Hi everyone welcome back to My Parenting W ay my name is Katie
and today I'm going to talk about Aidan who has recently been diagnosed with a
sesame seed allergy and this is how we came to that conclusion
He has been having very loose explosive horrendous poos since
i gave up breastfeeding when he was around 11 months when we first started weaning him he
formed solid like adult type poos, sorry for the TMI it has been since he has been
on cow's milk or formula basically when I stopped breastfeeding him so I contacted
the doctor about three weeks ago now and just explained the situation thankfully he's not lost
weight it's just that we've noticed it and his nursery have also pointed out to
us that his poos are um just almost like diarrhoea but he doesn't have diarrhoea.
So it's not constant it's not like it's you know he's poorly with it it's not like you've
got temperature or any other problems and he's generally happy that's the other thing
generally he's been a little bit difficult but he's turning into a toddler so I contacted the
doctor three weeks ago and she advised that because he has been getting these poos and
he also has a touch of eczema around his tummy she thinks it might be a dairy milk
a milk allergy, milk protein allergy so she has advised us to give up dairy for at least
two weeks it's now been three weeks. I did think we were making headway with it and thinking ah
it's getting better because he was starting to form slightly better poos by the end of last week
but as of today it's gone backwards again and we haven't given him any dairy and then today
during his snack when he got home from a nursery he came up with this huge rash on his face this
really angry rash which just came up within seconds and I actually think it might be hummus
because obviously sesame is an allergen quite common allergen he's still getting eczema on his
arms and his tummy and now he's getting this rash on his face so we are going back to the doctor and
i'm going to speak to them tomorrow and basically push for allergy testing and i'll keep you up to
date morning everyone it is half past five in the morning and we have had very little sleep
because Aidan has been up screaming a lot of the night because he has had a really bad poo
in the middle of the night which he never has he hasn't pooed in the middle of the night for
months since he's really a very small newborn the nappy rash as a result is horrendous to the point
of like blistering he's in so much pain that bless him he's just having a really bad time with it we
can't pick him up to soothe him because every time we pick him up we have to hold him under his bum
so we're trying to just cuddle him give him some Calpol for the pain
and um i'm just noting everything down because i'm going to contact the GP today thank god i've
just given Aidan a little bite of my sesame bagel and he's just had another reaction so
on one half of that is like i'm a bit gutted that he's now had a reaction at the same time he's kind
of supported our diagnosis so yeah so eventually after all of that we decided that we were going to
give up on the cow's milk protein allergy idea because it wasn't making any difference at all
and we weren't putting our finger on why it was still happening why he was getting xmas still and
he was getting all this eczema flare-ups and he was also having these horrendous explosive poos
he would occasionally have a rash on his face that we couldn't put our fingers on why it was
there and eventually one day i gave him some rice cakes with some hummus on um that was just in our
fridge it was an easy enough snack and healthy enough snack for to give him at the time and i
gave it to him and then sure enough about i would say a matter of minutes after where the hummus had
touched his face where he was just putting all over his face as a you know little boy would do
it was then starting to get this really red it almost looked like it was going to blister
thankfully it didn't but it was really demarcated red rash exactly where the hummus was touching his
face and it was everywhere and it was just right here around his mouth exactly where the hummus was
it suddenly dawned on me that it could be something completely different i wasn't expecting
i looked on the carton of where the hummus was kept ingredient was highlighted in bold
which is the legal thing in the uk to have if you know for the most common allergies
if there is an allergen in a set of ingredients it has to be highlighted in bold so i had a look and
sure enough there was the word sesame it kind of dawned on me that it could be sesame and i had no
idea it seemed like such a specific thing that i i didn't suspect that as being it sure enough over
the next few days after this episode um eventually calmed down i think it calmed down in a matter of
hours obviously i wiped it off immediately when i when i saw that it might have been the hummus
and i just kept an eye on him he he didn't get all puffy and wheezy or anything like that we
didn't need an epipen or anything like that so i just kept an eye on him sure enough over the
next two days uh his poos became more explosive again he had diarrhoea he had a little eczema
flare up on his arm and um so i left a week for all the symptoms to die down he was starting to
be absolutely fine again and i thought i would give it another test and i gave him some tahini
paste which we had in the drawer which is obviously made out of sesame seeds and i gave
him a little bit on the spoon and then sure enough exactly the same thing happened he got this rash
around his mouth he became really grumpy and over the next few days again he had the explosive
poos so we immediately uh contacted the GP and told them that we suspected a um sesame allergy
so i asked the GP at that point if it's worth having a prick allergy test and she explained
that firstly the waiting lists were ridiculously long here in the uk covert has not helped that
but also that if we suspected an intolerance or an allergy to something
and we have pretty good proof that it might be a certain ingredient such as a rash um immediately
on eating then she said the likelihood is is is that and if you're not suspecting anything
else such as eggs or milk or peanuts or anything that's going to give a severe allergic reaction
