Living With Food and Mold Allergies - How to beat Anaphlaxis

[Poppet65]

Hi, this is my first post. I'm looking for threads about mold allergies.
I have severe anaphylaxis when exposed to mold, and last night had
an episode after eating six Harry and David chocolate covered cherries.
It didn't occur to me that dried fruit would fit in the mold category
but it's full of mold! The aspergillus is buried within dried fruit, so
parents with children who have food allergies should take into
consideration that they should eliminate rasins, fruit rolls and dates,
as well as cheeses, mushrooms and breads containing yeast.

Right now I'm looking for a way to purchase an Epipen because I've
had four anaphylactic episodes over the last two years, and last
night's was life threatening. It's made me realize that I need to be
more careful about what I eat and where I can travel. Sadly, while
I love Hawaii, the islands are full of mold spores, and it turns out
that Macadamian nuts contain high levels of aspergillus niger.
Oh! And be careful of the food additive called BEANO. I'm vegeterian
and have put drops of Beano into soups and stews, unaware that
the first ingredient is aspergillus niger (which led me into an allergic
reaction).

Since I was unable to get to an emergency hospital last night,
and my doctors were unavailable, and I was without an Epipen,
I did some fast acting before fainting... I took a dose of SUDAFED
and backed it up with Maalox. Always have these over the counter
medicines in your cabinet. I'm allergic to Benadryl so have to use
Sudafed, and the antacid calms cramping.... I forget what else
it does, but when in combination with an antihistimine, it helps
the antihistimine do a better job. My doctor prescribed Pepcid
along with Zyrtec when recovering from a previous allergic
reaction. Pepcid is 60% cheaper over the counter than as a
prescription.

Is anyone else here allergic to mold?

Best wishes,
Poppet

[Vickie306]

Your allergic to benadryl? Really? What happened when you took it?

[flickfire]

I'm very allergic to molds too, I try to avoid all the foods that contain it(which is very hard to do at times). I take zantac, albuterol, and claritin(reditabs) for my multiple allergies. I've never heard of a sudafed/maalox combo working for a severe allergic reaction, but I guess different meds work well for different people.

I hope you you do get your hands on some epi pens pretty soon. It sounds like you need them.

[Poppet65]

what happens to me when I come into contact with Benadryl? Anaphylaxis. Seriously. I've been put in hospital two times for it.... didn't know I was killing myself with the antihistimine which the hospital used to treat my allergic reaction. It's very rare but some people are allergic to ingredients in Benadryl....

and yes, mushrooms are great but they're all mold based.... i think even tomato yields mold

and, yay, I got my Epipen. Going to now look into the ingredients for Harry and David's Bing Cherries... the salespeople said it was natural dried so I didn't think there was a risk with sulfites. The packaging just said "dried cherries" but there's the chance it was processed with sulfites which I'm allergic to..... lesson learned: not everything on lables is accurate. Plus the chocolate cherries have dyes, Red 40 Lake and Blue 01.

thanks for writing back

[gcsmithjr]

I took a dose of SUDAFED and backed it up with Maalox. Always have these over the counter medicines in your cabinet. I'm allergic to Benadryl so have to use Sudafed, and the antacid calms cramping.... I forget what else
it does, but when in combination with an antihistimine, it helps
the antihistimine do a better job.

Crazy that mold causes you so many problems and that you're allergict to Benadryl...one important thing for you to know - Sudafed is not an antihistamine - it's a decongestant only...it's a mild stimulant (which I guess could mimic the affects of an epi-pen but at a low level), but you might want to try over-the-counter generic Claritin (loratadine) if you're looking for an affordable antihistamine.