A lot of people are allergic to fruit! As my son's allergy doctor explained to us, a person may or may not actually be allergic to the fruit itself. However, in people who seem to be allergic to fruit, the underlying problem may be that they are really HIGHLY allergic to certain trees. The pollen/protein of some fruits is similar to the pollen/protein of some trees. So, for example...my son is bothered when he eats fresh apples. This doesn't mean that he's necessarily allergic to apple trees. It's because he's so HIGHLY allergic to lots of other trees. His body thinks that the pollen/protein in fresh apples is similar to some other tree that he's allergic to and so it reacts. My son can eat cooked apples, apple pie, apple sauce, and can drink apple juice. When the apple is cooked, the heat denatures (changes) the protein, and his body no longer recognizes it and it's safe. Only the fresh fruit causes him to react. This was one of the clues in diagnosing him with oral allergy syndrome. Once we decided to have our son skin tested, the doctor suspected that he would have a lot of allergies to trees, grasses, etc. I was skeptical-it always seemed like our son only had seasonal allergies. But, the doctor was RIGHT--my son reacted to almost every tree, and to all grasses and weeds, and tree nuts, along with a lot of other things! I was amazed. In fact, just with having the scratch skin testing done, my son's throat started to swell from having all the things he's allergic to all present at the same time!! Right now, with things blooming and him getting allergy shots 3 times a week, my son must take Claritin, Zyrtec, AND a prescription nasal spray every morning just to control his symptoms. In addition, on some days he also needs a Zyrtec-D or an Alavert AND allergy eye drops just to be able to deal with his allergy symptoms. The doctor explained that with him inhaling all the things he's allergic to in the environment, plus receiving his allergy shots, his body is getting a lot of exposure so it takes a lot to keep his symptoms under control. Hopefully when we get through his build-up phase of his allergy shots and can start getting into the maintanence phase, he'll start seeing some improvement/relief.
Let me tell you, I really didn't believe that my son had that big of a problem. But now, seeing all the things he's allergic to and how badly...I feel bad that I didn't have him tested sooner. I only ever asked his pediatrician to give him something for seasonal allergies. We never realized he was allergic to tree nuts because our son never liked nuts and wouldn't eat things that contained nuts, but now we must check everything and he has to have an Epi-pen. It's really changed things for us. When I took him to the allergy doctor the last time, the doctor told me that he was glad that we started the shots when he suggested them because as strong as my son's allergies are now, they would only become worse as he got older. And, because of the severity of his reactions, he is a prime candidate to become asthmatic as he gets older. I'm hoping that I got him started with the allergist soon enough that he doesn't have to worry about asthma being in his future, too.
