Food allergies

I agree with MOnica that there are strong reasons to connect allergies and asthma to belching fumes. All the chemicals we consume daily probably compound the problem. I can't wait for a cleaner environment.

Having said that my mother suffered from penicillin poisoning on a couple of occasions which landed her in hospital. She couldn't eat fungi either. An aunt of hers, born before 1900, had sprue so badly she took her own life.

Sprue is the old name for coeliac disease.

One of our DCs inherited the penicillin allergy and came out in huge weals when once prescribed it.

Sprue is the old name for coeliac disease.
I never knew that Grammaretto, thank you.
Coeliac disease can be debilitating and can lead to other conditions which are life-threatening. Many people do not understand it at all, but with so many people claiming to have 'wheat allergy' (many of them are not coeliac and in fact haven't even heard of it) there is in fact a greater choice of gf products in the supermarkets now.

We have a young friend who has a severe nut allergy, yet some airlines still hand out nuts as snacks. Even if she sits next to someone on a plane who is eating nuts she is in danger of anaphylactic shock.

varian the same happened to one of my DC - a filthy hospital resulting in what the Sister called 'an infection caught in the delivery room' and consequently the first days of her life on antibiotics.

Re what Michael Moseley recommends - some mothers may pass on a streptococcal infections to their babies via the birth canal.
I find some of his pronouncements very dogmatic.

Am very sad to hear of the lass who died because she accidentally are sesame. But am surprised than in all the news items and interviews - and there have been a lot - I've heard nothing about how breastfeeding protects a baby from allergies more than bottle feeding. What a missed opportunity.

Severe damage was done to DD biome after having to take massive doses of antibiotics for nearly a month. It caused endless problems with her digestive system and made her allergic to milk.

After trying everything that supermarkets and health food shops could offer, she consulted her local pharmacist and he advised a product called Symprove. It was quite expensive and had strict conditions about how and when you took it, but it worked. I think that it can now be prescribed by GPs.

I am allergic to all drugs in the Phenothiazine group. Unfortunately it is found in drugs for various conditions so I have twice gone into A S and ended in hospital - first time nearly 50 years ago. DD3 had an intolerance to eggs when she was a baby and her first few birthday cakes were egg free.
Luckily it wasn't a severe reaction and after a while she grew out of it but I am a firm believer, when one of the DGC is sick, to find out what they have consumed!

My eldest son as a child had frequent recurring infections and eventually became allergic to pretty well every antibiotic that was available at the time. When I took him to the doctor on one occasion because he had swollen up to the extent that he couldn't bend any limb, the doctor refused to believe me when I said he was allergic to the latest antibiotic and said that the cat was responsible for the reaction and we should have it destroyed. We didn't! When he had to have his tonsils removed, he had to stay in hospital for two weeks because the only antibiotic that still worked for him was an extremely slow-acting one .We never trusted that particular doctor again.

I read a report recently that blames the increase in childhood allergies on the fact that so many women now have C-sections instead of natural births, thus resulting in the baby not being exposed to the mother's bacteria in the birth canal which are thought to protect the baby from some allergies

Well I'm afraid I can put a spanner in the works for that theory.
In my son's case, he was a natural birth and just after he was born, when he was bathed in Hibitane, he broke out in angry, red weals all over his body. So began a very long list of episodes of allergic reactions, some life threatening, some less serious than others. He was allergic to antibiotics, anti histamines, general anaesthetic gas, peanuts, artificial additives, baby bath etc, etc...
He is a red head and my late mother, a midwife said that they used to dread having a red headed patients. An old wive's tale? I'm a red head and I too have lots of allergies to medication.
Perhaps someone should do some research on that. .

You don't always know what will cause an anaphylactic shock. DH walked into a garage showroom to hand car keys in for service. He got halfway across and collapsed. Ambulance administered treatment to get him to hospital where diagnosis given. Never had a reaction to anything before so no answer to what he could be allergic to. He carries antihistamine now.

Like GabriellaG I never heard of allergies either as a child, a student or when teaching in the 1970s. We all ate what we were given at parties and school dinners. Also - looking at the class photographs taken in my final years at primary school (1958, 1959), not one child was wearing glasses. And yet we had yearly 'examinations' at school with the school doctor so any problems would have been picked up (such as my flat feet when I was in the infants. Exercises from the school clinic cured them).

The allergic people in my family (including me) were all born vaginally and were all breast fed. The worst affected was breast fed for 18 months.

