Sam's Story

From the time he was about two months old, Sam had severe eczema. At first it bothered us more than him, but eventually the itching and the redness were painful to watch. When he started eating solids, he had a perpetual red ring around his mouth. Our pediatrician kept telling us not to worry... "Babies just get eczema," "There's no cause, and no cure," "Try an oatmeal bath." Nothing worked. I knew there had to be a reason for his eczema.

During a desperate visit to our wonderful dermatologist, she suggested that I cut nuts and peanuts out of my diet (I was breastfeeding). The eczema cleared up slightly, but Sam was still bothered. I then slowly started eliminating almost every possible allergen out of my diet - milk, soy, eggs, etc. It got to the point where I was eating chicken and lettuce - great for taking off the baby pounds, I suppose, but very frustrating! Sam's eczema did clear up dramatically, though, so I became convinced that it was related to a food allergy.

We finally saw an allergist when Sam was only six months old. After a skin prick test, he was diagnosed with a milk, soy, and fish allergy. I asked for a blood test to confirm the results and those results were surprising - negative to milk, soy, and fish, but a strong positive to nuts, peanuts, and peas. It was difficult to explain the results, and frustrating to not have a definitive answer (skin and blood tests are often difficult to interpret in children this young, but rarely are they completely opposite). That frustration led us to St. Louis Children's Hospital. When he was 8 months old, we got our first confirmation that he had a severe peanut and nut allergy (in addition to peas and cats).

Sam is now almost three years old, and we have additional confirmation of allergies to garbanzo beans and mustard, and suspected sesame allergy. With all of his allergenic foods, he gets instant, localized reactions if he is exposed, even in small quanitites. The number of reactions have certainly decreased as we are "honing in" on his allergies, but ingredients still get overlooked - a "may contain peanuts" statement that is not near the ingredient listing; a BBQ sauce that has mustard hiding in a "spices" category. We are lucky that Sam has never experienced anaphylaxis, but based on the advice of our doctors, we carry an epi-pen with us at all times.

I long for a day that I can just head out the door with Sam to the park and not carry his epi-pen and benadryl with us; I long for a day that I can walk the aisles of a grocery store and not annoy the people behind me as I read every label of every food I purchase; I long for a day that we can go into a restaurant and I don't need to ask about every ingredient in a seemingly-simple grilled cheese sandwich. But I also want to ensure that Sam remains the happy, healthy child he is today. For me, that means being an advocate for him at his preschool, teaching him how to eat responsibly, educating my family and friends about how they can help keep him safe, and flooding myself with information and resources. I'm hoping that the Central Illinois Food Allergy Network will help serve those purposes, not just for my family, but for the many other families of children with food allergies in this area.