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Day 35-36 The development of her allergic reactions

Allergic reactions can manifest into a plethora of symptoms. Sophia's allergic reactions started with vomiting and lethargy at the very beginning. It later developed into vomiting AND hives. She was prescribed Bendryl for these reactions. The allergist told us that we must be avoiding all milk --when we thought had been!

I did my own research and found 66 hidden ingredients that mean contain milk in some fashion. Even with the avoidance of all of these ingredients that contain milk, Sophia still has allergic reactions mostly every day. She has allergic reactions as a result from contact with or the touch of even the slightest measure of a milk protein. She is still treated with Bendryl and has an Epipen if it becomes life threatening. She hasn't ingested even a trace amount in over 2 years, but she has now become anaphylactic to the touch of milk proteins or the proteins in the air (I cannot even comprehend how she would react to actually ingesting milk). Upon touch, she develops hives and airway symptoms such as hard breathing, wheezing, sneezing, or throat pain. The proteins take an immeasurable time to leave her system causing day 2-3 continued reactions. She develops stomach pains and diarhea, fatigue and headaches.This makes all of the difference in her life because she is, for the most part, allergic to doing most everything. We find ways where the risks are lower to make our best efforts at a mainstream lifestyle. It requires being comfortable with our surroundings and the people in them. This is a very challenging task because milk is in everything and the traces of milk proteins are on everything/everyone. This is why our household is completely milk free.

Some of Sophia's gastrointestinal related symptoms from her allergy lead me to think that she is getting the flu, so it has crossed my mind from time to time to get her the flu shot. I've recently been doing some research on the flu shots and I'm not a fan. There are so many different batches most containing a food element and some sketchy other ingredients. This leads me to an ambiguous gray area of uncertainty about its safety in itself with a child with a life threatening food allergy.  I'm wondering now if the flu shot I had while I was pregnant with her had any barring on her development of her food allergy. Thankfully Sophia has never been really sick. She's never been on a full dose of antibiotics. Never had an ear infection, strep, pink eye nada. She's been in exceptional health other than chronically being moments away from a life threatening experience because of her surroundings. As an unsure mother of a recipient of a potentially fatal injection, all to prevent a terrible sickness, I think we will have to pass. I have recently learned about Olive Leaf Extract http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/10-health-benefits-of-olive-leaf-extract.html it's high antioxidant quality and preventative measures against chronic and acute sicknesses.   we are starting that instead. I'll follow up later on our experience with it.

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