Back in our vitamin series we often referenced the ingredient list on formula & food labels and helped identify some of those long words as vitamins.  This sparked us to think about ingredients in general and the importance of understanding ingredients when dealing with food allergies.

There is so much more to ingredients then what’s listed on the label.  So, of course, we decided to blog about it!  Understanding fats, carbohydrates and proteins will be the topic of our next series.   Within the next few months we hope to cover some common inquiries such as types of fat, healthy vs. unhealthy fats, types of carbohydrate including corn, identify sugars, and hidden allergens such as dairy, and explain the building blocks of protein.

A few things to keep in mind while reading those labels and looking at ingredient lists: 

• The FDA requires all manufacturers to list all ingredients in the food on the label.
• Based on the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004, manufacturers are required to list the top eight foods which account for the most food allergies in commonly used terms.  This does not include allergens accidently introduced during manufacturing or packaging through cross-contamination. 
• Ingredients are listed in order of predominance.  The ingredient used in the greatest amount is listed first, followed by those in smaller amounts listed next, in descending order.
• There are several different types of ingredients such as:
  • Preservatives (ascorbic acid, citric acid) to prevent food from spoiling
  • Emulsifiers (soy lecithin, mono-and diglycderides) which allow smooth mixing and prevent separation
  • Sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame potassium) to add sweetness with or without the extra calories
  • Color Additives (citrus red no. 2, beta-carotene) which offsets color loss due to exposure to light, air, temperature extremes or moisture

Don’t forget to check back with us next week as we kick-off our ingredient series with the topic of fats.  Do you have any questions on what’s listed in the ingredients on food labels?

- Sarah

We know how difficult mealtime can be for kids whose food choices are restricted by food allergies. So, we thought it might be helpful to put together a Food Allergy Cookbook. But we need help from families like you who have worked through trial and error to develop yummy recipes that your kids with food allergies can enjoy.

We’re asking you to share with us your favorite “safe food” recipes so we can compile them into a collaborative cookbook and share with food allergy families. We’ll say “thanks” with a $5 gift card to Target!*

We want everyone – from the overwhelmed parent with a newly diagnosed child with food allergies to the veteran allergy-free cook – to learn something from others who have faced similar challenges. This is an excellent opportunity to share your delicious creations, lend a hand to other members of the allergy community and maybe discover something new for your own family. Each selected recipe will be credited to you and printed alongside a photo of the dish and/or your family enjoying it.

Submission requirements:

• Please send recipe submissions to foodallergyliving@shsna.com by April 1, 2010.
• The only requirement is that the recipe must omit at least one of the top eight allergens. But of course we’d love to see the creative ways you’ve found to use the Neocate product range – including Neocate Junior, Neocate Nutra and E028 Splash!
• If possible, please send photos of the dish and/or of your little ones enjoying your recipe.

Once we receive everyone’s submissions, we’ll compile our favorites into an online cookbook that you can download and share with your friends, families and support groups. Of course we can’t pick every entry, but everyone who submits a recipe will receive the $5 gift card to Target.

Here at Nutricia, we’re all really excited about this idea and we can’t wait to see what recipes you all submit. So, thanks in advance!

- Sarah

* Recipes must be your own. A maximum of five $5 gift cards will be sent to each household (one for each recipe submitted).

Our post today is a special guest blog entry from Nicole Smith. Her blog is Allergicchild.com and she is also the author of the books Allie the Allergic Elephant: A Children’s Story of Peanut Allergies, Cody the Allergic Cow: A Children’s Story of Milk Allergies  and Chad the Allergic Chipmunk: A Children’s Story of Nut Allergies. Nicole has also served as Treasurer for the non-profit organization, Kids With Food Allergies, Inc. and is currently serving on the Food Allergy Initiative (FAI) Advocacy Steering Committee. We would like to thank her for guest blogging for us.

