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My son is only four years old, and he is allergic to alot of food that belongs in the ‘legume family’ these are things like Peanuts, peas, beans, sprouts, lentils etc… If my son has any of these foods in his mouth or even if they just touch his lips he will go into a state of ‘anaphylaxis’ this is a severe allergic reaction that affects his whole body, especially his mouth, lungs and throat. He will struggle to breath and I would have to give him an epipen this will shoot adrenline around his body so that he can breath easier.
So imagine my frustration when trying to food shop for my son, I have to check the back of every food label I buy and believe me my son can hardly eat anything in Asda/tesco’s/morrisons etc… because everything is labelled as ‘ingredients : cannot guarantee nut free.’ even in things like boiled ham, chips, chicken burgers, bread, etc…. all these foods may contain nuts.
Shouldn’t foods that obviously shouldnt contain nuts and other allergens that cause severe allergic reactions be listed more efficiently. Instead of putting ‘may contain nuts’ why can’t the foods in question be tested more efficiently and be labelled as ‘contains nuts’ or ‘nut free’.
If more foods were labelled correctly then my son and other people with similar allergies wouldnt have to fear for their lives everytime they eat, I honestly fear for his health when he is at school dispite all the teachers knowing what he can eat and what he cant.
If manufactures would make labels more clear, accurate and list the ingredients in the way that people could understand what was in the food it would be alot easier, and my son would have a better diet, a happier childhood and less reactions.
I think the labelling is because they cannot guarantee that the food described hasn’t been in contact with nuts during its production and packaging etc. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the food contains nuts, in fact it is unlikely that it would unless specified. But as nut allergies can be as severe as your son’s they have to let people know that traces of nuts may exist in the product.
It is better to be safe than sorry and just avoid all things that “may” contain nuts, even though this is problematical.
Compaines have got away with this for far too long now. Correct labling is a huge problem, from how much fat/calories something has right down to what the exact ingredients are.
There are more stringent controls for animal feed ffs.
Its rediculous!
Well to make matters worse my sons dietician has informed me that he is now allergic to milk. Which is almost as worse as being allergic to nuts as alot of foods contain milk or ‘traces of milk’.
Manufactures even disguise the words ‘nuts’ and ‘milk’ in ingredient lists as another word which means nuts or milk, only if you do not know this then of course there is a chance you are going to think the food is safe and eat it.
Another example of unclear ingredient lists are any foods containing VEGETABLE OIL. As some of you may know nuts are in the ‘legume family’ and legume means VEGETABLE.
So ideally my son would avoid vegetable oil too. The manufactures should list what exactly is in the Vegetable oil. If they listed it as containing peas, beans, sprouts etc..
then my son would react to this.But if the vegetable oil only contained veggies such as turnip, carrots, swede then my son would be Ok to eat this. But because they do not put this information alot of people are often misguided and miss out on good food they are able to eat if it wasnt for some ignorant manuacturer being to lazy to print out another couple of words.
My friend sadly lost her nephew to a milk “sensitivity”. He was never diagnosed with full blown allergy. Sadly he was actually given a drug that contained some sort of milk/dairy or medicine or something and it killed him.
Allergy is a very underfunded illness in this country, we dont put enough finance into the research yet their are scientists out there crying out for financial assistance to carry on the research.
That’s really sad Sharon. I thank god that my son has always come bouncing back from his more severe reactions.
My son Nick was diagnosed with a peanut/mixed nut allergy in June 2006 when he was only two, depending on how you look at it – it was either lucky that I gave him that peanut butter sandwhich one night for his supper or unlucky. It was unlucky because he couldnt breathe properly and he could have died if the ambulance hadn’t arrived sharpish and it was lucky because I had found out that he had severe allergies so I could take more care in future.
Nick is lucky in the way of milk as it only brings out a huge itchy rash at least it isn’t ‘life threatening’ maybe very uncomfortable as it makes his exczema flare up like mad. My son was wearing wet wraps for a good year and half and scratching so much his skin bled and left scars which just about broke my heart – but finally a doctor got his rear end into gear and prescribed Nick a anthistimine medicine for extreme itching. And now he only scratches if he is poorly as this brings out his exczema more.
Btw if anyone has the correct spelling for exczema please correct me
Aww bless him, you never know, a lot of children do outgrow their allergies, lets hope your boy does.
Excema? Ive not a clue lol!!
Thanks, well all I can do is hope. But at least he is loved and happy, unlike alot of children in this world.
I’m not sure if your spelling is right, but it looks somewhat better than my lame attempt LOL.
I know it is an expensive option but Marks and Spencer do a complete nut free range. We have a child in school which is highly allergic to nuts. If he touches…say… a doorhandle which has been touched by another child who has eaten a highly unagreeable substance, he will react. Subsequently the children are not allowed to bring food for birthdays in… nor are the staff!
We have very strict proceedures in as the lil chap isn’t the only one!
That is what my son is like. He cant kiss somebody else who has eaten nuts, if he holds there hand and then later touches his face or mouth he will have an instant reaction resulting in his mouth swelling up to three times its normal size, his tongue will swell and his lungs will find it hard to breathe.
At Christmas my child was handed a chocolate sweet out of a box of roses by a teacher. yes a teacher, dispite me giving them written an verbal instructions on how he cant eat chocolate because of the chance they may contain ‘traces of nuts’ – luckily my four year old son had the sense not to eat it and to tell his teacher who still didnt take it off him.
Then just last week the nursery class went on a trip to a local church and they were serving pancakes. Now Pancakes do not usually contain nuts, but on the back of most packets of pancake mix it warns the buyer that the product ‘may contain nut traces’ and guess what the teacher didn’t see my son eating one. My son does usually have the common sense not to touch anything he is unsure about, but at the end of the day just how sensible can you expect a four year old to be. It was his teachers duty to watch him and what he eats.
Luckily he was fine and was just brought out in a itchy rash. But it could have been much worse and she didn’t even take his Epipen which would have saved his life if a more serious reaction would have taken place. Disgusting! and I even told her so.
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