Monday, December 18, 2006

Christmas and shampoo

We have been testing out Christmas menus, ie red cabbage, green cabbage and leak.

Yesterday for lunch I had plain chicken, nicely cooked cabbage, red and green, leak and roast potato. I was surprised then to get a mild reaction in the mouth - then I discovered someone had added a little bit of black pepper.

Shampoos and shower creams have become a problem. I have been coming out in streaks of red. This started with an Imperial Leather shower gel. When I studied the ingredients I found they included benzyl salicylate.

Then the same problem occured with Head and Shoulders. It's not easy to read the ingredients of these substances but when I did it was there - benzyl salicylate. This means I am going to have to check everything for salicylate. I'll probably end up going round the supermarket peering at all the ingredients - and they are in even smaller type on shampoos than on food.

This should have been the point at which I was salicylate free - about two weeks after seeing the dietician and about six weeks after the consultant identified the problem. It seems the closer I get to the goal, the more likely I am to suffer reactions.

The dietician's advice was that once I was free of salicylate I could start reintroducing food stuffs, maybe even in time for a glass of wine at Christmas. I still seem to be a long way from this. If I want a drink at a mealtime it has to be whisky and water.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

I stumbled across your website, while I too, was searching for answers to this blessed allergy.

I found an excellent book written by the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy unit (Australia). its called Friendly Food, and if you can get hold of it, its a life saver!

also, I found a couple of websites www.fedupwithfoodadditives.com.au and www.psha-inc.com/guai-support that are very helpful.

I have also found that raw carrots made my mouth swell and blister. But I can tolerate them cooked.

Take care,

Beamer