Living with food allergies and eczema has become quite normal for our family. Our son, Morgan, is now almost 14 years old and has lived with food allergies his entire life. He is anaphylactic to peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, fish and shellfish. He is severely allergic to dogs, cats and other furry animals. His eczema is our ongoing battle. He is allergic to grasses, weeds and trees. He currently is receiving allergy shots in the hopes that his seasonal allergies will be minimized, and maybe he will be able to pet a dog in the near future!

From his first few months, Morgan had severe, weeping eczema across his body. It was everywhere – behind his knees, on his hands and feet, and even behind his earlobes. His skin was constantly infected, and I coated him with lotions and over the counter steroid creams to not much avail.

Morgan as a baby

Morgan’s eczema was helped by using Eucerin® lotion in the paste form, and by sparingly using Elocon® lotion (a steroid) when he was an infant. The Eucerin® is almost the consistency of lard.  Wal-Mart sells a generic brand of this that costs about 1/2 the amount of Eucerin®, and we’ve found it to be equally as good.  We slathered it on him every night.  When he was a baby, we applied it every time we changed his diaper.  The Elocon® lotion is a steroid cream, so we tried to use it only when his eczema got very severe. 

The eczema moved around his body as he grew older, but it has never entirely disappeared.  For a while, he had one finger that regularly sported an eczema spot if he ate any food with food dyes!

The use of heat in the winter time dries out his skin, as does swimming in chlorinated water in the summertime.  So, there isn’t a season where he gets a break.  If we forget to use the Eucerin® paste, his eczema will crack and fissures will form.  He has been put on antibiotics, which ended up curing the fissures.  However, we try to not allow the eczema to get this out of control.  The Elocon® lotion will sting if put on eczema with fissures.  He would cry in pain which hurt me almost as much as him – and made me more aware of staying ahead of his skin problems.

Morgan’s eczema gets worse when certain foods are added to his diet.  We notice that processed foods with yellow and red dyes made his skin much worse, so we removed these from his diet entirely when he was young.  This helped the eczema to disappear, yet it would amazingly reappear for no apparent reason. When he was a baby he was severely allergic to eggs; when this allergy disappeared, we started feeding him foods containing eggs, only to find that his eczema flared up.

We live in Colorado Springs, which has hot, dry air in the summer.  However, combining the heat with sun lotions is a recipe for disaster.  We use titanium dioxide sun lotions since they seem to be kinder to his skin.  Certain fabrics such as nylon bother his skin, creating eczema-like blotches.  Long ago, I began using laundry soap that is free of all dyes and perfumes.  None of this cures his eczema, but it helps it to not become worse.

Morgan today

Now that he’s a teenager, he’s responsible for taking care of his skin. As with most teenage boys, hygiene is a difficult daily practice! For a while, the prescription medication Singulair® cured his eczema completely. Now it doesn’t work as well. Since he started allergy shots his eczema seems to be worse, yet he is also in the middle of puberty. Our allergist had told us that some patients experience worsening eczema with allergy shots, yet his environmental and pet allergies are much better. It’s a difficult trade off!

When he has a bad eczema breakout, we have begun wet wrapping his skin with CeraVe® moisturizing cream and Betamethasone steroid cream. (He also takes an antihistamine, such as Xyzal or Zyrtec once a day.) We apply the steroid first, then the moisturizing cream and then hot, wet gauze to wrap his skin sealing in the moisture. Adding socks or ace bandages over the top insures the gauze stays in place. Keeping the wet wraps in place overnight helps the worst eczema spots. Twice a day wet wrap treatments can do wonders for his skin!

We feel like detectives on most days, attempting to find the cause of the eczema. It might be food related, contact related (such as grass or clothing articles) or none of the above. We would love to find the magical cure to make his eczema disappear. In the meantime, we’ll keep searching for what works for today to ease the itch!

 Nicole can be reached at:

Allergicchild.com

425 W. Rockrimmon Blvd, Suite 202

Colorado Springs, CO 80919

nicole@allergicchild.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleshieldssmith 

EpiPens, for any child with allergies, can be a huge life saver.  However, sending your little one to school with their EpiPen can be rather stressful for a parent. There are a thousand questions that might go through your mind, “Will they be safe even with the EpiPen?” or “Will someone know how to use the EpiPen?”.

