Food allergy articles
Article pagesWhen Sarah Buster of Columbia, Md., was 4 months old, her parents discovered that an allergy to milk was causing her eczema, a chronic skin inflammation. Her skin improved with a switch to a soy-based formula. Sarah's doctor believed there was little cause for concern since many infants have eczema and most outgrow it by age 2. Sarah didn't. Tests later indicated that she was allergic to eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, penicillin, tree pollen, ragweed, dust mites, and dogs and cats.
It was then that Sarah's parents, Mike and Brenda Buster, began reading food labels as carefully as they would a legal contract. They joined a food allergy advocacy group, replaced the carpet in Sarah's bedroom and throughout the house with hardwood floors, placed dust mite covers over her bedding, gave away the family's dogs, and kept Sarah indoors as much as possible.
A small wooden chair with a wicker seat has taken the place of upholstered furniture for Sarah, and devices that filter dust, pollen and other particles hum both upstairs and downstairs.
For a time, soaking baths and ointment head-to-toe helped keep her skin moist, and a prescription antihistamine eased the itching enough so she could sleep. However, Sarah's eczema soon worsened again.
"Sarah's itching would be so severe that we could stand right by her and call her name and she would not respond because she was so focused on scratching," says Brenda Buster. "She would scratch until she bled because the pain felt better than the itch."
Finally, allergists at Johns Hopkins eliminated all conventional food and put her on a special formula made of amino acids. Sarah also started a four-month regime of prednisone, a drug that mimics the effects of the body's natural corticosteroid hormones and suppresses the activity of the immune system.
Eventually, her diet was expanded to six foods that doctors believed she was not allergic to: turkey, pork, rice, apples, grapes and tomatoes, supplemented by the special formula.
Sarah's skin cleared and after several months she began a series of dietary "challenges"--tests to determine whether specific foods cause an allergic reaction. Several years later, Sarah eats a more varied diet, and the Busters maintain a list of safe foods and those that cause an allergic reaction.
"The most difficult thing I have faced with my allergies is that when I see my friends eating something that I know I can't have, it just makes me feel left out," says Sarah.
"We never order food for Sarah at a restaurant because, even if the ingredients in the food itself are safe, there is a considerable chance for cross-contamination with something that's unsafe for her to eat," says Mike Buster. "For example, a baked potato might be safe, but if the person preparing the potato even touched a dairy, nut or egg product and then touched the potato, Sarah could have a serious reaction.
"We go out to eat, but we bring all her food with us," he says. "It's just not worth taking the chance."
Wood, who cares for Sarah at Johns Hopkins, says, "She's got it a lot tougher than someone who just has a peanut allergy. She's dealing with this stuff on an every-single-meal basis. Her parents have really helped provide her with a wonderful life."
That life includes her favorite activities--ice-skating (she likes the cool air of the rink) and swimming (the moisture and chlorine are beneficial to her skin, according to her doctors).
Sarah continues to outgrow some of her allergies, and has added about a dozen foods into her diet over the past year, Wood says.
"The taste in my mouth when I'm trying something new is very different," says Sarah. "Strawberries felt hard because of the seeds. They tasted great but I didn't like the texture, so my dad tried to take the seeds out. I still didn't like the strawberries that much, but I kept reminding myself over and over again that if I passed the test, I would be able to have a lot of things with strawberries in it. Like now I can have strawberry Skittles."
The food at Sarah's Montessori school is nut-free, and on special school occasions, Brenda Buster tries to prepare something that Sarah and her classmates can enjoy, such as some types of candy, homemade cupcakes made without eggs or dairy products, a nondairy frozen dessert, or popcorn prepared at home.
"We make our own bread and most other foods," says Brenda. "Although we do have several more products we can buy, including one brand of potato chips and one brand of pretzels, saltines and several types of canned vegetables."
Still, the Busters must be vigilant and can be found constantly checking labels. For example, a type of food may be safe from one manufacturer but not from another. "One brand of candy corn may be OK, while another contains eggs," says Brenda.
Even foods that have proved to be safe previously can subsequently cause a problem. "Manufacturers can change the ingredients without changing the packaging," adds Mike Buster. "We appreciate manufacturers who clearly label their products."
