Chapter 5: Managing Life-Threatening Allergies in the School Setting

David was born May 6, 2003. He was perfect. It wasn’t until he was about 6 months old that we started to cue in that something was not quite right. David’s skin showed signs of eczema and so the doctors prescribed the normal arsenal of treatments. Poor David would cry and cry whenever we put the lotions on his skin. His skin continued to worsen. He then started lying down after dinner. His belly would hurt. His eyes always seemed puffy. We went back to the doctors several times. It was always the same diagnosis—eczema.

One night, we put David to bed. It was around 11 p.m. when we heard strange sounds coming from his room. My poor boy was having difficulty breathing. My husband rushed him to the 24-hour Urgent Care, where they gave him two breathing treatments. Once he was able to breathe without difficulty, the doctors sent him home. Mark, my husband, told me the doctors thought he might have the croup. The next morning, my son was fine, no illness at all, but I knew something wrong. I made another doctor’s appointment and asked that David be tested for food allergies. The doctor reassured me that food allergies were rare. But she was kind and wanted to put my mind at ease, so she ordered a blood test. Two weeks later, the phone rang. It was the doctor. I stood beside my husband as he took the call and I heard him say, “Uh huh. . . . Okay, so corn, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish, peanuts, milk, and eggs.”