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I have multiple allergies which developed when I became an adult. Reports on your web page sound like the experience I had. Doctors would not believe me at first. After many reactions, many seemingly completely unrelated, it turned out that I am allergic to the coal tar and azo groups of colours in addition to all the other allergies I have. As I have arthritis I was taking medication for pain and the colours were in the drugs - used as colour coding. I came close to death and owe my life to an ambulance crew who took me to the nearest hospital with a doctor, not the nearest A&E department which was sixteen miles away.

The doctors made it obvious that they thought I had mental health problems when they discvoered that I had so many allergies.

My sister is a research chemist in the pharmaceutical industry and helped me do all my own research. If it was not for her I would not be alive today. I'm now a District Councillor in Kent and do other voluntary work.

The only way forward with multiple allergies is to keep records, make lists, believe in yourself and never trust any doctor you don't know - because they may not believe you and take chances with your life.

This is one mum's story of being the parent of a child who has multiple food and environmental allergies, some of which are potentially life threatening.

William is our third child, and is now 8 years old. From day 10 after birth he showed (unknowingly to us or the Doctors or Health Visitor) all the signs of being an allergic child.

The signs in infants who are fully breastfed under 3 months are poor sleep pattern (by this I mean a inability to sleep for more than two hours a night and 'cat' naps of 20 minutes during the day), eczema and slow to poor weight gain.

Our early months were hard work to say the least, at one point we had one child at Nursery, one a Playschool and a baby that didn't sleep for a solid 5 hours until he was 9 months old!! I spent much of my time trying to control his skin flare ups which seemed to have no rhyme or reason to them, and nights walking back and forth with him as he tore and scratched at his skin.

The Health Visitors and GP were very puzzled and tried to convince me that the main problem was me namely postnatal depression, and exhaustion. Well, I very likely was a little tired but I knew that something was wrong with this baby!!

I tried sleep clinics, and gave up, because the Health Visitors wanted me to leave a child covered in eczema to scream for 5 minutes. After bathing my sons bloody ears from his cot sheet, I gave up.

At 12 months the GP gave me Piriton to help William sleep, and arranged for us to try 'wet wrapping' his skin. I hated dosing up a small baby, who had continual infections every month, compared to his siblings, who are so robust in the extreme, (2 of my children have never had antibiotics). The antihistamine made him sleep, but his day was spent in a tired haze, and his food intake dropped.

Then one day, the light dawned. My hubby handed him a small square of smooth peanut butter on toast, he touched it and had a reaction, hives appearing instantly on his hands and neck. His skin flushing and reddening and his eyes appearing glazed. The GP agreed he had an allergy, but as his throat was not affected, it was declared a mild allergy and we were told to avoid peanuts.

As I removed things from his diet his skin and sleep pattern improved. I cancelled the wet wrapping appointment. I stopped giving him antihistamine daily, and have since found out that for others with peanut allergy constant Piriton is dangerous.

The following month I gave William his first taste of egg, this reaction was by far the most scary, and to this day I thank god that Piriton did the trick, because now, knowing what I do about life threatening allergy, we had a close shave. William should have gone to the hospital that day. His symptoms in the first 5 minutes were vomiting, total body hives, diarrhoea and screaming that stopped suddenly as he became floppy and tired.

As I worked to remove not only nuts but eggs in his diet, I did some research and realized that the local Paediatrician had fobbed me off with a letter that stated our son was too light in weight for a life saving Epi-pen. Although her faith in my abilities to keep a child away from his allergic food was touching, I rapidly came to the realisation that I knew more about allergy than she did.

We pushed to see a Consultant Immunologist, and we are one of the lucky few in this country who have got one! Such is the rarity of allergy consultants in the UK, that others often ask what does it feel like to have reached the holy grail!

We went to St Marys Hospital in Paddington when William was 2. By then I suspected other allergies too such as dogs and cats but we came out with a long list including some we had never suspected including peanuts, tree nuts, all beans, egg, cat, dog, dust mites, tree pollen and Hay Fever.

Now at 8 things have changed, we are growing out of tree nut allergies, and can now (after a food challenge at hospital) eat cooked egg. We have also found a few others and ratings for dog have become among the others in the potentially life threatening list. Will has epi-pens with him at all times and a bottle of Piriton. He also has an asthma inhaler for the dog allergy. William is one of the few who have severe allergy without the asthma.

We have been told that William will never grow out of his bean and peanut allergy, and will have to carry epi-pens and be 'allergy aware ' all his life. As predicted by the allergy Doctors, environmental allergies are starting to take there toll on him yearly. Eye drops, nasal sprays and daily second generation antihistamines are taken daily, especially during tree pollen times. His skin has improved and a steroid cream is only needed every now and then.

The whole long list of William's allergies and the impact that it has had on our lives means that I have become very informed on allergy management. I have had a fair amount of experience with eczema, dust mite, hay fever and tree pollen avoidance! Also the stress and strain of a underweight infant and child!

Through our long discovery of coping with allergies we have learned to live with the impact on our wallets, the child's siblings and ordinary things most of us take for granted like birthday parties, holidays, travel and school.

I am a support contact for AllergyUK, a local co-ordinator for the Anaphylaxis campaign, and this year started a part time job, working with the Campaign. I have gained enough confidence to give my own presentations, I volunteer my time free to day nurseries as I am a NNEB with a work history in day nursery management and teach them about allergy management and point them in the right direction to get proper medical training with Epi-pens and emergency procedures.

As for my future plans, I have had verbal agreement from the Campaign's Director for my research study in to the training and advice that day nursery staff are given with regard to the following; allergy, eczema, diabetes, intolerance and asthma. This is a first for me, and anyone with any experience of research studies willing to give me a little advice I would be more than welcome!!!

A few of my most memorable experiences have been lobbying MPs at the house of commons, giving a presentation on allergies for a medical company at London zoo, taking part in a TV doc on allergies a couple of years ago and a trip to the only nut free chocolate factory in the world!

It's amazing how your life changes when your child is diagnosed with a serious condition. I have come on a long way from the mother who used to be scared to take her baby out of the house or hand him to another adult who hadn't washed there hands!!

I am confident that William will live to adulthood, and will live a normal life like his siblings.

Sarah Chapman - sarahchapman_gb@hotmail.com

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