>From: Rita Doppenberg <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
Hello everyone,

 I have been lurking for some time now but now I feel compelled to share my
story. When my son was born he was a "spitter", which later turned into a
severe vomiter. I breastfed exclusively for almost 11 months and drank all
the milk my doctor and nutritionist advised me to so I would have a good
milk supply for my son (if only I knew then what I know now...). Well to
make a tediously long story short I knew something was wrong with my son.
BUT he was thriving so the doctors told me that I was a neurotic first time
mother. I went to about 15 different doctors and lets just say they all said
the same thing. When it came time to wean my son and my doc suggested a cows
milk formula all heck broke loose and he vomited even worse. By this time my
husband & I demanded that somebody do a RAST test. Finally a wonderful
allergist took an interest in my case and agreed to do it when Zack was
1year old. His digestive specialist just shrugged his shoulders and said
that he was positive it was a waste of time.
 The end result was a 4+ wheal and being sent home with a supply of
Epi-pens. And that was it. They suggested everything else be trial & error.
When Zack had an anaphylactic reaction to a 1/4tsp of egg white put on his
tongue I had had enough of trial and error so they did RAST for tons of
stuff. The end result of that was Anaphylactic to milk, eggs, beef, chicken
& peanuts and various non-life threatening allergies to things like soy and
wheat and rice, some of which he has grown out of. There may be others but I
figured 32 tests was enough for now.
 My son is now 2&1/2 and is one of the most severely milk-allergic people my
allergist has ever seen. Even the smell of milk or cheese will set him off.
One day this winter we were watching a hockey game at a local arena. Zack
bent down to brush a stray piece of popcorn off of his shoe. I thought
nothing of it at the time but 30 minutes later the severe vomiting started.
Just from the contact of his hand on the buttery popcorn (this was absorbed
into his skin, he did not put his hands in his mouth because right after I
put mittens on him and he wore them the entire time). It obviously wasnt
enough to cause a full blown anaphlactic reaction but mere skin
contact/absorption is an issue here.
 Basically what I am trying to say here is my son became as severe as he is
because of REPEAT EXPOSURE. What started out as probably a routine
sensitivity grew into a huge life threatening issue. There are some docs
that say that if my son lives past age 6 it will be a miracle. There are
times I tend to agree with them because of the severity of his case. I want
him to live a normal life but how can he even play with other kids when they
may have milk residue on their hands and then touch a toy or something? We
are taking one day at a time here and praying for the best to come out of
all of this.
 Research and persistance are the keys in dealing with doctors. Trust your
gut feelings and dont take no for an answer. God Bless you all and thank you
for listening to my story.


Keep the Faith ;-)

Rita