There is a slightly higher rate of allergies among children born by cesarean sections and who are bottle fed, but the increase is not significant and there are many, many, children born after a normal birth and breast fed who have allergies.

I feel so sorry that a young girl should die because of a few sesame seeds. However I feel that if I or anyone else in my family had an allergy which could kill them. then I would not buy anything from a sandwich shop.
When going out I would make my own sandwiches.

I have intolerences to many things and for 25 years I cook for myself and take a rucksack full of food on holiday with me. you can't rely on food from factories to protect you.

There is a recipe for nut free marzipan here, if it helps
realfood.tesco.com/recipes/nut-free-marzipan.html

I didnt know of anyone with food allergies when I was a child in the 50s. But of course there was hardly any prepared food available anyway.
When my eldest daughter (now 55) was about a year old she was munching on peanuts. Two years or so later we were in Australia and her younger sister was eating peanuts and an Australian friend said children should never be given nuts under the age of two. Presumably because of the danger of choking. There are so many foods that babies and young children should not eat these days that we and our own children ate without any problems. My DGD and her partner would not allow my DGGS anything sweet from a baby. Only fruit was allowed. Poor little one about 18 months old had a fit and the ambulance was called. The first thing they asked for was chocolate. Father said I have chocolate for me but my child does not have it. He was told that the child needed something sweet immediately to bring him round. A few years later he has several food allergies and behavioural problems too. I have a severe allergy to penicillin and other antibiotics and AS is frightening as I have experienced it a few times when doctors have ignored me because they knew best.

Caztown15 when my daughter was 4 I bought her a strawberry ice cream from Thorntons. I didn’t know the same ice cream scoop had previously been used to dispense Brazil nut ice cream. Her blood pressure plummeted and her face swelled and she looked like Coco the clown. She is allergic to nearly all nuts but not to peanuts. I ate lots of nuts when pregnant but not peanuts and this is one nut that does NOT cause her problems. Carried epipens for 24 years now. Brazil nuts are by far the worst.

At school in the 1960s I do remember a couple of girls who couldn't do sports, they had had whooping cough in infancy and had a weak chest, don't recall anyone else.
There was plenty of pollution in those days as well as much poorer living conditions, there was much less advanced medical care too and it is highly likely allergic infants died early undiagnosed. That does not explain the current epidemic where a large number of children have asthma there is something damaging their immune system. Suspects are, babies in swimming pools, vaccinations, cleaning materials, food additives even plastic toys. Young children are not likely to have damage due to pollution, even in rural areas there are still allergic children, the smoke and dirt I had to endure as a child bears no comparison.

I agree Diana. I'm sure many allergies went undiagnosed.
Testing is much more sophisticated now.
I was diagnosed with late onset asthma when I was twenty one. I had been ill for two years, had been given some basic allergy tests, to be told it was just nerves and advised to give my self a shake! It was only when I ended up in intensive care for six weeks , that I was diagnosed with brittle asthma.

Maybe the reason why we all remember so few children with severe allergies when we were young is simply that they didn't live with their allergies - they died when they were very young...

MargaretX I think the baguette in question was eaten on a plane, not actually purchased from the Pret shop. It was not apparent that there were sesame seeds on the surface of the bread, they had been baked into the bread. That's what I understood anyway.
This firm and the airline who uses their products has a duty of care towards its customers; they should be aware of any ingredients which may cause problems and inform the customer, or at least label the package appropriately, and they failed.

The baguette was bought from Pret at Terminal 5, I think.
It's usually M&S foodBA serve on short hall flights.

Pret are now going to use labelling on their products. Personally I was very surprised given the severity and number of her allergies that she didn't ask about allergenics before eating the baguette, or at least eat a small bite first - but maybe she was going through a teenage phase where she was fed up with it all and just thought sod it...

I wouldn't think so humptydumpty

I thought all products had to have labelling of ingredients which included allergens in bold lettering?
We have to examine any products very carefully with a coeliac in the family. It's easy for people to say - don't eat anything you haven't prepared yourself and generally we would - but it's not always possible.

No, legally "foods packaged on-site before a firm sells them do not need a specific allergen label attached", hence Pret were actually following the letter of the law - that's what needs to change.

I have a grandson who has a severe allergy to sesame and has two Epipens with him at all times. The national shortage of these pens is causing those of us who rely upon them extreme worry.

Jalima1108
The baguette was bought in the Pret shop in Heathrow airport but consumed on the plane.