I Never Thought We'd Join This Club: Food Allergies

A while ago on facebook I shared the news that my second oldest child, Tim, has been diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis, or EOS, or EE, or Allergic Esophagitis.  We found this out after his second episode of choking/ER visit in two years, a trip to the GI doctor, and an endoscopy with a biopsy.  He also had a barium swallow.  And the fun continues.

Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EE)

Eosinophilic esophagitis (EE) is an inflammatory disease of the esophagus. The esophagus is the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach.

With EE, there are a large number of white blood cells called eosinophils in the esophagus.

You probably wonder what these eosinophils are exactly?  Well, here's a link for that.

https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/service/c/eosinophilic-disorders/conditions/eosinophil

Okay, so my kiddo has this, and his esophagus is in bad shape right now. He has to currently take acid reflux medicine and a steroid, and today we were finally lucky enough to get in to Primary Children's to the clinic with doctors that specialize in this condition.

There are different approaches to treating this disease.  One is to treat the symptoms- thus using the steroids and the acid reducer, and also dilating the esophagus as needed.  Another approach is to identify the cause of the inflammation and to eliminate it, so that the esophagus will heal.  Sometimes, this is possible and the steroids and other treatments can be stopped.  Sometimes the steroid has to be continued and the allergens have to be avoided.

So, let's talk about my kid for a while.  Tim's esophagus is so inflamed that he has to keep taking the steroid for a while.  In the meantime he was tested today with a prick test on his back for around 40-50 different things, mostly foods.  And the results were. . . .

. . . . .
. . . . . . . . .

We colored while we waited. It was 3 hour visit in all. 

Is this annoying?  Sorry, I had to wait a lot longer than one second to find out the results.. . . . .  .

The top left is the control- histamine. But, you can see he did react to a few things.

The results were that he is allergic to. . .

cats

dogs

grass

trees

green beans

AND

beef

We're not heartbroken about these results, although he does love a good steak occasionally, we don't eat a ton of green beans or beef.  After the prick test, Tim had his blood drawn for further testing, this time for all kinds of beans, and a bunch of other stuff that I can't remember. This was probably the worst part of the visit. The first stab wasn't quite right and he nearly passed out.  The gal had to remove the needle and put ice on his head and neck for about 5 minutes before his color came back.   For now, he is not to eat any beans or beef.  Next week he will have a three part test called patch testing, where different foods will be applied to his skin for 3 days and monitored after two days and then again after three days to check for a reaction.  After all of these tests, we will have a more complete list of the foods that his body doesn't like.  He's really hoping he gets to keep dairy, but it's very likely to be one he is asked to eliminate. We'll see.

The GREAT news is that his Dr. is not asking him to do a broad elimination diet, where the patient eliminates the 6 major allergens and then slowly adds them back in if possible. Those 6 are wheat, dairy, soy, nuts, fish, and eggs.  She is more a fan of targeting likely allergens, and understands that is easier for a child/teenager to follow.  With studies showing that going on an elemental formula amino acids diet clears up the eosinophils in 70% of patients, it is most likely that the foods Tim is allergic to are causing his problems.

Right now I'm feeling really grateful that we don't eat a lot of beef and I've never forced him to eat green beans, although he says he does eat them at school. He doesn't eat a lot of these things.  He doesn't like any beef except steak.  I'm grateful to have some answers and cautiously optimistic that we will find more answers and his esophagus will be able to heal.  In the meantime, with 3 people positively allergic( of the 4 who have been tested) we are definitely still not getting a cat.  But, the rabbit can stay.  Lucky little unfriendly bunny.

For now, he is still allowed to eat chicken sandwiches and french fries. Lucky kid.