I'd like to welcome the Eriksson family this week from Bollnäs, Sweden! Little William Eriksson who is 7½ years old suffers from a peanut allergy. While they may be across the ocean from the United States, their stories and experiences are the same to anyone who is dealing with a peanut allergy. This week we're doing this post a little differently, so below is the story of William's life with this allergy from the point of view of his father, David Eriksson. I hope this story has as much of an impact on you as it did on me, enjoy!
Our life was a normal allergy free life until July 2008 when William got his anaphylactic reaction caused by a peanut (Looking back we now understand that he probably have had a couple of minor reactions prior to this date) and this is his story.
William is a positive and energetic kid who always has a smile on his face. His best friend in the world is my dad, his grandpa and he loves spending time with his grandpa.
This specific day, Sunday 6th of July 2008 he had called up his grandpa and asked if he could go to him to play. My dad came and picked him up and all was safe and sound, I wasn't expecting William to come home until later in the evening.
After a couple of hours my dad called and said that William was feeling bad and wanted to go home, it was not the homesick feeling nor did he have any fever, it was something else not identifiable.
He came home and I just got the feeling he was about to get sick.
When he got home he was starting to feel better and wanted to go out on our yard to play, he ran around playing soccer with some of Joel's friends for a while.
When he stopped he was very tired and was feeling nauseous. After what might be 5-10 minutes hives started to appear on his back and neck. His back started to swell and he got more tired. We were still not sure what was going on so we put him to rest and sat down beside to be able to keep an eye on him.
Within a minute or two we heard that he started to have trouble breathing. I called my dad up and asked him if William had eaten something and got information that he had eaten 3-5 m&m's which would be perfectly OK since he had eaten them in the past. All our alarm bells went off and we understood what was going on.
To this comes that my wife's sister have a friend who's daughter died from an allergy reaction caused by peanuts so we do know the possible consequences of a severe allergic reaction.
We calmly woke William not to make him more scared than he already was and sat him up in his mother’s knee. The breathing condition was a bit worse and he started to cough. Just as we where to rush off to the hospital he coughed again and by this he could breathe without problems again. The swelling in his throat, and the hives on his back faded and he started to suddenly feel better. He started to smile and said - look mom I can breathe again!
We did however call the hospital and got the advice not to leave him unattended for the next 3-4 hours and call for emergency in case it would start over. This was his first and to this date only full system reaction.
On Monday the 7th we called to the hospital to book a time for William to undergo an allergic investigation. The tests went OK and we got called to the doctor the week after. The doctor (which wasn't our ordinary doctor) was very strange. He started to make jokes to William that he had to stop smoke which is hard for a 3yr old to understand.
When the test results came back they showed that William was allergic to peanuts, to what extent was however not sure since the doctor probably had lost this paper. Also he couldn't answer whether he was allergic to any other nuts due to the fact that he had lost the results. We asked to perform a new test for all possible food substances including bee and wasp stings and possible animal allergy. While being at the doctor we asked if we should have an adrenaline auto injector but this was according to the doctor not necessary and might be even dangerous! We told the doctor that we the coming week where going to visit Cyprus and he just wished us a happy trip. Since we were quite uneducated regarding peanuts and allergy at the time we believed him even though we thought it was strange.
The 21st of July we traveled to Agia Napa, Cyprus. We arrived just before 12 noon and our room was not yet ready for us to move in to so we went to the pool restaurant to grab something to eat.
Just as we got our food my phone rang and when I answered our ordinary doctor told me that William is VERY allergic to Peanuts. He told me that William had gone above and beyond the scale showing how allergic he was to peanuts; it wasn't even possible to measure. He sounded a bit concerned when I told him we had just arrived in Cyprus since we should have come to the hospital to get a prescription for his adrenaline shots (in Sweden we use Anapen instead of ephipen that you seem to use in the US) and his cortisone medicine. He ordered us to contact the travel agency to understand how to get emergency help in case William got an allergic reaction.
