How We Found Out
No parent needs to discover that their infant has a potentially severe nut allergy while having their first birthday celebratory cake. In 2016, that’s where we found ourselves. I had family visiting, who don’t eat eggs, so I made a vegan cake made of cashews and walnuts. After her first bite in, my daughter started breaking out in a rash and then came the vomiting. My husband and cousins rushed out to get Benadryl. We were able to get it under control, but we were terrified.
We immediately made an appointment to see the pediatrician, who feared a nut allergy and referred us to a well-known allergist in Arlington. Neither of us had a family history, and I ate lots of nuts in pregnancy and postpartum, so it came as a surprise. 2 out of 3 children who have a food allergy have parents who don’t have any.
Allergy or Reflux?
After skin pricks and blood tests that left all of us drained, it confirmed our fear and worse. My daughter was allergic to tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, eggs, and sesame seeds. We were devastated, fearful for her wellbeing, and worried how we would maintain a vegetarian diet or normal life, being Indian, with so many dietary restrictions. The allergist urged us to avoid everything, and so we did, for several months. We even bought special white bread from a bakery. At this point, however, even avoiding those things, she was throwing up several times a week. This is when our pediatrician suspected acid reflux. She was put on Zantac for six months. We later learned with our second that Zantac was no longer prescribed because it was known to cause cancer.
A few months later, on a visit to my Indian family, my daughter had wheat bread with no reaction. This made us question the validity of the tests. She was vomiting when not having allergens and not vomiting when she did have an allergen. We then learned about false positives. We started reintroducing wheat, eggs, sesame seeds with positive results. I did more research and left the allergist, who was too conservative and cocky for our liking. It didn’t matter what board she was on or her reputation, if our goals of helping our daughter to overcome her allergy were not shared by her. Complete elimination for an unknown amount of time was not acceptable.
Finding the Right Allergist and Food Challenges
I found another pediatrician in Arlington, Dr. Nithya Swamy. She changed our trajectory. We went from being told to avoid everything and not even have allergens in our home to doing annual blood tests and periodic food challenges in her office, when the blood levels testing for that nut were low enough. Yes, that meant annual blood tests for a toddler, which sucked, but the window for overcoming food allergies closes around age 5, and we were determined to do what we could to avoid living in fear and limiting where we went and what we did as a family. Carrying an epi pen around and fearing her eating something inadvertently was too much. In fact, we even avoided taking her to India, since food allergies are uncommon there and the Indian diet includes cashews, pistachios, and peanuts.
In 2017, we participated in the food challenges every 4-6 months. My daughter passed her first one, almonds, and I remember doing the happy dance in the hallway with my husband! Almond butter became a staple in our home to make sure she was desensitized to it. Over three years, she has passed some challenges and failed others, which was disappointing. Now my daughter is able to have almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, and macadamia nuts (we did this food challenge at home due to Covid-19).
She has failed walnuts twice and her levels for cashews, pistachios, and peanuts are higher than desirable for a food challenge. We have only had to use the epipen once and that was in the allergist’s office. Every year, her numbers are coming down, so we will continue down this path.
Homeopathy for Food Allergies?
In the summer of 2019, my cousin, who had a severe wheat allergy to certain take-out pizza brands, often requiring hospital visits, said he had had luck with homeopathy. He worked with a doctor in India, and, just after one month of medication, he was able to have wheat again. One month!
We had been using homeopathy, but I had no idea it could help with food allergies. I contacted the doctor right away, who started my daughter on a regimen that would take many months.
Just weeks after starting, her car sickness and occasional vomiting disappeared. She hasn’t vomited in one year!
In 2020, we started working with local homeopathic doctors. One provided a remedy that was like the Benadryl of homeopathy, and it truly has been. When she has an allergic reaction that is not life threatening, Apis is what I give her. Her symptoms are gone in minutes. Why don’t more people know about this?
We will continue homeopathy and food challenges until my daughter has overcome some, if not all, of her food allergies. In the meantime, we are rest assured that, if she has a reaction, it won’t be life threatening.
Immunotherapy Treatment
In 2019, we also participated in the Palforzia immunotherapy treatment. The allergist gives her a small dose of the peanut in the office every two weeks, and we administer the same dose at home daily in between. The goal is to reach the equivalent of one peanut and to remove the risk of anaphylaxis not necessarily eliminate the allergy. We did the treatment for about six months, but every day was a struggle getting her to take it, especially as she could now smell and taste the dose more even when mixed in pudding. (This is actually the main reason many people don’t complete the treatment). We realized it was not worth the hassle if every day she was miserable and she didn’t have the risk of anaphylaxis anyway. She reached about the equivalent of half a peanut. So, when she does accidentally have a peanut, the reaction is not bad. We will consider revisiting in the future.
Advice for Parents of Children with Food Allergies
I urge parents who have a child with a food allergy to find a provider that you like, be open to exploring unfamiliar treatments, and be aggressive. Our allergist shared that having peanut free environments can often exacerbate the problem and exposure can often help.
While I continue to help my daughter overcome her nut allergy, I still wonder how she developed it in the first place.
Why have food allergies increased exponentially in the last twenty years nearly doubling every decade? Contaminated food and water? Why are nut allergies less common in other countries? Can introducing nuts earlier than 1 year (an arbitrary recommendation by the AAP) prevent an allergy? Why have homeopathy doctors mentioned a connection to the MMR vaccine?
Finding the cause may unlock the answers to our growing food allergy epidemic in the America, which includes 32 million people and 6 million children.
