Ugh, why am I having all these food allergies now???

[Lady TS]

Just a warning---this is a bit rambly and fragmented. I am tired....sorry.

Ok, I've had hayfever my whole life. Treated it with antihistimines until I was pg with the kids and put up with it while nursing, treating it sometimes with Benadryl and Claritin(or their generic counterparts).

Since dd's birth and her going df and myself going df, I have been experiencing a lot of food allergies. Actually, I think it's more like Oral Allergy Sensitivity or whatever it's called. You know, where you get the itchy throat and ears and sneezing like hayfever.....after eating said food.

I've had a tendency toward OAS at times in my adult life with peaches, but not every time. Lipton Peach iced tea does it to me, too, so it's not the fuzzy stuff on the peaches.

Since the last 6 mos or so, I have had reactions to:

bananas
Celery
peppers
grapes
tomatoes(especially when I was handling them a lot when I canned 45 or so jars)
Peas when I ate them from the garden w/o washing them
Cucumbers
watermelon(I think)
oranges(I think)
Any dried fruit with sulfites--especially apricots. I avoid dried fruit(except plums) like the plague since it's so hard to find it w/o sulfites

I think there was more but can't remember at the moment. Maybe almonds, but I haven't singled that one out for sure yet.

We moved to OH from CO about 5 years ago now. Is my body just now acclimating to the area here? My hayfever was considerably worse this year than the previous years. Is my immune system just really weak for some reason right now? Am I just getting old? It's just really weird and I don't know what to do about it, if anything, other than take Benadryl or Claritin.

I took nettles because I'd read that they are supposed to help with hayfever, and they help increase/support milk supply. I swear they made it worse! I'm kind of afraid to take echinacea(though I have before w/no problems) and I do avoid goldenseal...does elderberry make anyone else's throat feel funny? Ooh, I just remembered, I do have Grapefruit Seed Extract in the back of the cupboard....maybe I need to break that out for the winter...

Also, last week I got TWO cold sores! The kids are sick with colds/coughs/fever this last week, and so far I haven't gotten that in full force anyway...so maybe the cold sores are a result of fighting off the illness....I don't know if they have anything to do w/the allergic reactions or not...

I just feel like I can't eat any fresh fruits/veggies w/o having a reaction, and I'm not sure I want to push it too much by eating them anyway, kwim? Every reaction has been exactly like a hayfever attack.

And the tomatoes, peppers, peas, cucumbers, and tomatoes were organic this summer, so it's not some weird chemical or anything causing the problem....and I'm not sure I want to make it our livelihood to grow all this stuff if I can't eat it! :/

Not sure what's going on with your reactions, but when you get them do you ever try high doses of vit. C? I've had hayfever allergies all my life, which have progressively gotten worse each year, and this year I really stuck to the vit. C. I hardly had any symptoms. Also took a dose (about 3g) after coming in contact with a cat and within 10-15 min. the itchy eyes, sneezing, and tight chest went away. I take sodium ascorbate or acerola powder. I've gone through almost a 3lb. container (about 700+ servings at 1.6g/serving) for myself and son in about a year. The best way to determine your need is to take a gram or so every hour until you start to get loose stools or a bit gassy/rumbly. Then back off of that total amount by a bit. I've never actually tried that, I usually just take it throughout the day, more when sick or fighting an illness or allergies.

HTH

[Lady TS]

I've been taking vit C a lot lately. Like an 833% daily value pill in the morning and at night. Lately, anyways, because I'm fighting this bug off.

Now that you mention the cat, we did get our cat(s) not long after dd was born.....but they do stay mostly outside. I read just last week that people that have a cat or whose friends have a cat have a lot more allergy problems than those who don't have any exposure. I'm not sure I want to get rid of the cats though, because they are our mousers!

