions in Canada. I was fairly certain, thus, that sulphur dioxide was the culprit, especially considering several cases of gastrointestinal distress that William had experienced earlier that month.
At the moment, William has only had one serious and three mild allergic reactions to food since the initial serious one. All have been to foods containing sulphites, particularly sulphur dioxide. We have an appointment to see a paediatric allergy specialist November 8, 2012, so we'll see whether we get a definitive diagnosis at that time. In the meantime, we're avoiding all sources of sulphites in an attempt to prevent further reactions.
William had a grilled cheese sandwich on multigrain bread, a few French fries, and some packaged, ready-to-eat grapes for lunch the day that he had his first serious reaction. Of these things, the only one that he hadn’t had before at that particular restaurant was the grapes, so that was where I suspected the problem lay.
The doctor whom we saw the day of the reaction said that his reaction indicated a food allergy and that, considering what he’d eaten, she strongly suspected a food preservative was the culprit.
The following morning I phoned the restaurant and talked to the manager. He was able to tell me who distributed the grapes and gave me that company’s contact information.
When I phoned the distributor, I discovered that the grapes were washed with potable tap water, then packaged. When I pushed a bit further, saying that I’d narrowed the source of the reaction down to the grapes, the representative with whom I spoke said, after a bit of thought, that all grapes were sprayed with sulphur dioxide prior to packaging and distribution.
A brief Internet search revealed that sulphites are one of the nine most common causes of serious food reactions in Canada. I was fairly certain, thus, that sulphur dioxide was the culprit, especially considering several cases of gastrointestinal distress that William had experienced earlier that month.
At the moment, William has only had one serious and three mild allergic reactions to food since the initial serious one. All have been to foods containing sulphites, particularly sulphur dioxide. We have an appointment to see a paediatric allergy specialist November 8, 2012, so we'll see whether we get a definitive diagnosis at that time. In the meantime, we're avoiding all sources of sulphites in an attempt to prevent further reactions.
Friday, September 21, 2012
First reaction
"This can't be happening," was the first thing that ran through my mind that afternoon.
We'd been out for lunch after going to the Vancouver Aquarium, when William said he had to go to the bathroom for the second time since starting lunch. He barely made it to the bathroom, where he had a serious case of diarrhoea. When I went to help him with his pants, I noticed that he had a huge scarlet splotch across his lower back. A closer inspection revealed more splotches and a growing number of hives.
Worried, I took William back to the table, where Grampa and William's older brother were still eating. I told them I suspected William was having a serious allergic reaction, and left them to quickly finish up and pay.
Once out at the truck, I dug out some Claritin (all that I had on hand) and gave him a dose of that. In the brief period of time between leaving the bathroom and giving him the antihistamine, he had more hives, and his face and neck had begun to swell.
His symptoms got worse--more diarrhoea, more hives, facial and neck swelling, tongue numbness--on the way to the medical clinic. We left the clinic with a prescription, clutched in my hand, for an Epipen Jr, in case of further anaphylactic reaction.
We lucked out with this first reaction, as the facial/neck swelling and tongue numbness had begun to subside by the time we saw the doctor. William had to have Benadryl every six hours for two days, but we didn't have to use the Epipen Jr.
We'd been out for lunch after going to the Vancouver Aquarium, when William said he had to go to the bathroom for the second time since starting lunch. He barely made it to the bathroom, where he had a serious case of diarrhoea. When I went to help him with his pants, I noticed that he had a huge scarlet splotch across his lower back. A closer inspection revealed more splotches and a growing number of hives.
Worried, I took William back to the table, where Grampa and William's older brother were still eating. I told them I suspected William was having a serious allergic reaction, and left them to quickly finish up and pay.
Once out at the truck, I dug out some Claritin (all that I had on hand) and gave him a dose of that. In the brief period of time between leaving the bathroom and giving him the antihistamine, he had more hives, and his face and neck had begun to swell.
His symptoms got worse--more diarrhoea, more hives, facial and neck swelling, tongue numbness--on the way to the medical clinic. We left the clinic with a prescription, clutched in my hand, for an Epipen Jr, in case of further anaphylactic reaction.
We lucked out with this first reaction, as the facial/neck swelling and tongue numbness had begun to subside by the time we saw the doctor. William had to have Benadryl every six hours for two days, but we didn't have to use the Epipen Jr.
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