(Photo: Joanne Seow)
38-year-old Joanne Seow is a pharmacist by training while her husband, Puah Ser Hon, 41, is a doctor at one of the public hospitals in Singapore. But not even their extensive medical background was enough to prepare them to become parents to three kids with multiple and unique food allergies.
They have three young boys, each with their own set of dietary restrictions.
Oldest son Isaac, 9, is allergic to cashews, pistachios, and dairy. He used to be allergic to peanuts, egg, and soy too until he outgrew them.
Middle child Isaiah, 5, is allergic to fish, peanuts, and grew out of his egg allergy three years ago. Their youngest babe Ilijah, who just turned one, is allergic to dairy and egg.
In terms of severity, Isaac’s allergies are the most severe. At seven months old when he was starting to wean from milk to solids, Issac had an anaphylactic episode.
While allergies tend to run in families, it’s not possible to predict whether siblings will also develop food allergies, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
Joanne shares her experience with weaning her food-allergic children and how baby-led weaning helped in managing feeding difficulties such as their refusal to eat new foods.
How did you start weaning your eldest kid Isaac?
We started him on traditional weaning foods like porridge, avocados, steamed carrots, peas, and sweet potatoes. He was about seven months old when we introduced him to egg yolk. After half an egg yolk which was well-cooked, he became very drowsy and we didn’t think anything of it.
We got him ready with a bath for bedtime and within the hour, he projectile vomited very badly and lost consciousness. He was very cold, clammy, and was like a ragdoll when we were carrying him.
Were you aware that it could be a food allergy that was causing this?
No, not really. We thought he choked because his vomiting was so violent that we thought it went through his lungs and he couldn’t breathe. We didn’t have a car so we ran to the nearest hospital, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), which isn’t even a children’s hospital.
Thankfully when we were near the hospital, he woke up but we went to the A&E anyway. After two hours, he started itching very badly and had swollen legs, thighs, and the redness started spreading.
He was very agitated, itchy, and red and we went from TTSH to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. When we got there, they gave him adrenaline and prednisolone and warded him.
They told me it looks like it’s an allergic reaction and from there, we got a referral to the allergy clinic.
What did you learn about his allergies after the referral?
We found out that he was also allergic to soy, peanuts, dairy. At one point, he was also allergic to chicken because the sensitivity was so high. Chicken made his eczema flare because of the cross-reactivity to egg. He was also highly allergic to dairy which meant a high chance of cross-reactivity to beef.
How did this affect what types of foods to offer to him?
At nine months old, it was really scary when we had to introduce beef to him. Thankfully, he was okay. At that point, I was really afraid to introduce anything new, so he ate sweet potatoes, rice, peas and broccoli all the time.
Whatever weaning that we had to do, whether it’s the standard Asian or ang moh weaning food, it wasn’t applicable to us anymore. What we could give him was really limited.
He ended up eating only vegetables and grains like oats and rice. After nine or ten months, his weight gain plateaued, but we were just so scared to introduce anything else.
Did that affect Isaac’s approach to food?
Badly. Up to six years old, it was very difficult. He’s our first child and we were just so scared. When we go out, we’ll wipe down the high chair and the table of any food traces. Even though you’re cheery and reassuring to your child, there’s this unsaid anxiety. It rubbed off him and he became scared to try new foods.
At four years old, his teacher said he was very withdrawn and quite scared. It went from affecting his approach to food to his social life. Today he’s a little bit more adventurous with food.
Did your experience with weaning Isaac change when your second child Isaiah arrived?
Isaiah was admitted to the hospital at four months old when he had an episode of face swelling of unknown origin, so we also saw an allergist promptly and did the first round of skin prick tests at five or six months old. We found out that he was slightly allergic to peanuts but the rest was clear.
We thought, “Oh thank goodness! Only one!” and felt confident to start weaning.
(Isaiah eating steak. Photo: Joanne Seow)
With Isaiah, we wanted to break the habit of being unadventurous with food. The first few foods for him included cod liver oil, lamb, and foods with butter. Of course, when we cooked with butter, it was a bit scary because dairy is a common allergen but he took it well.
When I gave him cheese, he was very sleepy and I didn’t think anything of it. The next few times when I gave him more cheese, he started to swell.