[me]

Have you ever had a reaction to a bandaid? Check out this list of cross reaction foods for latex.
http://www.latexallergyresources.org...eAllergens.cfm

The dried fruit could be from a nickel sensitivity. Have earings ever bothere you, or rings turned your finger green?

The new area, the cats, or both could be making the environmental allergin flare up the cross reaction or food allergin. I once asked here if seasonal allergies agravated food allergies and the answer was yes.

Originally Posted by Rachel J

Not sure what's going on with your reactions, but when you get them do you ever try high doses of vit. C? I've had hayfever allergies all my life, which have progressively gotten worse each year, and this year I really stuck to the vit. C. I hardly had any symptoms. Also took a dose (about 3g) after coming in contact with a cat and within 10-15 min. the itchy eyes, sneezing, and tight chest went away. I take sodium ascorbate or acerola powder. I've gone through almost a 3lb. container (about 700+ servings at 1.6g/serving) for myself and son in about a year. The best way to determine your need is to take a gram or so every hour until you start to get loose stools or a bit gassy/rumbly. Then back off of that total amount by a bit. I've never actually tried that, I usually just take it throughout the day, more when sick or fighting an illness or allergies.

HTH

I have got to try that!

Originally Posted by Lady TS

I've been taking vit C a lot lately. Like an 833% daily value pill in the morning and at night. Lately, anyways, because I'm fighting this bug off.

Now that you mention the cat, we did get our cat(s) not long after dd was born.....but they do stay mostly outside. I read just last week that people that have a cat or whose friends have a cat have a lot more allergy problems than those who don't have any exposure. I'm not sure I want to get rid of the cats though, because they are our mousers!

If you control the environmental it might make the food tolerable and vice versa

[AngelaVA]

I know two different people who kept developing more and more food allergies and then finally find out that they actually had major thyroid (spelling??) problems that were messing up their immune system. Sorry, I don't know much about natural remedies for allergies OR thyroid issues but I just wanted to mention that because for one of the people I know it turned into a very life threating situation.

[Lady TS]

Thanks, Angela, I will keep that in mind!

[ChristmasGirl]

(((Tanya)))

I can totally relate to having Oral Allergy Syndrome. It seems that it's gotten worse as I've gotten older And it's a pain. I definitely couldn't do a raw food diet, or live on a surivor island and eat bananas all day

I react to bananas, carrots (my worst...my throat gets a huge lumpy feeling like it's going to close off), pears, some peaches, some apples, plums, zucchini, sugar snap peas, brocolli, cauliflower, cucumber, ALL melons, some oranges, some lettuces, some onions/sprouts...you get the idea. I have seasonal allergies, so I know it's from the cross-pollenation. I just have to totally avoid those foods, or have them fully cooked before i eat them (i.e. carrots). My allergiest really didn't have any suggestions. I do wonder if i were to get allergy shots and become more immune to my seasonal allergies if the OAS would decrease

Lots of hugs from another sufferer

[Lady TS]

Thanks for the hugs.

I got a book about the raw food diet on ILL from the library and came to realize that my diet would be severely limited and unhealthy for me if I did it. :/

On the bananas and kiwi, I have had OAS to them(though not every time) but a bandaid doesn't bother me.

[me]

Bandaids dont generally bother me either unless left on for a while. I never had problems with bandaids but with every c-section, I had a reaction that was worse with each child. But that happened over time, I never had probs with bandaids until my 30's.
My kids get red from bandaids if left on for an hour and one use to get red but now gets hives.
If you are reacting to almost every food listed as a latex cross reaction ...................

Oh, and our oas is a tad better with our allergy meds. We can handle a splurge now and then but nothing combined or in large amounts. We cant even eat the foods if they are fully cooked. Sometimes frying them makes it not so bad

[Lady TS]

If I remember to take my Claritin (for hayfever), my OAS is usually fine, as in no or very minimal reaction. If I'm not on Claritin, it's pretty much an instant reaction for those foods....unless it's an occasion that it's not.