Your view: living with allergies and anaphylaxis

Natalie’s son is sadly affected by a number of allergies, including wheat, dairy, soya, fish, nuts, eggs, grass, pollen, dust, dust mites, feathers, animals & cleaning products. She said:

‘He has four different antihistamines & Epi pens plus meds for he skin & asthma. This is a very hard to control & shopping is a nightmare. He’s nine but has shown no sign of growing out of his allergies yet!’

Dee’s advice was to not let your younger ones see you anxious around foods. She told us:

‘My daughter went into anaphylaxis shock when she was 8 years old and it terrified me as at the time I didn’t know she had any allergies. My daughter has now got a fear of food. I feel responsible for this as I was very anxious around food after she went into anaphylaxis shock even though she always has Epi-Pens on her at all times.’

Keeping tabs on your holiday food

Alfa had some good tips for holiday trips, suggesting taking a note translated into the destination’s chosen language for ease when ordering food in restaurants:

‘My daughter has a severe allergy to eggs, nuts and dairy products, AND wheat (which makes things nigh on impossible).’

Paul told us he’d had mixed success with dealing with allergies overseas:

‘Finland, ahead of the UK in free-from foods- way more choice in alternatives which we don’t have in this country yet. Russia, took translations cards, they just waved us away in restaurants and didn’t want the hassle! USA pretty good, somewhere between UK and Finland experiences.’

And Kate told us:

‘I’ve never had any issues on flights (other than rubbish food),Ii used to carry a letter from my GP so I could take milk on board.’

Allergies from an array of foods

And you told us about some more usual allergies you experience. Malcolm R said:

‘My eldest son reacts badly to bananas, my wife to melon, and another offspring to cucumber – not fruits I would have thought of as other than benign.’

And Wavechange told us how he’d developed an allergic reaction to certain moulds:

‘The biggest problem was that even expensive muesli can contain nuts with traces of mould, leaving me gasping for breath and with a swollen throat. My GP gave me a drug and syringe for use in emergency. Over a period of five years the problem gradually disappeared. Now I can eat as much muesli as I like and might find out if I can cope with Stilton.’

Rosy, who gets our Comment of the Week, told us:

‘I have a fairly severe intolerance to all the onion family. It is almost impossible to find food without onion, onion seeds, or onion powder these days. When we go out to eat I’m usually restricted to fish and chips! It isn’t life threatening but I’m not alone, there are quite a few people in the same situation.’