They have designed a study day in conjunction with The Hospital for Sick Children Great Ormond Street Paediatric Gastroenterology Department. It focuses on practical solutions for managing gastrointestinal symptoms of allergy in children.

Food allergy presents common symptoms such as diarrhoea, gastro-oesophageal reflux, feeding difficulties, and constipation. This practical course looks at ways to diagnose and manage this increasingly common problem.

It has been designed for General Paediatricians, Dietitians, GPs interested in allergy and Allergists. CPD accreditation has also be applied for.

It takes place at Congress Centre, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3LS on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009. The programme is as follows:

09.30 – 10.00 Overview of Allergy. Dr Adam Fox
Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital/King’s College London

10.00 – 10.30 Overview Of Gastrointestinal Allergy. Dr Neil Shah
Great Ormond Street Hospital

10.30 – 11.15 Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux and Allergy Dr Keith Lindley
Great Ormond Street Hospital

11.15 – 11.30 Tea/Coffee

11.30 – 12.15 Recurrent abdominal pain and allergy. Dr Nikhil Thapar
Great Ormond Street Hospital

12.15 – 13.00 Diarrhoea and allergy Dr Susan Hill
Great Ormond Street Hospital

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 14.30 Constipation and allergy. Dr Osvaldo Borrelli
Great Ormond Street Hospital

14.30 – 15.15 Feeding difficulties and allergy. Dr Rosan Meyer
Imperial College London

15.15 – 15.45 Investigations in Gastrointestinal allergy. Dr Mamoun Elawad
Great Ormond Street Hospital

15.45 – 16.00 Break

16.00 – 16.30 Treatments for Gastrointestinal allergy Dietary. Dr Sarah Macdonald Great Ormond Street Hospital
Medical Dr Neil Shah – Great Ormond Street Hospital

16:30 End of meeting for day.

Congress Centre is in a fantastic location in the heart of London’s West End, just three minutes’ walk from Tottenham Court Road Underground Station. The venue benefits from excellent transport links by tube (direct to Euston, Charing Cross, Waterloo and Liverpool Street mainline stations), and has two public car parks in the immediate vicinity located in Great Russell Street and Museum Street, as well as metered on-street parking. It’s also within a short walk of Oxford Street shopping, Covent Garden and theatreland. Nearest underground: Tottenham Court Road (exit 3) – 3 minutes’ walk away.

The Study Day costs £25. To register Click Here.

For more information contact:

Confab Consulting, Trafalgar House, Grenville Place, London, NW7 3SA
Tel: 020 (8) 906 7778
Email: shs@confab-consulting.co.uk

As a kid, I was eating mainly carbs and fats and lots of fruit, but very small amounts. I was a tearaway with ADHD so I was burning through energy like no tomorrow. As a result, I was a pretty lean kid and my dieticians expressed concern that while I was a tall child, I was pretty light.

As a result, I was put given Calogen supplements which I took in the form of a milkshake with a beautiful zero-protein fruit ice cream called Nectacream. While the Calogen suppliments had their desired effect (I went from a lean skinny lanky kid to a reasonably solid and well-padded youngster) the company that made Nectacream folded, and that was the end of that. It saddens me that Nectacream doesn’t exist today – I’m sure it would have made a killing as a PKU ice-cream if it had gotten the global exp

osure the internet may have been able to afford it. Rest in cold, creamy peace, my long-lost friend.

Anyway, I was around 73 kilos going into college and struggling with my diet. I was taking my Aminogran supplement less and less because the morning doses made my breath smell horrible and I quickly spun out of the habit. In a bid to teach me some responsibility, my mother made me make it for myself. It backfired and I just stopped.

So I went off diet for a while – approximately five years. During that time I found college extremely difficult, and my life was somewhat turbulent. Needless to say, I made it through college and into university. My first year was typical – wild parties, lots of alcohol and lots of bar food – I developed a ‘healthy’ taste for garlic bread and fries, and spent many a sunny afternoon with my textbooks, beer and snack food. After a fun season during my final year of college, I went back to rugby and played in an Under 85 kilo weight grade. Due to my lifestyle and my regular dinner (pork crackling + mash potato + oven fries) I put on a lot of weight, and soon found myself weighing out of my games. After some problems with my then on-again off-again girlfriend and being forced to watch most of my team’s game from the sideline, I became pretty down. The fact I was not getting anywhere near what my body needed in terms of nutrition was no doubt a contributing factor.

