A deadly allergy means this little boy will miss out on the simple pleasures most kids enjoy.
A paddle in shallow water or digging in the sand are part of happy summer holidays. But for three-year-old James Simpson, splashing around in the surf or playing beach cricket are things he can only dream of.
Due to a rare and baffling medical condition, if James gets too hot or too cold he could suffer a fatal anaphylactic shock – which means simple pleasures such as eating ice cream are out of the question.
James’s mum, Laura, says it’s hard when James sees other kids eating ice cream and she has to tell him he can’t have any.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she says. “It’s hard to deny him these things when he hasn’t been naughty. It feels like he’s being punished.”
“The first time it happened, James had been splashing around in a new wading pool we’d bought him,” says Laura, 28, from Sydney’s northern beaches. “Within five minutes of being in the water his body blew up with these long, rectangular and thick welts. It looked like he’d been whipped all over his body.
Then his eyelids started to swell over. We panicked and took him straight to hospital. One of the nurses said, ‘He’s eaten something and had an allergic reaction to food.’ But I knew he hadn’t.”
Related Video: Unusual medical conditions.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
