NI girl's severe allergies mean just touching certain foods can trigger symptoms

A mum based in Co Down has opened up on her daughter's severe allergies and praised the support they have received.

Cecily Smith Nesbitt's daughter Seren first started showing signs of allergies when she was just two weeks old and developed milk spots that soon joined together and led to eczema.

She was originally breastfed, but when Cecily began to introduce formula to see if this would reduce Seren's symptoms, the youngster would vomit after every bottle.

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They were advised to avoid cow's milk, but as Cecily cut milk from her diet and continued breastfeeding, she was concerned as symptoms kept appearing. Soon, they discovered Seren was also severely allergic to eggs, wheat, and nuts.

Now four years old, Seren is no longer allergic to wheat, but the other allergies remain. Her symptoms are so severe that even touching foods containing milk, eggs, and nuts can cause her to cough and have a rash.

Speaking to Belfast Live, mum Cecily said it has been difficult managing the severe allergies, as many allergens are now banned from their household for fear of contamination.

She said: "The first signs came when she was two weeks old, she had milk spots, which is really common. My older daughter had them too, but with Seren, they all joined together and turned into really terrible eczema.

"Even if you touched her skin in the wrong way it would break, she was really itchy all the time and just not happy. She was vomiting constantly too, every time I lay her down, she would vomit.

"I started trying her on formula, but she would projectile vomit the entire bottle. I'd never seen anything like it. I thought it was strange but thought she may have got a bit of a tummy bug. So we tried again a couple of days later, but the same thing happened, it was like her body totally rejected the milk.

"Then on Good Friday in 2020, I ate a hot cross bun and an hour later I fed her, and she immediately started vomiting. I knew it didn't have milk as I'd checked, I was checking everything for milk, but I thought it may be an egg problem as well.

"To see that connection so clear, I cut out eggs and her skin just completely cleared up. But she was still really sensitive and would come out in random hives.

"The second week of weaning, I gave her some Weetabix and she ended up in hospital. She completely swelled up. It turned out she had a wheat allergy as well.

"We were having to be so careful with everything and it was really difficult weaning her because we couldn't use the standard things that people would would wean babies on to, as we were having to be so careful about allergens and introduce her so carefully."

By the time Seren was one, they had established she was allergic to wheat, milk, and eggs. As she had such a bad profile of allergies, the Paediatric Allergy Clinic at the Ulster Hospital saw her to confirm her allergies using skin prick tests.

Cecily said the severity of the allergies have been difficult to manage in day-to-day life, but that the team at the allergy clinic have been a huge help.

She said: "We didn't realise the severity of the allergies. There was a point where she sat in some coffee that had been spilled, and she came out in this really nasty rash and was really upset.

"Then her sister dripped some ice cream on her arm and she started coughing, which is really severe as coughing is actually a sign of anaphylaxis. When she was two, she ended up in anaphylaxis as she liked a piece of pavement chalk she was holding, which we didn't realise contains milk.

"It's all been quite stressful as obviously, because she's allergic on contact, it means she has to be kept away from anybody who can possibly spill milk around her. It's been very restrictive in terms of socialising with other families and even just being able to go to other people's houses, birthday parties, that kind of thing. It's really hard to manage the contact allergy as milk is everywhere and it's also in places you wouldn't think."

Cecily said the team at the allergy clinic are "absolutely fantastic." She's speaking out to raise awareness of severe allergies, and to let others in a similar position know they aren't alone.

She said: "I felt really alone, it didn't help that it was in the middle of lockdown all this was happening. I just didn't know of any other people who were dealing with this.

"There are people out there and lots of supportive groups online and lots of advice you can find there as well. So I just want to make sure that people who are at the start of this journey don't don't think that they're completely alone."

Lead Consultant for the Paediatric Allergy Service, Dr Katy McConnell, lives with and manages a severe allergy to nuts. Dr McConnell explained: "I completely understand the burden that allergy can impact upon, particularly for parents. We have a multidisciplinary service here and by educating and helping children and their parents live with allergies, it can make their lives function better.

"Once referred to the service, we see newborn babies right up to the age of 16. Children are seen by the Nurse, as well as the Doctor and one of our lovely Dieticians. It’s an ‘all-encompassing’ service with diagnosis on the day.

"A Nurse will take the time to go through that diagnosis providing a specialist action plan for home and school. Each allergy is different, so it is important for us to use that multidisciplinary approach."

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