EpiPen and Anaphylactic Shock Basics

For those of you who don’t know, anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock can be a life-threatening allergic reaction to specific triggers, such as food proteins and medication. This results in hives or swelling of the throat or tongue, which can lead to constricted airways and/or a dramatic drop in blood pressure.

An injection from an EpiPen is imperative when anaphylactic shock occurs and can save a person’s life.  An EpiPen is a premeasured dose of epinephrine, which is injected into someone’s body during a severe allergic reaction to avoid or treat the onset and symptoms of anaphylactic shock, which provides a window of time to seek further medical attention. ¹

EpiPens at Schools

If you are a parent of a child who is at risk for anaphylactic shock, you probably carry his or her EpiPen with you at all times, in case they are exposed to an allergen to which they are allergic.  This is excellent for when you are with your child; however, your child could be exposed to many more allergens at school when you and your EpiPen aren’t there!

In fact, one study of children and adolescents found that 10 out of 13 fatal or near fatal anaphylactic reactions occurred outside the home.  All the fatalities did not have an EpiPen and those who survived received an EpiPen shot before or within 5 minutes of developing severe symptoms.²

So, what does this mean? EpiPens can save lives!  You need to ensure that the other adults who spend time with your child are trained and able to assist in any situation if you’re not around.

Don’t worry, this isn’t as difficult as it sounds!  I suggest sitting down with your child’s teacher in the beginning of the school year to set up a 504 plan. This will ensure he or she receives proper care and attention when you aren’t there and that all adults that are around your child have the proper training to use an EpiPen if an emergency situation arises.

Also, there is good news for all you Massachusetts residents!  Thanks to your persistent neighbors, starting March 2010, all newly hired school bus drivers in the state of Massachusetts will be required to have EpiPen training. Unfortunately, the law doesn’t mandate the existing school bus drivers to be trained; however, it’s a step in the right direction. Hopefully the other 49 states will follow suit.  Good work Massachusetts!

How have you been able to ensure that your child is safe and can receive the proper care if they go into anaphylactic shock? Did it involve a 504 plan or EpiPen training?

- Nita

References:

1. www.epipen.com/

2. Sampson H, Mendelson L, Rosen J. Fatal and near-fatal anaphylactic reactions to food in children and adolescents. N Engl J Med. 1992;327:380-384.

Through our 1-800-Neocate information line we get a lot of questions but we also hear a lot of great stories from parents who deal with the effects of their child having a milk allergy every day.  We love hearing those stories and we love to share them with other food allergy parents who are coping with the same situations. 

With that in mind the old way of sharing your stories, recipes and photos – via snail mail –  is slow, cumbersome and just a little tough for most busy parents to put together, pack it up and send into us.  So our team of nutritionists has worked diligently to provide all of you with easier ways to share what you love to share the most.

If you have an account on Facebook, feel free to become a fan of our Neocate Fanpage where you can:

• Post questions, comments, suggestions, recipes & stories
• Add your photos (parents love to share their before & after photos of their children)
• Add videos
• Start discussions about relevant topics like the new Texas State Insurance Reimbursement Laws

If you are an avid user of MySpace, we just started our MySpace Neocate profile and you can read snippets of our blog posts over there (so you can decide quickly if our latest informational post is of interest to you), see photos and interact with us there by commenting on our wall.

And for those avid Twitter users out there, we didn’t forget you either.  We’ve got our own Neocate Twitter account where we tweet out links to our latest blog posts, answer questions about Neocate and give suggestions where we can.  We’re also looking into hosting some Tweetchats in the future about dealing with food & milk allergies, so keep your eyes open for that!

We recognize that in today’s busy world sometimes it’s just easier to connect with us through the places where you are already actively participate and we wanted to make it easier for all of you to do so.  So come on over and join the discussions, we’d love to hear what you have to say!

- Sarah