My son’s first anaphylaxis – a positive learning

When my son Harry was 6 years old he had his first episode of anaphylaxis.

Surprisingly, reflecting on the episode is not a negative experience and I would like to share this with other parents with children at risk of anaphylaxis. You may wonder how there could possibly be an upside to an episode of anaphylaxis, but for me there was.

The incident happened at our home on a Sunday evening when my husband was interstate and I was home with my 3 boys, aged 12, 10 and 6.

My 12 year old Tom had spent hours in the kitchen cooking us dinner from a recipe he had learnt at school. This was his first time attempting to cook everyone a meal and it had been quite an effort. He was cooking a meal that was “safe” for all of us.

Both James and Harry have multiple food allergies- James to egg, dairy and tree nuts, and Harry has the same allergies as James with the addition of fish, kiwi, and sesame.

Tom had just dished up his masterpiece when Harry announced that his lips felt really funny. His lips were huge, his eyes were swollen and he had hives on his face. Thankfully, his breathing was normal.

We all took one look at him and jumped to action. Tom got the phone, James ran and got me the medicine bag and I gave antihistamine. Tom got a piece of paper and wrote down the time and dose given.

After a few minutes, Harry said his throat was feeling tight. At this point, following instruction on Harry’s ASCIA Action Plan, I gave the EpiPen.

Whilst I lay Harry down and gave the adrenaline, Tom rang the ambulance and James turned on the front light and unlocked the front door for the ambulance. I then got James to ring my parents from another phone so they could come over and mind Tom and James.

Within minutes of receiving adrenaline, the symptoms began resolving (there is no better sight than that for a parent!). The ambulance arrived in a timely fashion (another welcome sight), and the older boys kept the dog out of the way and gathered up slippers and things that Harry might need to take in the ambulance, even offering their ipods!

Harry and James had both, somewhat unusually, grown out of their peanut allergies a few years previously. They hadn’t eaten peanuts for about a month until 3 hours before the anaphylaxis when they had each licked a beater of peanut butter cookie mixture.

An hour before the anaphylaxis, they had eaten some of the raw pastry that was being used to make dinner, which had been consumed many times before. The cause of the anaphylaxis wasn’t (and still isn’t) clear, so I told James not to eat the dinner and to instead have some toast as I didn’t want him reacting also. Tom didn’t even grumble about his dinner going to waste!

This was our family’s second experience of anaphylaxis. The first episode required multiple doses of adrenaline, a long ambulance wait, and a strong sense of not being in control. This episode was not as severe, but we also managed it better.

We were prepared, we all helped, and we were all calm, especially Harry who wasn’t at all bothered about having the EpiPen.

I was incredibly proud of the way Harry’s older brothers coped and seeing them in action gave me great confidence that they would know what to do if I wasn’t there.

This outcome wouldn’t have occurred if we hadn’t discussed the management of an anaphylaxis as a family, as well as us all occasionally practicing with the EpiPen trainer.