With his fish allergy, nothing on his initial skin prick tests showed that he was allergic to fish so we gave him fish. I gave him salmon and he was fine. Later on, we gave him soup cooked with fish and realised that when soup dribbled down his chin, it left a red streak.
The next review came and we tested again. True enough, he was allergic to fish, dairy, and eggs. In just a few months, it went from none to a few allergies.
How did you react when you found out that Isaiah also has multiple allergies?
I was super disappointed. During pregnancy, I changed my diet. I was on a paleo diet and I didn’t eat any grains. I ate grass-fed beef and stayed away from dairy. I also didn’t eat nuts like peanuts indiscriminately. I also worked out because of the belief – a healthier mum, a healthier baby right? I was so disappointed because changing my health did not impact my newborn in terms of developing food allergies.
What about your youngest baby Ilijah? He’s only started weaning half a year ago. How did that go?
At about five months old, he had an allergy review just before we started him on solids. We did the whole panel and discovered he is allergic to dairy and egg.
To approach his weaning, I bought a program called Solid Starts that provides daily meal plans for starting solids, which seek to introduce all top eight allergy foods in the first 100 days of weaning. On days where there were dairy or eggs in the meal plan, we’d replace it with something else. So he ended up eating different foods thrice a day, which resulted in him being very adventurous with food.
(SPEAK is not affiliated with or endorsed by Solid Starts LLC in any way. The views and opinions expressed here belong to our interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the position of SPEAK.)
It got rid of the mental load of planning what to cook for him and at the same time, he has great exposure to different types of food.
The first time (weaning Ilijah) was scary. I was scared until I didn’t want to try it at all. With our second child, we were still hesitant and we told ourselves to be brave and try. With the third child, we were like, “Just give lah. We know what to do already if there’s any redness”.
With second son Isaiah, we wanted to do baby-led weaning but because of all the issues like failure to thrive, we had to ensure he ate a lot. Baby-led weaning just flew out the window because sometimes we had to “force-feed” him as much as we could. Taste-wise, definitely more adventurous but amount-wise was limited.
With Ilijah, we were more fortunate because there were no weight issues and so we just followed the plan of introducing different foods every day plus allergenic food (that he was not allergic to) every week. The allergens that we’ve introduced into his diet are also worked back into his diet to maintain his tolerance.
(Ilijah eats peanut butter and coconut yogurt. Photo: Joanne Seow)
How do you manage three kids with different food needs at home?
It was very challenging. When I had to start weaning Ilijah, I was working full-time and I had no helper. This is on top of cooking for the rest of the family.
I knew I couldn’t handle it so I started searching for something that could help me and I came across Solid Starts. I was like: “I don’t care, this is not a problem if it can be solved by money right?”
So I just paid and when I saw the recipes, I said, “Oh my god, this is amazing.”
The programme really helped because they planned out when to introduce what allergen and provided the recipes. I just had to buy the ingredients and execute the recipe.
Now that I have a helper, she knows to just follow the recipes page by page. It’s so easy. We’ve completed the 100 Day plan three times already!
How did you take care of yourself?
When we were weaning, I was more scared compared to Ser Hon. I knew my anxiety was higher than his so he was the one doing the introduction of food and I’ll watch on the sidelines until my heart stops pounding. If he looks okay, then I’ll come back to the dining area. For my own peace of mind, I had the Zyrtec ready with me.
I definitely have more anxiety than him because I had flashbacks of the night Isaac passed out. I also asked to be referred for a mental check-up to work on the anxiety bit. The psychologist totally helped me by giving me tools to cope and deal with the overwhelming emotions.
Do allergic reactions get easier?
Yup. My husband and I had to go to a parenting programme for anxiety in kids. We had to see a child psychologist to work on us in teaching our child to be less anxious. She posed a question to us: What is the worst that can happen to your allergic child if you give him an allergenic food?
I was like, “Then I have to give Epi-pen and Zyrtec lah!”
She said, “Okay, then give lah!”
And that sort of changed our mindset. Instead of being so anxious, which rubs off on kids, you just have to manage allergic reactions when it happens. Manage it, and see how it goes.
From that point, we gained a bit more courage and confidence to just try and give the top allergenic foods and if he has an allergy, we know what to do.
Is your child starting at a new school soon? Join us on the 4th of September on Zoom to hear from three parents who have successfully transitioned their food-allergic child to a new learning environment. Click here to register your interest!