This came to be one of the most nervous vacations I've ever been on. We had to, in an unfamiliar environment; try to cope with a highly lethal allergy that we had no medications for, any experience or education about. Everything we did was more or less a leap of faith hoping nothing would happen. We tried to keep our worries to ourselves not to scare the kids.
Luckily everything went well and we manage to keep William away from an allergic reaction.
When we got home we got to meet the best doctor available who showed and helped us understand the test results. He also made us aware the seriousness of William’s allergy but also giving us some peace of mind by explaining and teaching us about how to cope with it.
Since this incident we have had 3 years with no reactions, at least not what we have noticed. I would imagine that this is due to the fact that the entire family is very careful with what we buy and we always read the labels on anything we buy. We even read the labels on products we know are free from nuts just to be sure that the manufacturer has not changed the recipes or have moved the production to a place where they handle nuts.
Even our and our kids friends have been made aware of the situation and I'm glad to say that even they understand the seriousness of Williams allergy and it's really heartwarming when Joel's 18 year old friends tells each other to not bring certain candy in to our house.
William is also very alert and aware of his allergy and has so been since he understood that he was allergic to nuts. It has actually happen that he has told me that the bread I just was about to buy contains nuts.
All this has of course changed our and Williams life. The sacrifice we as adults make is nothing compared to what it must be like for a child to grow up with a peanut allergy or actually any food allergy since this mean you always have to put everything you are offered in to question. These situations points you out as different and kids don't want to be different, they want to be like everyone else and eat whatever the other kids eat.
I'm however glad that we live in Sweden since there are rules and regulations saying the schools and preschools are to be nut free. I have understood that this is not the case in the US.
When William started in preschool we followed along and explained to his teachers what is allergy was all about and how to handle a possible allergic reaction. We showed them his Anapens and how to use them and also his Cortisone medicine. When we followed William to school the day after we found that the teachers had made a red note with instructions on how to act in case of an allergic reaction and the number to Emergency help (what would be 911 in the US which is 112 in the EU). The note was posted where he has his clothes and where he has his medicine. My first reaction to this was that it was too much but then I got happy that they really understood and was taking Williams condition seriously. This note has followed him up to first grade.
William has learned that he always without exceptions must have his adrenaline injections and Cortisone medication with him wherever he goes since this might save his life one day. William knows how these injectors work and he has actually given me an injection for educational purposes. We had an injector which was outdated so we took this and had William arm it and give me an injection in my thigh.
We have traveled with William and since the Scandinavian flights are peanut free everything has gone well. In late October this year when I turn 40 we are going to travel to Orlando FL. We are a bit nervous about this travel since peanuts are so very common in the US. I have literally vacuumed the internet for information and got in contact with you and your blog while doing this. I've learned during my search that as long as one read the declaration labels one should be OK and also that there actually are restaurants that can guarantee nut free food as long as you talk to them in advance. I've also understood that if all else fails one can safely eat at McDonalds even if it's not the most preferred choice. To minimize the risks of food allergy we have booked an apartment with a kitchen to be able to cock our own meals.
We are really looking forward to this trip and I've gained a lot of new knowledge regarding peanut allergy by browsing the net and reading forums.
We appreciated your video blog with tips for a successful flight. We will most definitely have this in the back of our heads for future travels.
Here in Sweden we have a national asthma & allergy association in which we are members and this has proven very useful. They send on a monthly basis out a magazine to all members which contains information regarding medical and research progress, food recipes and stories from different families with different allergies which we often find very useful. It's very valuable to constantly get a news feed about what's new within the world of allergies and to understand that there is constant progress within this area. This gives a certain comfort and hope that someone someday might find a cure which will make life so much easier for a lot of people who today can’t live a "normal" life.
I would suspect our life here in Scandinavia is very much like any other family anywhere in the world who has a peanut allergic family member. We have similar problems by reading labels and being careful with what we eat and what is happening in our surroundings. What might differ from country to country is the popularity of peanuts. Here in Sweden it's not too common with peanuts other than in bars so we really don't have to worry too much about airborne peanut allergens. Also the understanding among the general population is quite good, much thanks to associations like the Asthma & Allergy Association which makes life much easier.
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