One of my dearest friend in the playcentre today was so upset. The reason? Well, it was nobody's intention but it happened due to our ignorant and there's no specific policy regarding food allergies. There were twins who turned 2 today and they celebrated their birthdays during the session. The twins mommy didn't actually realized what really happened as most of us normally brought a cake from home that contains some allergen substances. And one of dearest friend's daughters suffers from a severe allergy to eggs and nuts. Some of us had to helped to calm her down. There was no obvious commotion but it really brought up the serious issue that we tend to forgot.
I have to admit that I myself am a bit ignorant too! Before this, I thought that food allergy and food intolerance was the same thing! However when I got home, I searched for more information from Google and I found out that they are some differences between the two!
Now, let's us see what I've found out from one of the sources:
Food allergy
A food allergy involves a reaction of your immune system, whereas a food intolerance does not. If you have a food allergy your immune system makes antibodies against a particular (essentially harmless) food. It's as if your immune system mistakes that type of food for a harmful foreign invader.
This means that when you eat the particular food again, the pre-formed antibodies swing into action and trigger a cascade of reactions in your tissues that result in some or all of the typical symptoms of food allergy:
- mouth itching and swelling
- rash
- hives
- runny nose
- vomiting
- abdominal pain
- diarrhoea
- swelling of the throat and tongue
- sometimes difficulty breathing.
What is food intolerance?
Food intolerance is an abnormal response to a food (often to a 'food chemical' or additive), resulting in symptoms of illness. It is not an immune system reaction. The suspect food chemical may be naturally occurring in the food or it may be added to foods to enhance the flavour or preserve the food.A food intolerance can mean you have symptoms to a range of foods because the suspect chemical may be present in many different foods. Compare this to a person with a food allergy, in which case they often only react to just one or two foods.
Food intolerance is a more common condition than food allergy and may cause diarrhoea, nausea, cramping or headache soon after eating the food, hours later, or even days after eating the food. The severity of symptoms can vary because the suspect food chemical can accumulate in the body, depending on how much of the suspect food (or foods that contain the suspect chemical) you have eaten. Eating a small amount of the suspect food may not cause symptoms, but eating a lot of it can.
Sometimes a food intolerance occurs when your body is not able to process a food component. A good example of this is lactose intolerance where the person lacks the enzyme necessary to break down the milk sugar (lactose) for proper digestion.
(these are just the excerpt from this website- http://everybody.co.nz. For more info. you can also check other reliable sources)
Fathini and Hafizah used to have the food allergies too when it comes to eggs. And Hafizah had the lactose intolerance when she was a baby. I didn't really mind with that because I fully breastfed her until she turned 26 months old. Both if them grew out of it when they turned 18 months or earlier. Their allergies were not too severe. Since we came here (to NZ) I read about this food allergy issue being addressed in magazines, newspapers and of course it's a serious issue at schools too. If my daughters had the severe food allergy, I would have act and feel the same way as those parents who have to deal with this every single day.
It was a heart breaking scene today to see when my good friend's daughter begged to try a piece a cake even though she knew that she couldn't eat it. That's why some of us tried our best to support my good friend by saying that we should brought this issues up again in our monthly meeting. And I'm going to bake an eggs-free cake for Fathini's last day at the playcentre this Wednesday.
What say you? Have you ever had to deal with this issue before? If so, I'm certainly happy to hear your own experiences regarding this.
11 comments:
kak nur,kongsile resipi kek tak letak telur tu..:)
Insyaallah nanti k.nur letak resipi kek tak de telur kat sini. ni pun dpt dr playcentre jugak.
itu lah sometime bende2 macam ni kita amik mudah jer.... macam me and my doughter pun ada food allergy jugak tapi tidak lah teruk. dengar di sana diorg siap tempah baju khas utk anak2 pakai... " no peanut or no egg please" so that everyone can aware of it!
Salam Kak Nur.
Saya memang alergik dengan makanan yang sedap-sedap. Sebab, bila tengok je makanan sedap, saya mesti lapar;-) hehe..
Alhamdulillah, saya tidak banyak alah dengan makanan. Ada tidak ada pun, ikan pari yang menjadi kepantangan keluarga. Mulanya saya tidak percaya juga, tapi bila dulu pernah terkena, saya percaya juga. Mungkinkah kepantangan itu ada kaitan dengan genetik, saya tidsk tahu pula.
ha saya pon ingatkan fud alergies ngan intolerance tu sama!
btw
iQa sangat alergies pada seafud. tapi dulu la masa dia kecit... bila da skolah ni ok plak...
mmm in fact saya tak penah amikberat sangat pon pasal alergi ni... haih bahaya btol ek??
Baby i pun lactose intolerance jugak and myself, i rasa i sedang allergy dgn something, tapi still trying to figure it out. Doc kata i boleh try dgn start tulis apa yang i makan everyday dan mark hari bila yg ada effect allergy. nanti lama2 boleh detect ape yg kita tak tahan tu.
akak, najihah pn ada lactose intolerence, skrg minum susu soya je.if bila2 ada 2nd baby I promised myself kena fully breastfeed.bagus juga akak bring up this issue, sometimes we tend to forget. mcm najihah nasib baik takde food allergy came in package..hmm..sian kat budak2 kecik yg allergy ye, kek nmpk comey lote..tp tak boleh nak rasa.
ooo ado erk gini? rungsing jugop. nazhan x tahu lg ado allergic gapo..tunggu umur setahun baru nok bui try telur
W. Anie, kat NZ ni mmg ramai budak2 yg allergik. yg takutnya bila kes2 yg boleh bawa maut.
ustaz, akk tak tahu pulak ada yg tak boleh mkn ikan pari. mungkin betul ada kaitan dgn genetik.
Ena, kalau kes2 yg teruk mmg bahaya sgt2. biasanya ada yg akan hilang bila besar sikit.
Nia, kena buatla apa yg doktor cadangkan tu. nanti boleh cari apa yg Nia tak boleh mkn.
Mila, mmg sedih tengok budak2 ni. kdg2 diaorg kan nak juga mkn apa yg kwn2 diaorg mkn.
Ti, keno cuba so2 mknan yg Nazhan tok rajin make lg. lps tu tengok ada gapo2 dop. mmg keno hati2 sikit.
sedar tak, biasa budak2 melayu aje yg lebih tough & kurang skit allergies on food ni. byk anak2 kita ni ada skin allergies aje. i slalu aje buat2 lawak kata anak matsalleh ngada2 & anak org melayu tough..hahahhaha...
anyway, i suggest..apa2 hal. pastikan kita sentiasa ada standby epipan at home or dlm handbag. so in case of emergency, terus ada something yg leh selamatkan nyawa. :D coz kita tak tau manatau kita or anak tetibe ada allergies to something kan?
betul tu Mama Miya. thanks for your suggestions abt having Epipan.
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