There is a round of food allergy awareness posts going on in many of the “mommy” blogs I frequent and I wanted to add in my bit and experiences. This awareness chain was started at Winkie’s Way and is very informative.

I grew up with the knowledge that me and my bro are allergic to dust just like dad. Cleaning and other chores around home meant a cloth mask firmly covering the nose to prevent bouts of sneezing and watery eyes. I was more allergic than my brother.

Food-wise I really did not pay attention or have violent reactions. As I grew older, I remember complaining of itching and strange reactions after eating fish and seafood. The family attributed it to one of my many dramas to get away from eating seafood. I was not a big seafood fan and very rarely ate seafood so it was never a full-blown issue.

A few years ago, my family was at a wedding reception where they served lobster and shrimp. Baby bro had a feast and spent the night in pain. It was quite evident his reactions were either due to food poisoning or allergic reaction. As a kid, my brother was allergic to milk and in the days before soy milk was readily available in cartoons, granny painstakingly extracted milk from soy beans to feed him. I am not sure when but slowly he grew out of it. So consciously he started limiting his seafood intake and was fine.

Around the same time, I started having intense headaches and sneezing and sinus. It was getting out of hand and being in the US with a good health insurance helped me find an allergist close to home. Though I was quite sure it was dust that was giving me trouble, the allergist recommended an allergy test and I took it.

I have previously written about my allergy test experience here. But in short, around 60 allergens are pricked with a tiny needle onto the surface skin of the inside of the arms and reactions are measured. The reactions include reddening of skin, swelling of the area, and intense itching. It was a torturous procedure.

In addition to dust and certain types of pollen, I was found to be allergic to seafood, chicken, egg whites and pecans. I wasn’t surprised about the either the seafood or the pecans positive result but chicken and egg whites surprised me. I eat those at least twice a week and have been eating it for years and have not experienced anything. After talk with the allergist, I kept a log to study if I was really allergic to chicken, egg-whites or if it was a false result. It turned out that it was a negative result and I do eat chicken without any reactions. But an occasional shrimp makes my skin itch.

Over the years, my brother has also reduced drastically his seafood intake and has not had any reactions to other food. My mother occasionally complains of skin itches after taking in lemon, or tomatoes. In fact, she has a big sign on her fridge saying “do not drink lemon juice” during the hot summer months in Chennai when she craves for lemon juice or nanari sarbath laced with lemon juice.

As grown-ups it is much easier for me, my bro, my mom to watch what we eat. I often marvel at young kids at parties or other social gatherings who ask me if a certain dish contains “x” “y” or “z” ingredient. In fact, kudos to the parents for teaching it so young. And yes slip-ups do happen occasionally.

At home, when I invite people over, I make sure I inquire about their dietary requirements and allergies just to be on the safer side. Similarly when I am invited I add in a line telling I am allergic to seafood just because I do not want to offend the hosts by not tasting the main course.