Things culminated when a series of high blood test levels and my regular appointment at our national metabolic clinic saw me faced with the very real possibility that I was doing myself serious damage, and my B12 levels were a cause for concern. I knew I had to take my Amingran more seriously, but I could not get myself into the habit of making it. Thankfully, I was introduced to Easiphen, which our national pharmalogical body was contemplating funding.

In the four years that have followed, I have gone from being disorganised, irresponsible, clueless, incapable and dangerously incompetent with my diet to having a really good handle on it. My extra weight, which was putting me at risk of a series of other problems such as high cholesterol and diabetes is now firmly under control. I have regained a svelter figure through an aggressive low-cal diet with rigid Easiphen intake and have re-registered for the Under 85 team I had to effectively walk away from in 2005. I’ve gone from 103 kilos to around 81kgs, and there’s more to come off. I’m also trying to build some muscle mass, although the low protein diet is proving to be a bit of a stumbling block in this regard. If anyone knows of any good suppliments for this purpose, please message me! I love to cook and while I am getting very good at making breads and pizzas, I also enjoy some treats like popcorn in grapeseed oil (absolutely beautiful!).

I’m proud to have PKU. It’s no longer a stumbling bloc, it’s something that I know know a lot about and have read many things on. Understanding my condition has helped me take care of myself and given me something to be proud of.

I’m sorry for how long this is, but there is a silver lining to going back on the diet. If you’re on it now as a teen, for the love of all things awesome, stay on it! Learn to cook for yourself using things like LoProfin and discover the small wonderful things about your condition that other people don’t get to experience. Most other people will rarely smell bread fresh out of an oven – PKU lets you do that all the time! You can also make scones, pizzas and all sorts of wonderful goodies with relative impunity! I love the taste of my baking, I look forward to mucking around with recipes and it’s pretty much the most rewarding skill I’ve ever learned. And there’s nothing wrong with learning to cook – I’m a 22 year old rugby-playing New Zealand university student, and I consider myself to be every bit as rugged and articulate as the next Tom, Dick and Harry.

While I was lucky to have a seemingly mild case of PKU and to not have done too much damage during my more care-free years, I can assure you that life with PKU is far more enlightening and interesting – and ultimately more rewarding – if you have tale the time to understand the science behind your condition, how it works, what you can eat and how it can affect how you live your life.

Best Wishes

Dan

Food intolerance is a reproducible adverse reaction to the ingestion of food or to any of it’s components ie proteins, carbohydrates, fats and additives. Such adverse reactions include metabolic reactions, enzyme deficiencies (sorry if this sounds very technical, but I’m trying to clear up the confusion)

As a group, children affected tend to have symptoms of severe colic, gastroesophageal reflux and esophagitis (inflammation of the esophagus due to irritation by stomach acids from repeated episodes of reflux), or atopic dermatitis (eczema). As many as 30% of infants may suffer from these symptoms, but it is not yet clear how many of them may be suffering from this syndrome

In more than 50% of children with food allergy, adverse reactions to more than one food are seen. Children with allergy to several common food proteins like cow’s milk, egg and peanut are termed as having “oligo” food allergy.

Multiple food protein intolerant (MFPI) infants are distinguished from “oligo” food allergic patients due to their intolerance of soy and extensively hydrolysed formula, in addition to a range of other food proteins. Infants with MFPI often come from families with an atopic (allergic) history. MFPI is also recognised to occur in breast-fed infants. Most infants with MFPI tolerate low-allergen foods such as grain, vegetables, fruits, and meats in the second year of life.

A better prognosis is associated with an earlier diagnosis, predominant digestive symptoms and the absence of associated allergy to other foods. Therefore in infants with late diagnosed MFPI, dietary exclusions are often required up to 3 years of age.

Infants with multiple food protein intolerance are often allergic to soy, extensively hydrolysed formulae (eHF) and a wide range of other foods. They have complex nutritional problems and should be distinguished from those with sensitivity to common food proteins such as cow’s milk, egg and peanut but who tolerate eHF and soy. Infants with intolerance to extensively hydrolysed formulae and soy can be safely and effectively treated with amino acid-based formulae.

