Food Allergies For Life

SYNNETTA HO shares how she dealt with her children's multiple food allergies

Eczema, asthma, food intolerances and more – they are no one’s fault, says this mother of four, who has seen it all. “We had inconveniences, but not a handicap.” Synnetta Ho believes there are lessons to be learned and silver linings in any “adverse” situation. She has raised four children, aged 15 to 22 years – all of whom have some level of food intolerance. But it’s her third son, David, now 20 years old, whom she says “broadened my experiences”.

“He’s anaphylactic,” says the 52-year-old project manager, simply. Since a baby, David was allergic to the typical foods such as dairy, soy, wheat, eggs, nuts, seafood, and more, says Synnetta. However, his allergies didn’t stop at foods – they included dust mites, mould and perfume! “Every time I’d walked into a department store [with him] and whenever we entered a Chinese restaurant where there might be ‘wok’ aroma, he’d turn beet red,” she shares.

As David got older, his parents discovered that he was allergic to every type of meat except rabbit and turkey. “This created new challenges… to stock up on turkey throughout the year,” quips Synnetta. Living in the United States was easier as turkey meat was more readily available, she shares. “When we arrived in Singapore in 2000 from Chicago, the first thing we bought was a freezer to store turkey meat, which is only available seasonally [here].”

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