We have big news this week. Our eldest son, Jack, has an anaphylactic peanut allergy, which we learned about very early on when he was about 14 months old. As you can imagine, living in Asia has made it very very difficult for Jack to eat out and enjoy the wonderful food throughout India and now Asia.
Jack has always been wonderfully grown-up about his allergy and has 'owned' it from a very young age. He is extremely cautious with food and this is one of the main reasons that we eat so often at home and I always have a bag full of safe snacks. He trusts 'mum's' cooking, so that is what we do.
Recently, we started to talk about the limitations that will come with having such a severe allergy as he gets older and more independent, which led to us starting a discussion about desensitisation. Not knowing very much about it, except that there had been huge leaps ahead in peanut allergy desensitisation, we decided to get a referral and visit a specialist. The specialist here in Hong Kong has a great reputation and has great success stories.
So last week we had our first appointment here in Hong Kong to determine if this was a possibility for Jack. He had to have a new round of allergy testing done to define the severity of his peanut allergy and that was reconfirmed without any doubt by the 1.5cm *1.5cm raised reaction from the skin prick test. We also learned that he is very allergic to cats - luckily that is not a problem in our house, as I'm allergic to cats too.
Next question was, could he be desensitised ? Well, there are no guarantees but the doctor was very confident and we have now started the process, and if all goes to plan we will know in 12 months time if it's been a success. The process is a huge commitment from us all with fortnightly visits to the allergy centre and quite a cost, but the benefits are so huge that we are super excited about what the future holds.
Jack now has to have sublingual drops daily for the next 6 months that will increase in strength every 2 weeks. At the end of the 6 months, he will continue on the same full strength drops for another 6 months. After this, he will conduct a 'peanut challenge' where he is to consume peanuts in a controlled environment with the specialist to see if he can tolerate them. At that point, if he passes, he will need to continue to eat peanuts each day for the foreseeable future. He needs to 'retrain' his body to not react to peanuts.
We are so excited about this - if we could be allergy free in 12 months, it will be fabulous. The anxiety that comes with having a life threatening allergy is very high, and to think it could be gone for Jack is just wonderful.
Watch this space !!
Jack has always been wonderfully grown-up about his allergy and has 'owned' it from a very young age. He is extremely cautious with food and this is one of the main reasons that we eat so often at home and I always have a bag full of safe snacks. He trusts 'mum's' cooking, so that is what we do.
Recently, we started to talk about the limitations that will come with having such a severe allergy as he gets older and more independent, which led to us starting a discussion about desensitisation. Not knowing very much about it, except that there had been huge leaps ahead in peanut allergy desensitisation, we decided to get a referral and visit a specialist. The specialist here in Hong Kong has a great reputation and has great success stories.
So last week we had our first appointment here in Hong Kong to determine if this was a possibility for Jack. He had to have a new round of allergy testing done to define the severity of his peanut allergy and that was reconfirmed without any doubt by the 1.5cm *1.5cm raised reaction from the skin prick test. We also learned that he is very allergic to cats - luckily that is not a problem in our house, as I'm allergic to cats too.
Next question was, could he be desensitised ? Well, there are no guarantees but the doctor was very confident and we have now started the process, and if all goes to plan we will know in 12 months time if it's been a success. The process is a huge commitment from us all with fortnightly visits to the allergy centre and quite a cost, but the benefits are so huge that we are super excited about what the future holds.
Jack now has to have sublingual drops daily for the next 6 months that will increase in strength every 2 weeks. At the end of the 6 months, he will continue on the same full strength drops for another 6 months. After this, he will conduct a 'peanut challenge' where he is to consume peanuts in a controlled environment with the specialist to see if he can tolerate them. At that point, if he passes, he will need to continue to eat peanuts each day for the foreseeable future. He needs to 'retrain' his body to not react to peanuts.
We are so excited about this - if we could be allergy free in 12 months, it will be fabulous. The anxiety that comes with having a life threatening allergy is very high, and to think it could be gone for Jack is just wonderful.
Watch this space !!
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| Jack's 6 month plan |
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