Food Allergies

Out of four boys, Boy1,3, and 4 have confirmed Food Allergies.  How did Boy2 miss out on all the fun?  Well, he doesn't react to skin tests. So we're on the hunt for his intolerances or allergies through the process of elimination. 

What makes our journey unique is the severity of the twins' allergies (Boy3 and Boy4), as well as the vast number of foods that cause reactions. Boy3, while his reactions have not been anaphylactic, they have still been alarming.  His eyes and lips have swollen enormously!  Never a good thing.  Thankfully, Benadryl, and occasionally added steroids, have stopped his reactions.  Our other twin, when other allergic children have required just a dose of Benadryl or steroids while discovering the world of food allergies, Boy4 has gone straight to anaphylaxis and "Epi-Pen Jr" as we discovered his needs.  We had very little margin for error as we learned about their allergies.  Out of those early incidents, we only know what caused a couple of them.  It was a steep learning curve as we transitioned our boys to solid foods. 

We found out the hard way that peanuts, nuts, and shellfish are NOT the only things that can cause anaphylaxis, and people can be allergic to absolutely ANYthing.

Anaphylaxis: An extreme, often life-threatening, allergic reaction to an antigen....  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anaphylaxis

Moving on: here's the LIST.

The List of Killer Allergies:
Milk (even a sip)
Eggs
Peanuts
The List of Milder Allergies:
Wheat
Corn
Oats
Flax
Spinach
Pineapple
Strawberries
Eggplant
Cauliflower
And more.

The GREAT news is that we haven't had an ER visit in well over a year, and all signs point toward healing!  From their birth to their 2nd birthday we became very familiar with the routes to and from hospitals, and we became adept at using an Epi-Pen.  We even had one incident when we nearly lost Boy4 (a post for another day).  However, from their 2nd birthday to 3rd, they have each had a couple of incidents, but just a little Benadryl fixed all of them!  This gives us MUCH hope that their allergies are indeed lessening, and that we are doing many RIGHT things in their lives.  In addition to just "growing out of their allergies," we also believe God is at work in their lives.  We pray with each of our boys daily, and our consistent prayer is for the Lord to bring healing to our young men.  We would love additional prayer partners to join us in this family prayer for healing.
Welcome to our world of Food Allergies.