Ask Bonnie

As a wife and mom of two children, ages two and five, there are so many joys that we face. However, sometimes we may encounter some bumps along the way.

When my son, “Matt” was 23 months old he had an anaphylactic reaction from ingesting a tiny piece of a peanut butter cracker. Anaphylaxis is a sudden, severe, potentially fatal systemic allergic reaction that can involve various areas of the body (such as skin, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, and cardiovascular system). Symptoms occur within minutes to two hours after contact. An anaphylactic reaction can be mild to life threatening.

Common symptoms includes a tingling sensation in the mouth, swelling of the tongue and throat, difficulty breathing, hives, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, drop in blood pressure, loss of consciousness, to death. Jett had some of the above symptoms and had to be rushed to the emergency room and was given a shot of epinephrine (adrenaline) to stop the reaction. It could have affected his breathing. We were very lucky that he was fine after he was treated. However, it could happen again and worse if we are not careful.

A few days later a blood test was given by an allergist; we found out that “Matt” was indeed allergic to not only peanuts, but also cashews.

How can this be? We wondered…No one in our family is allergic to any foods. You just never know—-it can happen to anyone at anytime.

Now our lives had to change—- food shopping, the food we kept at home, restaurants, going to friends’ homes, birthday parties, carrying Epi-pens (epinephrine) and Benadryl, and school responsibilities. My husband and I had to be trained in how to administer an Epi-pen in case there was an emergency and we had to train others. The doctor said he had to refrain from eating not only peanuts (legumes) and cashews (tree nuts) but all other nuts and seeds in case of cross-contamination.

We had to learn how to read food labels and learn what ingredients he can and cannot have. It is now a law that all manufacturers label their packages with any food allergens it may contain. For example, under the ingredients on a package of cookies it may state, “allergy information- may contain traces of peanuts or tree nuts” or it may state, “manufactured on equipment that processes tree nuts, sesame, peanuts.” “Matt” has to stay away from all of that. Other highly allergic foods that people might be allergic to are eggs, milk, soy, wheat which would also be written on different foods if they contained those ingredients.

There is no cure right now for food allergies. The best treatment is strict avoidance of the allergy-causing food. If a product doesn’t have a label, allergic individuals should not eat that food. There is so much information on food allergies. I could go on for hours.

In regards to school, we just want to mention how wonderful the teachers and administration were at Congregation B’nai Israel(CBI) in Boca Raton, Florida in regards to “Matt’s” allergy. When he began the two’s I was so nervous to leave him because he was my first, but also to leave him with a deadly food allergy. As the days and years went on at CBI my trust and confidence with the teachers and office staff grew tremendously. “Matt’s” classrooms became peanut-free, his teacher’s wore fanny packs with his emergency medications wherever they went with him. Eventually, CBI did away with offering peanut butter sandwiches as a substitute for lunch. Everyone was so understanding and accommodating to us.

We want to personally thank Linda Harris (Director) and Rebeca Rosenblatt and all of “Matt’s” teachers and the staff members who came in contact with him daily. Thank you for keeping him safe and for putting our minds at ease for the past four years.

Now “Matt” is off to Kindergarten in a brand new school with new faces. We have to start all over again to gain trust, but at least we can say we started off with a great first experience at CBI.

If anyone has any further questions about food allergies you can contact The Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network at 800-929-4040 or visit their website at www.foodallergy.org.