then it's just to avoid it that's as simple as that and we have avoided it ever since
and the doctor did say that if we wanted to contact them again and request allergy testing
then that would be up to us but we haven't and the reason why is because we've avoided it ever since
and actually it's made a huge bit of difference for a long time because of this extremely runny
poos i was giving him um some food that i knew that would be good for diarrhoea
so if you check out my how to cope with children's sickness i mention the fact that you should
give your children certain foods when they have diarrhoea so if you remember brat that's bananas
rice applesauce and toast so we've been given Aidan all of these things for a long time sort
of in between just to try and make his poos less runny and it's actually made a huge difference
so here's the poo start to be more solidly formed he wasn't getting this explosive diarrhoea again
and because we now have a very good idea of what was causing the problem and we know how to fix
it we've decided that going for allergy testing um you know formal allergy testing in a hospital
probably isn't the best idea firstly he's not got severe allergies so he's not having an allergic
event an allergic fit um so his life is not at risk if he did have any kind of sesame i
have been told by several people that i know who children have gone through allergy testing that is
actually really not a very nice thing to put your child through especially Aidan who is now still
only about 14 months old and it's not pleasant and we already know what it is that's how he came to
the conclusion that he has an a sesame allergy so if you suspect your child doesn't have any kind of
allergy here are my tips for you number one keep a food diary which i know is a pain in the bum to do
but it's also vital before you go to the GP and request any kind of algae testing so unfortunately
GPs especially here in the uk need some idea of what a child is allergic to because before they
get sent to a hospital or paediatrician that specialises in allergies they need to have an
idea of what they're getting into and that could be really hard especially like us when you have no
idea what it is but you need to then keep a food diary and then note their reactions according to
this food diary to then start building up an idea if you go to an allergy specialist and do not
have a food dye in front of you there's nothing that they can work on and therefore it makes the
whole process of trying to figure out what it is extremely difficult so note the answer to these
questions before you go to the GP because these are likely to be questions that your GP will
ask before they refer you on to anyone else number one how long has the reactions from the
food been going on for number two how do these symptoms present themselves are they wheezing
are they sneezing are they coughing are they vomiting do they have diarrhoea ongoing chronic
skin problems such as eczema note all these down because the doctor will want to know is your
child losing weight are they peeing and pooing normally if not how is it presenting and also how
long has it been going on for have you tried any over-the-counter medication such as puritan or any
anti-allergy medication and has it actually helped if your baby or child has had quite an aggressive
symptom from a food such as a rash on the face or any kind of swelling or wheezing how long has it
gone on for if your baby or child does have quite an aggressive symptom how long has it lasted after
the food has been taken a very obvious one what was the food and how much did the child actually
ingest another very important one but do you or your partner have any family history of allergies
so once you've answered all these questions and the GP has a rough idea of what the allergy
might be or what might be causing it what they'll probably do is ask you to stop uh
introducing that food to your child for two weeks and this is a really good indicator of whether or
not your child is actually recovering from not having that food for a certain amount of time
in that time i also suggest to continue a food diary just to make sure that there if there are
any flare-ups in that time you are monitoring what food they are having in our case Aidan was
not showing any different symptoms and there was no change in the symptoms after we gave up
cow's milk protein products so any kind of milk dairy yogurt all the rest of it under the GPs
advice they she said just carry on as normal just start introducing cow's milk protein products to
Aidan again because these products do have things like vitamin d calcium iodine all the things that
support development in a baby and a child so we have continued to give Aidan milk and milk
products and he's not developed any other symptoms so we can officially rule out milk as being
an allergy that Aidan has if you then suspect a certain food allergy that your child may have
then go back to your GP after two weeks and make a solid case for a referral to a paediatrician
or an allergy specialist because once the allergy is in the system and you have you are suspecting
that your child has an allergy trying to get advice and regular treatment on this as quickly
as possible is going to mean that your child has the best chance of getting over the allergy and be
able to cope with it and obviously you as the parent then are able to just get on with life
without having to worry about this constant fear of what might happen if your child then ingests
a certain um product that might cause an allergic reaction and it is quite a harrowing process to
go through because you're constantly worrying about your child and what they're having and
it makes the whole feeding process extremely stressful so the sooner you get it done the sooner
that you can move on and you have a bit more of an idea of what your child can grow up on and also
how to introduce certain products to your child safely without causing a reaction i'll obviously
keep you up to date with Aidan's allergy process and how we're going to start introducing sesame to
his diets later on so he doesn't have a reaction so please hit the subscribe button so you get all
our updates and obviously hit the like button if you have found this useful i hope see you soon bye