Cow’s milk allergy is caused by an abnormal immune response to harmless milk proteins and generally results in the rapid appearance of symptoms after consumption of cow’s milk.

Despite some similarities between the proteins found in human and bovine milks, cow’s milk proteins can still be recognised as “foreign” by the human immune system.

In the majority of individuals the immune system recognises these proteins as harmless and tolerates them in the body, however in CMA individuals, the immune system becomes sensitized and reacts to the proteins by mounting a damaging inflammatory response.

Cow’s milk allergy (CMA) is often divided into cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA) where there is clear evidence of involvement of the immune system, and cow’s milk protein intolerance (CMPI) where there is no involvement of the immune system.

Allergies to milk are broadly classified into immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated allergy, and non-IgE mediated allergy.

IgE-mediated allergy is commonly referred to as “immediate hypersensitivity” as the onset of symptoms occurs within minutes to an hour following exposure to the allergen (in this case protein).

Non-IgE-mediated CMA reactions are usually “delayed” with the onset of symptoms occurring from 1 hour to several days after ingestion of milk; hence it is often called a “delayed hypersensitivity”

If you have any doubts or queries, the best thing to do is contact your local Health Care Professional and go through any concerns with them.

For the past 6 years we’ve been dealing with SEVERE behavioral and emotional problems. They now say he is ADHD, ODD & has anxiety disorder. Each set of symptoms were treated by a new specialist and none of them have ever questioned a link between them. I’m burdened by the possible link in all the symptoms and wondering if the allergy symptoms are still from the CMA. We are having testing done again for the CMA. What I’m trying to research is not only a link in the allergy symptoms but one to the behavioral/emotional problems. We can’t seem to find anything that is helping. Does anyone have any similar cases they are dealing with? Any suggestions?

The story begins with the birth of our Bethany. Right from the beginning we had difficulties feeding her: breast feeding was impossible, this was heart breaking for me, as I felt a failure as a mother. The use of the bottle was no better.  As our only child, I had nothing to compare it with. I spoke to friends and other mothers and got a range of advice: we couldn’t get the answers we needed from the health visitors. I got the impression that she thought I was a pushy neurotic mum.

Bethany had colic, her bowel movements were loose and smelly. Is this not what all babies do? She was losing weight, and I was now a constant visitor to my GP, increasing my status as a neurotic mother. She now had red blotchy blisters and was looking more like a malnourished child from Africa.

My GP said that Beth had gastroenteritis and gave here replacement fluids for four days then reintroduce milk feed at the end of the week. This did not help at all, her symptoms returned  when  we reintroduced her milk, and it seemed to get worse. He ended up swapping her soya milk, but it did not help.

Its not just Beth who was suffering, I was becoming more and more depressed and withdrawn. I didn’t want to see my GP about it because…. I just couldn’t. My  focus had to be to get Beth better, nothing else mattered now. Maybe I should have changed doctors but I thought, “he knows what he’s doing, he has the history of Beth, he will find an answer soon.

Mike and I were also arguing more between the crying and sleepless nights, my paranoia had turned to him, was he also questioning my ability as a mother? Was he blaming me? It was alright for him, he had a rest bite, he could go to work the next day. I was dealing with it day in and day out.

Then at about six months into her new (and painful life), she stopped breathing. We were shopping at the time, I don’t know how but something just told me she wasn’t just sleeping anymore. I can’t remember the exact events that morning because ashamedly I went into a panic. It was a passing stranger who I’ve never got the chance to thank that help resuscitate her. We were rushed to hospital and she was seen straight away. After explaining the history the doctor said that she might be suffering from an allergy to her feed. She was admitted and given a nasal feed with clear fluid. They then started her on Neocate, and even after a few days we could see an improvement.

Now Beth is two years old. She is a happy smiley child, but is prone to illness. Her immune system was badly damaged in the first 6 months of her life. Her allergies now include milk, egg and nuts. I worry how about the future now, what am I going to do about nursery and school?

We have since moved and are now with a different GP. I still wonder what could have been had it been diagnosed much earlier. I just wish there was more awareness out there and hope no other parent has to go through what we have done.

Patricia F